Long-term review of the $200 Yamaha FG403S steel-string acoustic guitar
(The picture above was taken on Dec. 24, 2020)
If you asked me last week to tell you when I bought this guitar, I would have said 2010, maybe even 2011.
This week I wrote down the serial number from inside the guitar and went on the Web to see what I could find.
Yamaha is very good about serial numbers corresponding to production dates, and it turns out that my Yamaha FG403S acoustic guitar was made in Taiwan on Dec. 5, 2003. (According to Elite Vintage Guitars, this model was made from 2002-4)
2003?? So when did I buy it?
I started looking for receipts, and this time it didn't take more than five minutes for me to find an envelope marked "Yamaha FG403S." Inside was a receipt from Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks.
I purchased the guitar for $199.99 and spent another $19.99 for a gig bag on Feb. 28, 2004.
I had thought the guitar was 10 years old, but it was really 17 years old as of late 2020.
The reason I bought the guitar was that I wanted an instrument I could throw in the back of my trunk, take to work and not worry about. I could play a little bit during my work day, and if the guitar fell apart, it would be no big loss.
My original intention was to get a $99 guitar with a laminated top. At the time, I was intent on playing jazz, and even if I could swing (so to speak) a $3,000 Gibson acoustic archtop, I definitely wouldn't be lugging it around in the back of my 2001 Ford Focus (which I had until late 2015, by the way — great car).
I had never owned a steel-string acoustic guitar before. Once I started shopping, I learned that acoustic guitars with solid tops sounded better, and these models didn't cost that much more than those with laminated tops.
Guitar Center was listing this guitar in their ads for $199.99 (with a retail price of $299 according to Yamaha Vintage FG Acoustic Guitars), and I eventually went down to the store, played a bunch of guitars and bought this one. They don't give you the floor model. Instead they get you an unplayed guitar in the box. They unpacked it and put it in the gig bag, and I took it home.
This Yamaha FG403S is very well made. Fit and finish is pretty much perfect. There's a little bit of glue and some kind of mesh visible on the brace near the bottom of the soundhole, but otherwise it's a very well-built guitar. I haven't played it all that much, and it looks as good 17 years later as the day I bought it.
The guitar was (and is) so nice, I couldn't justify chucking it in the trunk and leaving it there, so my plan for a throwaway travel guitar didn't really work out. Instead, I have a pretty nice flattop guitar (my first). (Plus I don't "go" to work. Even before COVID I barely made it into the office two days a week. Now there's no more office. I work at home.)
I've watched a number of YouTube videos where somebody compares a $3,000 Martin or Gibson flattop with a $200 guitar, and while I can tell the difference, the cheaper guitar is generally a whole lot closer to the expensive one than you'd think. Or then I'd think anyway.
The Yamaha is a fairly standard dreadnought guitar with a 650 mm/25.6-inch scale — the same as Fender electric guitars. It shipped with medium-light (.012 high E) phosphor bronze strings, which I left on the guitar for many years, it turns out.
A couple of years ago, I started playing the guitar again, and I bought a set of Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium (.013 high E) 80/20 Bronze strings. I thought the thicker strings would mimic what I have on my Gibson ES-175. It was my first time changing strings on a flattop, and I used the bridge-pin puller on the plastic string winder I bought when I was around 9 or 10 years old; I've had that thing a long time. Only one bridge pin shot out and hit the ceiling. I learned something that day about bridge pins.
Once I had the medium-gauge strings on the Yamaha, the action got very high. I had to find the proper hex wrench and crank the truss rod many times to even out the neck. I did get it right eventually.
I changed the strings again about a month ago. The low E string was sounding kind of dead. This time I went for Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium-Light (.012) 80/20 Bronze strings. I've been going "lighter" on all my guitars (Classical, solidbody, archtop) and wanted to do the same with the flattop.
The new strings sound great. Very piano-like in their attack. The low E is much better. I think there's something about the guitar's build that "constricts" the sound of the low E string. It's not quite a wolf-tone situation, but I get the feeling that the bracing is keeping the string and the notes on the first five frets from vibrating the top too much. I don't have a lot of experience with flattops, and I'll have to play a bunch and see how the low E string responds on them.
Still, the Yamaha's new, lighter strings do sound better, including the low E, and they still have that pianistic edge after a month. I'm very enamored with the sound and have been playing it quite a bit.
I didn't have to crank the truss rod at all.
When I "push" the guitar, folk-strumming style, there's no problem with the low E, and the guitar is crazy loud. You don't hear any issues when wailing on the strings.
Most of my playing these days is jazz tunes and practicing from method books like William Leavitt's "Modern Method for Guitar" and Ted Greene's "Single Note Soloing," and I'm using a much lighter touch. Another way to say this is that I'm playing the guitar quietly, not digging it. That's when you can hear and feel the low E string being constricted, but maybe that's the guitar's way of keeping the low E from overpowering the other strings. It is a very even sounding guitar across the strings, so maybe that's the idea behind how the guitar is braced and voiced.
Intonation across the fretboard is excellent, and the guitar plays and stays in tune. The woods are very nice and perfectly finished. Aside from the solid spruce top, the back, sides and neck are made from nato, a dense wood that looks similar to mahogany.
The bridge saddle and nut are good quality plastic, the compensation in the saddle is very likely a large part of why the intonation is so good.
The tuning machines work well. They are better than I'd expect from a $200 guitar.
The body finish is glossy, but the neck has a matte finish, which is perfect for sliding the left hand across the fretboard without sticking. The fingerboard and bridge are made of rosewood, which is a nice feature for a guitar in this price range. Frets are finished pretty well. Nothing to complain about, but a pro could smooth the edges near the ends. Still it's not bad for the fingers or hands.
When I'm playing single notes, especially with the .012 80/20 bronze strings, the pianistic/bell-like sound is archtop-ish enough to keep me playing the Yamaha. When I play a jazz chord, it still sounds like a flattop and not an acoustic (or electric) archtop, and that is to be expected.
But those notes sound pretty good — credit the solid spruce top and 80/20 strings — and I have a really nice, still-cheap guitar to practice on. I had no idea it was 17 years old. You could put it on the wall at Guitar Center and nobody would know it didn't come right out of the box.
Is it "opening up"? I don't know. Maybe. I'll get back to you.
The equivalent guitar today is the Yamaha FG800, which is selling for $199.99 from Sweetwater as of Dec. 29, 2020. The guitar also sells for $199.99 at Musician's Friend.
Jan. 22, 2021
I have been playing this as my main guitar since this review was started. The strings have retained much of their bell-like quality. They have mellowed a little, but there's still a crispness.
I had been thinking that maybe something about the guitar's design or build made the low E string a little tubby. I don't feel that way now. Between the new strings and getting more comfortable with the instrument, I'm getting a good sound out of the low E. It's not like I'm spending a lot of time. I'm playing maybe 15 to 25 minutes a day.
When you play the same guitar all the time, you get more comfortable with it. The scale length gets into your muscle memory. The neck is familiar. Your right-hand "attack" on the strings improves.
Even though my practice is focused on jazz and standard tunes and learning patterns and scales, I'm sticking with this guitar instead of pulling out an electric. It's easier to get the guitar out and start playing without needing to fiddle with amplifiers and cords. You just pick the string (I'm using D'Andrea 1.21mm picks, as well as D'Andrea ProPlec) and get a nice sound. As I've said in my review of the Ernie Ball Earthwood strings, I even love the feel of my fingers on the wound strings.
It's nice to pick up a guitar where the build is so nice, it's in tune and it's very even-sounding, even the low E. It's just a matter of "hitting" it right.
July 1, 2023
I have a nice set of D'Addario phosphor bronze (.012) strings — the EJ16 set — on the guitar, and it sounds great.