Yamaha Acoustic Guitars

 

Yamaha FG230 12

I was talking to an old friend a few days ago about guitars and he mentioned to me that his wife owned a Yamaha Red Label guitar which she purchased nearly 50 years ago, and that guitar sounds fantastic.  

This conversation brought to mind another good friend I knew when she was only 14 years old, and I wasn't much older. Her parents had given her a Yamaha 12 string guitar in 1971. I went to her home and showed her a few chords.  

Yamaha G-150

I even purchased a Yamaha G-50 classical guitar around that same time for only $50 and used it for a few years. These memories peaked my interest and in doing some research I have learned that the Yamaha Company was originally founded way back in 1887 to produce pianos and organs. 

Yamaha did not begin building guitars until the early 1940's when they opened a factory dedicated exclusively to guitar construction in the city of Hamamatsu Japan. 

 

Yamaha’s first guitars were nylon-string classical models. These guitars were sold only by retailers within the Japanese market throughout the Forties, Fifties and early Sixties. 

In later years The Yamaha Company expanded to produce a variety of products, from motorcycles, boat engines, to skis, and of course synthesizers and guitar amplifiers, but as usual we are just going to concentrate on guitars. 

Beatlemania

In the mid 1960's the pandemic of the day was called Beatlemania. The vaccine that was offered was guitars.  And many of these guitars were imported from Japan. Beatlemania particularly hit with a ferocity in The United States. Yes, even I was a victim. 

The average U.S. salary in 1965 was around $6900 annually or around $140 a week before taxes. A Fender Stratocaster during that era retailed at $225, and a Gibson ES-335 was (as it says) $335.  I purchased a low end Martin in 1973 for $279. These prices were not much cheaper in the 1960's.

1965 Japanese Guitars 

As most families in the mid 1960's could not afford a top end guitar for their budding rock star or folk musician, to satisfy the need for an instrument, import companies contracted mainly with Japanese guitar manufacturers, such as Yamaha, to import less expensive guitars and other musical instruments into the United States. And this increased demand was quite beneficial for the Yamaha Company. 

1966 Yamaha G60

Yamaha already had amassed two decades of building guitars for Japanese consumers. It was in 1966 that Yamaha sold their first export models. This lineup consisted of the G50, G60, G80, G100, G120 and G150 classical guitars, which were all produced at their Hamamatsu factory. The models offered this year sold for retail prices ranging from $49 to $109. 

Yamaha established a custom shop later in 1966 which was dedicated to the production of the finest instruments they could make.  They started to collaborate with outside experts. Their first collaboration was with a Spanish guitar builder named Eduardo Ferrer. He helped Yamaha refine the designs of its classical guitar models. 

1967 Yamaha GC-10

Ferrer's expertise led to the development of the GC5, GC7 and GC10 models, which made their debut in 1967 offering Yamaha’s classical guitars and also a new steel-string line. 

1967 Yamaha FG 150

The steel string line up consisted of the dreadnought FG150 and FG180 models (also introduced in 1966 and priced at $99.50 and $119.50, respectively), sold in impressive amounts in the United States. 

1968 Red Label FG-150 

The 1968 to 1981 Yamaha models FG (folk guitar) guitars are known among collectors as Red Label guitars.

Due to their reasonable pricing and nice action Yamaha acoustic guitars became a very popular choice for beginners as well as experienced players who wanted an inexpensive backup acoustic instrument. 

Country Joe at Woodstock

Possibly the first major exposure for a Yamaha guitar in the United States was when Country Joe McDonald performed a nine-song solo set on the second day of the 1969 Woodstock Festival accompanied only by a Yamaha FG-150. 

This guitar actually belonged to a stage hand, who loaned it to the performer when McDonald was asked to play an impromptu set before Santana took the stage. 

The guitar is barely visible in the footage of McDonald performing “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” a song that was featured in the Woodstock documentary. The Yamaha logo was prominent in many photos shot of McDonald, which included an iconic shot by Jim Marshall that was distributed to the press. 

Yamaha Acoustic Guitars

Those earliest Yamaha acoustic guitars featured laminated wooden bodies. However by 1967 and going forward, Yamaha had expanded and improved its line of guitars considerably. 

Yamaha FG-1500

The most notable development was the introduction of several high-quality acoustic models made from solid materials. The FG-500 was Yamaha’s first steel-string acoustic model to feature a solid spruce top, eventually followed by the FG-1500 and FG-2000 models with solid spruce tops and solid jacaranda back and sides. 

Yamaha FG-2000

Bob Seger’s main acoustic onstage during the Seventies was an FG-1500.  James Taylor often played an FG-2000 live and in the studio during this period as well. 

Yamaha LL-25T

During the mid Seventies, Yamaha made the transition from the FG series to the L series. Yamaha incorporated several major design changes with the L series, including increasing the scale length from 25 inches to 25 9/16 inches, narrowing the dimensions of the lower bout, and offering fancier inlays and binding. 

While the FG series guitars were primarily affordable, budget instruments, the L series were designed as high-end acoustics. 

John Denver's L-53

In 1977 John Denver ordered two custom L-53 guitars which featured Hokkaido spruce tops and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.  He played these guitars in concert and television appearances during the late Seventies. The ornate custom abalone inlay on his L-53’s headstock also appears prominently on the cover of the John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together album.  These were exceptional instruments.

John Lennon's CJ-52

That same year John Lennon ordered a new Country Jumbo CJ-52 guitar from Yamaha’s custom shop while he and Yoko Ono were on vacation in Japan. The guitar featured an intricate dragon graphic on the body, the Chinese character for dragon on the headstock, and a yin-yang symbol below the bridge, all done using Japanese Maki-e lacquer with gold and silver powder. To date, it remains the most expensive guitar built by the Yamaha custom shop. 

Paul Simon was also a fan of Yamaha’s brand new CJ-52 model, and it became his main guitar for live performances, including the historic Central Park benefit reunion concert by Simon & Garfunkel in 1981. He also owned a Yamaha FG720S.

Dylan's Yamaha Guitars

Bob Dylan discovered Yamaha acoustics while playing shows at Tokyo’s Budokan Hall in 1978, and shortly afterward a Yamaha L-6 and L-52 were frequently seen in his hands during concert performances. 

Yamaha developed dozens of popular classical, flamenco, steel-string and even solidbody electric guitars and basses during the late Seventies. 

By the 1980's the Yamaha acoustic guitar lineup included the CWE series acoustic-electric models that was introduced in 1983. This guitar paved the way for the immensely popular APX series introduced four years later. 

Yamaha CWE-18B

The Yamaha CWE series guitars featured a thinner, medium-size body with an oval sound hole and cutaway that is essentially identical to the design used for the APX guitars. 

Yamaha APX Series

The APX models introduced in 1987 had radically redesigned pickup and preamp systems. The most innovative feature on these instruments was its hexaphonic piezo pickup which provided a separate pickup for each string. 

The APX’s switching system allowed players to select mono output or two different stereo settings where either the upper and lower three strings were routed to separate outputs or alternating strings were sent to separate outputs. 

The APX’s smaller body dimensions also reduced the possibility of feedback when playing at high volume levels onstage. 

Wynonna Judd with APX guitar 

Because of this APX guitars became a common sight at concerts during the late Eighties and early Nineties, seen onstage with performers like Wynonna Judd, Steve Lukather, Suzanne Vega and many others. 

Acoustic Resonance Enhancement 

Currently the Yamaha Company has made many advances in their acoustic building process. This includes specially developed methods of drying woods to ensure structural stability and optimal tone with their proprietary Acoustic Resonance Enhancement process.

The A.R.E process was developed in 2008, where the wood’s structure is treated to enhance its sound transmission capabilities and dynamic responsiveness. 

Yamaha has even refined its own proprietary neck-to-body joint for acoustic guitars that provides an enhanced level of contact between the neck and body. 

New Yamaha L-Series

Recently Yamaha performed a major revision of its steel-string flattop L series in 2004 and again in 2014, with both instances leading to the development of new bracing patterns. 

To celebrate Yamaha’s 50th anniversary of guitar manufacturing, the company has produced the limited edition 50th anniversary FG180-50th steel-string flattop acoustic.

This model is based on the appearance of the original FG-180 model, which made its debut in 1966 and played a crucial role in Yamaha’s early success as a guitar company.  However the new version includes refinements that reflect Yamaha’s design experience through the years, such as new scalloped bracing, Yamaha’s A.R.E. process, and the use of all-solid materials. 

FG 800

Even more recently Yamaha revived the FG series, which offer incredible value to beginners and experienced players alike just like the original FG models did 50 years ago. Unlike the 1960’s versions, these instruments now feature solid wooden tops and in many cases electronics for a reasonable price. 

FG-TA

The most recent innovation is the Yamaha TransAcoustic Guitar. This guitar feature a piezo electric device called an actuator, which is factory installed on the inner surface of the guitars back. This vibrates in response to the vibrations of the strings. The vibrations of the actuator are then conveyed to the body of the guitar and to the air in and around the guitar body, generating authentic reverb and chorus sounds from inside the body. It is most interesting.  

Recently Yamaha has been promoting their Urban Guitar which features a concert cutaway body and a thin neck that is shorter in scale than a standard acoustic guitar, providing lower string tension for ease of playing. 

Yamaha URBAN Guitar

This guitar is aimed at the beginner market and features a spruce top with a tobacco brown sunburst finish, a natural wood matte neck and rear body finish, an Indian rosewood bridge and a tortoise-shell pickguard. It even comes with a custom URBAN Guitar strap and picks. 

The URBAN Guitar by Yamaha comes with a robust lesson app that provides step-by-step instruction curated by Keith, alongside JUNO, a professional guitarist and teaching partner. It retails for around $240

USD.

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