JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques General Technical Forum Yamaha FG110 - Good or Bad

I am an ignoramus on most subjects but especially on the subject of guitars.

I have a second hand Yamaha FG110 acoustic that I have been using for the last 7 or so years. I use it to write and also for recording demos.

I am always looking to improve my demo quality and thought that getting a better guitar would help. I tried out a few mid/low price (~$400) acoutsics and electro- acoustics but couldn't notice much sound quality improvement between them and the Yamaha. Different yes, but not significantly better.

To cut a long story short (at last!) my questions are:

- is the Yamaha FG110 a decent guitar;

- what can I do to get a much better sound without blowing my $400 budget?

Thanks in advance,

Simon

[This message has been edited by SimonRead (edited 04-06-2001).]

This may not be too helpful, but my opinion is that you CAN'T get a much better sound without blowing your budget. I've always felt that when it comes to musical equipment, if there is any way at all you can afford it, you should go for quality stuff or you'll just regret it for a long time. If you get a good guitar, five years from now the fact that you blew your budget won't matter, but if you get a bad one, five years from now you'll still be pissed that you can't get a good sound out of it (or you will have broken down and gotten the good one anyway, and you'll be pissed that you wasted time and money with a bad one). Several years ago when I went shopping for my current guitar, I tried the $600ish Yamahas, then I tried the $900ish Martin. After trying the Martin and hearing its beautiful sound, there was no way I was going to settle for the Yamaha.

This is JMHO (as Brian says, I may be right); maybe someone else can answer your question more helpfully.


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Vic
http://www.mp3.com/VictorWilburn

I'll agree with Flammable on this one. I have an old Yamaha FG-331 that was my first acoustic from when I was 12. I've played the tar out of this little guy and even recorded a few things with it here and there that sounded ok. With new strings, and set up properly, it's not a bad guitar. I believe yours has a solid top vs the laminate top that mine has.

I finally got a fantastic guitar when I got my Taylor a few years back. It has such a sweet sound, and is ultra smooth to play. It would be hard to ever play anything lesser in quality after owning this one because it just feels so good. I've never regretted the $1000 price tag, it's been well worth it.

Now that being said, I have played two other guitars that I thought were great sounding and smooth playing, that would both be considerations if I had to stick with a $400 and under budget.

One is the Takamine G332S model. It's a solid top dreadnaught. The one I owned shortly was a satin finish model that was really attractive, and had an amazingly warm tone. I had it set up at a shop here in town, and it played great.

The other model is a Seagull S6 solid top, just the basic model. It's a solid-top, concert sized Canadian made guitar. It's not an overly loud guitar, but the one I played had a very nice sound and playability about it.

Both of these are somewhere between $250-300 new, without a case, at least in my area. If you can play either of these, they may be worth checking out. You may find that you still like the sound of yours better after playing them though...it's really a matter of personal taste.

Good luck!

Paul

Hi Guys,

thanks for the comments.

The FG110 is a plywood (laminate?) top also.

I've had other recommendations for Taylors and Takamines, so I'll try some out when I get the chance.

Simon