- Yamaha FG-400
Overall Rating: 7.8 out of 10
You own a really great beginner guitar if you own one of these. As Anonymous says on a review of it at Harmony Central “Put it this way. This guitar is almost everything like a nice old pair of Jeans. Rusty, cheap, rugged, but VERY comfortable. It feels like an old glove.”
The Yamaha FG-400 was produced between 1989 and 1995, and it’s a shame they discontinued it. My FG-400 has been played and beat on, and is still going strong. There is nothing amazing about this guitar, but you can’t say anything bad about it either.
So for the good things about this guitar. This acoustic guitar is light yet durable, and its the kind of guitar that you can leave lying around and not have to worry about it. I usually play with medium to heavy strings, and this guitar produces a bright, full sound, that easily sets the bar for most entry level acoustic guitars. Occasionally the low end of this guitar gets a little muddy, but that’s to be expected especially as the intervals get closer together. Another great thing about this guitar is once you tune up, the only two strings that ever go out of tune are the B and high E strings, and only a few cents flat.
This guitar does have a couple of disappointing things. For one, the original action is a little too high for my liking, however with heavy strings it preferable to buzzing on the fretboard. My least favorite thing about my guitar is the difficulty of changing strings. The strings are held in on the bridge by pins. However, the only way I’ve found that you can get the pins out is with pliers. This rips/damages the pins at the part where they are pulled, causing them to look bad and collect dirt and grime. If Yamaha had come up with a better design for this when they manufactured it, they really would have made the perfect beginner guitar.
Tone Quality: 7.5 out of 10
Tonal Flexibility: 8 out of 10
Loudness 6 out of 10
Portability: 7 out of 10
Reliability: 9.5 out of 10 (did I mention it was durable?)
Worth (Monetary): 9 out of 10 (depending on where you get it, it is between $20 and $100 dollars used)
Overall Average: 7.8 out of 10
Really good review of a really good guitar! I own one of these, except for some reason it has no pickguard. My uncle gave it to me when he went into the service, and it was my first acoustic guitar (my first guitar was an old beat up SG with a replacement neck). Anyways, keep up the good work.
hi!