Their first collaboration was with Spanish guitar builder Eduardo Ferrer, who helped Yamaha refine the designs of its classical guitar models. That same year, Yamaha established a custom shop dedicated to the production of the finest instruments they could make, and they started to collaborate with outside experts. The models sold for retail prices ranging from $49 to $109. In 1966, Yamaha sold their first export models, which consisted of the G50, G60, G80, G100, G120 and G150 classical guitars, all produced at their Hamamatsu factory.
The company already had more than two decades of experience building guitars, and the decision was made to pursue these new opportunities in a grand fashion. The phenomenal increase in demand for guitars was very beneficial to Yamaha. To satisfy customers, particularly those on tight middle class budgets, retailers turned to Asian manufacturers to fill their shelves with affordable, low-cost instruments. The United States was particularly stricken, and domestic guitar companies struggled to keep up with the increasing demand for anything with six strings. By the mid Sixties, the entire world had a fever called Beatlemania, and the only prescription was more guitars.