Vinnie! - Yamaha SE110, 1986 Early Production Made in Taiwan, Candy Apple Red

Meet Vinnie

He arrived exhausted, dehydrated, and in desperate need of a trip to rehab. Now, he’s taken some time to get clean, reflect on his first forty years, and prepare for the next forty! 

Pure hot-rod heartbreaker.

This incredible 1986 Yamaha SE110, finished in glorious Candy Apple Red, is the quintessential 1980s minimalist shredder.

One pickup.

One volume control.

Twenty-two frets.

That’s it.

No tone control to overthink. No pickup selector to accidentally knock mid-solo. No unnecessary nonsense getting between your fingers and an amplifier.

Just a lightning-fast neck, a properly rowdy humbucker and an urgent desire to make a glorious amount of noise.

Dated to 13 November 1986 and produced at Yamaha’s Kaohsiung factory in Taiwan, he comes from the SE110’s earliest year of production. He has spent almost four decades doing exactly what a guitar like this was made to do.

Along the way, he has collected knocks, scrapes and battle scars.

Who among us hasn’t?

But this little powerhouse has continued getting back up, plugging back in and throwing himself straight into the fray.

When he arrived with us, nearly forty years of playing had left their mark. His frets were low and uneven, the ends had become sharp, the fingerboard felt tired and resistant, and the original setup was no longer allowing that gloriously simple design to do what it does best.

So Jordan gave him the full player-first overhaul.

He began by correctly setting the neck relief before carrying out a complete fret level, crown and mirror polish across all 22 frets. Years of uneven wear were removed, restoring a clean and consistent playing surface with smooth bends and no unwanted choking as you race towards the dusty end.

Every fret end was then individually dressed before the fingerboard edges were carefully hand-rolled.

The stiff, sharp feel built up through decades of use disappeared. In its place is the smooth, naturally broken-in character you would expect from an instrument that has spent years being played, loved and fought with, only now without the uncomfortable bits.

The fingerboard then received a thorough deep clean and intensive conditioning treatment, restoring its rich lustre and transforming a dry, gritty surface into a slick, lightning-fast racetrack.

And this thing wants to move.

Under the hood, Jordan flushed and cleaned almost four decades of dust, grime and contamination from the electronics before inspecting and reflowing the necessary connections.

The result is a smooth, crackle-free volume control and the full return of that factory high-output ferrite humbucker.

Feed him into a driven amplifier and stand back.

He is aggressive, immediate and wonderfully articulate, with enough punch and bite for punk, hard rock, classic metal and every questionable garage-band decision in between.

There is nowhere for the sound to hide.

No second pickup.

No tone circuit.

No excuses.

Just one humbucker screaming directly towards the output jack.

Jordan then turned his attention to the original tremolo bridge, carefully balancing and setting it before custom-filing and graphite-lubricating the nut to correct the tuning instability these older systems can develop.

A new tremolo arm was sympathetically retrofitted, restoring everything from subtle classic-rock shimmer to the sort of dive-bombs that make nearby cats reconsider their living arrangements.

While Jordan dealt with the mechanics, Sarah took responsibility for preserving that fabulous Candy Apple Red body.

This was never going to become a showroom ornament.

Every knock, scrape and scar tells the story of a guitar that has spent nearly forty years making music, and erasing all of that would have erased the very thing that makes him special.

Instead, she sensitively drop-filled areas of broken paintwork to seal and protect the exposed body while preserving the character of the original finish. Years of dullness and playing haze were then carefully buffed away, taking him from a greying relic to a deep, glossy, attention-grabbing little machine.

He still carries his wounds.

He just looks bloody brilliant wearing them.

The finished result is everything a stripped-back 1980s guitar should be: light, fast, loud, uncomplicated and just dangerous enough to make you want to turn the amplifier up another notch.

He is not pristine.

He is not polite.

And he certainly isn’t interested in sitting quietly in the background.

Whether you are searching for a retro shredder, a stripped-back punk machine, a ridiculously entertaining studio weapon or a nostalgic sofa guitar that has already lived one hell of a life, do not let this hot rod race past.

One pickup.

One volume.

Twenty-two frets.

Nearly forty years of attitude.

And absolutely nothing standing between you and the noise.