The only information I have on this comes from an Ebay sale in Australia. It is said to be a limited edition possibly of
180 units. These specs are from the sale:
The serial number: KZ0K083
Guitar was made in Japan on December 4th, 1984
Body Mahogany with Maple Top
Neck Maple set neck
Fretboard Rosewood with small shaped inlays
Number of Frets: 24
Pickups: 2 Humbucking
Controls: 2 Volume , 2 Tone , 3-way pickup selector , Push-pull coil tap SW × 2
Hardware: Gold Plate
Weight: 3.8 kg.
Special Features: Locking nut Yamaha Rockin’Magic Tremolo (Floyd Rose type)
Colour Redburst
I cannot find any other details anywhere except for the occasional reference in a search but nothing else.
The headstock style is similar to the second series but the SF script is different
The natural successor to the SF is the SFX range which look very similar but are signature models.
They are in my Rare and Unusual Yamaha section here:
SFX
There is also a short lived 2002 Exart NSF New Superflighter guitar a reissue of the SF 1000
again the magic number of only 180 made is frequently mentioned.
December 2024
Rod has posted some comments on the Yamaha forum he author of the book Yamaha 60 years of electric guitars see my home page
his comments Hi Bill,
When I came across the SF800 for my catalogue the only information I could find related to it being a Limited Edition in 1984 only.
My catalogue notes show headstock, bridge and inlay differences from other SFs - the 800 has the "YAMAHA" and "Sf (Italic)" scroll +
SF800 on the truss rod cover. The bridge is FR RMII (other SFs - tom bridge), The inlays are what I call "snowflake" type (not split
block as on other SFs). The SF800 of 1984 seems to coincide with the SFX series introduction (SFX1, SFXII, SFXIII) 1984-88. I also
came across a 1984 SFX with no code number (also with 'snowflake' type inlays as per SF800).
Thanks Rod