YamahaFG820 12-String Solid Top Acoustic Guitar

Just got my FS820 yesterday at about 3pm. It was pretty cold so I let it warm up before tuning it. Since it came with 12s (and I usually play 11s) I tuned it flat. No problems with that. Played it for a little bit looking for the places of fret buzz and could not find any. The neck and frets are a good match for my hand and the frets are not sharp and this guitar is just straight out of the box. The strings are not to my liking but I played for over an hour last night and enjoyed the sound quite a bit. It has a nice tone and every part of the sound (highs, mids, lows) were to my liking. This is the FS so it is like a OOO and has the Autumn Burst color which is pretty nice. Although I could tell that the sides are laminate, the top is solid spruce and it sounds really good for an inexpensive guitar. On one song I was playing, "The Garden Song" it actually sounded better than my Martin JC15E. This is a nice guitar and worth the cost, it is an excellent guitar for beginners and for a travel guitar. I recommend it for anyone that wants a nice looking, sounding and playing guitar that they can keep in the living room and not be too worried about someone bumping into it. A home-run for Yamaha, and it is made in China - which is kind of mind blowing. Okay, a little later the next day I noticed that there were stress marks in the varnish below the bridge, there is no bow and no bulge and the stress marks line up to where they are not annoying so I am going to keep the guitar at this point.

I couldn't be happier with my new FG820 guitar.I'm not an accomplished player-- sort of an intermediate-- but I know my way around acoustic guitars a bit.I'm not wealthy and it would be silly to consider a $2,000 guitar, and besides I'm admittedly not such a serious player. I play for the enjoyment, and in hopes of getting better and better. This guitar is exactly right for someone like me.It just arrived, and I inspected it, wiped it down, tuned it, and played it.There are two very minor blemishes in the finish that aren't at all critical; one is a slight wave in the lacquer finish on the top, the other is a tiny dent.The action right out of the box is excellent. No string buzz or any other troubles with the factory setup, but very easy to apply bar chords to, and a nice light touch with the rather light strings."But what about the sound?", you ask.Very bright, capable of real loudness, beautiful sustain and projection, very balanced throughout the frequency range-- as everyone has already said. For $300, my goodness! This does not sound like an inexpensive guitar.Being mostly mahogany, the guitar is surprisingly light in weight, but I'm accustomed to heavier woods like rosewood and I know it's no reflection on quality.The mahogany back and sides, though laminate, are just gorgeous, and the neck is a very comfortable size and cross section, finished in a matte treatment for good grip. I love the ivory-colored binding and mother-of-pearl Yamaha emblem on the headstock.If you're like me and aren't a professional musician, but appreciate great value and craftsmanship in a beautiful acoustic guitar, I highly recommend this Yamaha FG820. It would be a great starter guitar or for refining your skills, since its playability is so good.For a bit over $300. Amazing.

As others have said, this is an amazing guitar for the price. I got the FG-820 (mahogany laminate b&s). Its well put together, the QC seems good. I've had it only 2 weeks though. I lowered the action a bit and added a bone saddle. It still sounded great before that, and I haven't tested enough to see if it sound better with the bone or original saddle yet. The tone is very nice, notes are clear, volume is good, great balance for a big-size guitar. One gripe, the guitar came shipped in a small cardboard box wrapped only in a bit of plastic wrap, ie hardly any padding. But I guess it was sufficient because the guitar came in excellent condition. I wanted a beater guitar to take camping, the beach, maybe travel, play it around my mischevious toddler, let her strum/abuse it a little. At $260, its great for that. But now I don't want to abuse it, as it is a nice guitar and doesn't deserve that abuse! I have a Taylor 314ce. Its 4x the price. But the tone of that Taylor is only about 10% better (due to its richness). Also this 820 has somewhat better volume and bass. The Taylor is obviously a higher quality guitar but I'm seriously considering getting rid of it just to make more space for a rosewood body guitar. For my needs the tone of the 820 is "good enough" to replace that particular Taylor. I'm very glad I bought this guitar. Its a good guitar that I can take anywhere and gives me flexibility and convenience because its not a "precious" guitar like Martin, Taylor, etc. Also these Yamaha FG guitars are closer in sound to a Taylor than to a Martin. I did end up returning it though, but because it has a 1-11/16" nut, while I decided I needed 1.75" as my other 2-3 guitars were 1.75" and wanted switching between them to be completely seamless.

Obviously not the best sounding guitar I have tried, but it was a good backup guitar. It would have been a great beginner guitar.Sound is loud, though the neck was too sticky due to coating for me to move my hands around freely.

Excellent guitar! Sounds great and stays in tune.