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MGR/Louis Bianchi
« Yamaha FG-160 »
Published on 12/31/02 at 15:00This guitar was purchased new at Manny's Music in New York City. It cost $90 in July 1976.
The timbre of the instrument is incredible for the budget price. The neck intonation is near perfect. It's characteristics are affected a food deal dependent on your choice of strings. For the 25 plus years that I have this instrument, it's finish has changed beautifuly with the darkening of it's varnish.
I recently have been looking at other acoustics and so far the only guitars I like better than this unit are Martins and Gibsons in the $1000 plus range.
I guess I have gotten way more than my $90 worth out of this guitar.
The machine heads always bothered me on this unit. They have covers over the gears that always losen up and buzz over time. A minor problem that is kept in check during normal maintainence.
Other than the machine head problem that I described, the unit is built like a brick s**t house. This guitar has taken so much abuse over the years, and still plays like a fine instrument. It is a beautiful thing. Yamaha knew what they were doing when they designed this guitar. The neck has never developed any problems, where as my fine Stratocasters always had very tempermental necks that needed adjustments frequently. The fact that this is not in Yamahas product line anymore is a great disappointment. This was the perfect beginners guitar, so perfect that I still own and cherish it after 25 plus years.
If you can get your hands on one that is still in good shape, snatch it up.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
The timbre of the instrument is incredible for the budget price. The neck intonation is near perfect. It's characteristics are affected a food deal dependent on your choice of strings. For the 25 plus years that I have this instrument, it's finish has changed beautifuly with the darkening of it's varnish.
I recently have been looking at other acoustics and so far the only guitars I like better than this unit are Martins and Gibsons in the $1000 plus range.
I guess I have gotten way more than my $90 worth out of this guitar.
The machine heads always bothered me on this unit. They have covers over the gears that always losen up and buzz over time. A minor problem that is kept in check during normal maintainence.
Other than the machine head problem that I described, the unit is built like a brick s**t house. This guitar has taken so much abuse over the years, and still plays like a fine instrument. It is a beautiful thing. Yamaha knew what they were doing when they designed this guitar. The neck has never developed any problems, where as my fine Stratocasters always had very tempermental necks that needed adjustments frequently. The fact that this is not in Yamahas product line anymore is a great disappointment. This was the perfect beginners guitar, so perfect that I still own and cherish it after 25 plus years.
If you can get your hands on one that is still in good shape, snatch it up.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com