The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #46583   Message #2824725
Posted By: GUEST,Paul Morgan
29-Jan-10 - 01:39 PM
Thread Name: Ever played a Yamaha guitar?
Subject: RE: Ever played a Yamaha guitar?
Yamaha has a great guitar. I have 3 now and have purchased and sold a few.

The best one I have is the FG 180 made in Japan by the Nippon Gakki factory. The sound is great and the action is perfect. I have never had to adjust anything. If you can find one of these 35 year old guitars, BUY IT!

Almost as good is my FG 160e, an acoustic-electric from the early 1970's also Japanese Nippon Gakki. It sounds almost as good acoustically as the 180, but the amplified sound is not quite as woody as I would like. (Maybe it's just my amp) The saddle is aluminum with a peizo pickup wire under the bridge. It also has a factory soundhole pickup.

I recently bought a recent model LL-16 off of Craigslist for $365, which was essentially new. Teriffic sounding guitar, but I still need to have it "set up". The action is still to high to suit me. These are made in China and I was a little hesitant at first, but upon close examination, the workmanship is excellent and the sound is teriffic. The top and sides are solid wood as opposed th the plywood of the fg 160 and fg 180.

I bought and sold a FG 200. Also made in Japan. Nice guitar also, but the sound,although loud, was a little brassy to suit me. I like that nice mellow tone that the 160 and 180 have.

I had a F 335 briefly (made in China) but didn't think much of it. I bought it for the hard case that it came in so I kept the case and sold the guitar for $75. This guitar had good action, but the tone and volume was just mediocre. If you are looking for a good guitar to learn on, this would be fine. They are relatively inexpensive and sound decent.

I have a 1968 d-18 Martin and a 1976 d-28 Martin that I rarely take out of thier cases. The old Yamahas are the ones that get played. Even though they were nowhere near the quality of some of the more expensive guitars (the exception being the LL-16), they cannot be discounted. I admire Yamaha's ability to produce a great sounding instrunment for a reasonable price.