Yamaha CS40

The Yamaha CS40 classical guitar is a slightly downsized version of their traditional nylon strings, great for beginning players or people who just need something smaller to play on. It features the following:

Top Spruce
Back & Sides Meranti
Neck Nato
Fretboard Rosewood
Bridge Rosewood
Hardware Chrome
Scale Length 22-15/16" (580mm)

It's got a 7/8 scale so it's not as drastic a leap as a 3/4 or 1/2 sized guitar compared to a full sized model. Otherwise it's pretty standard overall.

UTILIZATION

The design is pretty ergonomic. It's nice and light like most of Yamaha's guitars in this general range. I bought mine when I was younger and would compare it to my Junior acoustic from the company... just a nice light weight but downsized version of their full sized guitars. It doesn't have great upper fret access but there's no cutaway so it's not really a surprise there. The guitar has a decent sound right out of the box which is nice. It has a pleasant nylon string sound that I find works well and sounds close enough to a full sized one.

SOUNDS

The tones are actually fairly surprising in this guitar. I was thinking it would be kind of weak sounding, but when I tried it in the store I knew it had a good sound and figured a proper nylon would work in my collection. It had a good tone for being a cheaper, smaller instrument. Sure it didn't have the low end or the silky highs of a really nice nylon, but for noodling around on it had a nice enough tone that works for chords or some classical passages. There's a nice low end and some good strong highs that, though they aren't perfectly flowing, they do sit will in the aural mix.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I think the Yamaha CS40 is a great little guitar that is a nice way to get into a slightly downsized nylon string for not much cash. They sell new for $130 or so, and are decent enough quality to say that that is a great deal. I had mine for a few years but oddly enough didn't end up using much so I later sold it to someone else, but it was a nice guitar when I had it. If you're looking for a low priced, smaller classical, this one might do the job.