Yamaha FG700S Review
Me with the Yamaha FG700S
My Review Of The Yamaha FG700S Acoustic Guitar
By: John Sizemore
I know Yamaha makes guitars. But, I just can’t get the Yamaha YZ80 Dirt Bike I wanted as a kid out of my head when I think Yamaha! Ridiculous huh? Anyway, my point is…. When I think of great acoustic guitars I think Martin, Gibson, Taylor & Takamine. Not Yamaha! Well, I’m just going to have to get over it since Yamaha is one of the most popular brands. Especially their beginner guitars. Well, I’ve decided to play one and give my review to see if what I’m hearing is true? So, let’s take a look at the Yamaha FG700S Acoustic Guitar
“What To Look For When Buying An Acoustic Guitar”
All of the following are extremely important when looking at acoustic guitars you want to purchase. It’s important for you to determine what the guitar will mostly be used for? Are you just a beginner? Are you looking to play gigs? Or, do you just like collecting guitars? These are all things to consider.
- The Type Of Tonewood Used
- What Body Style Fits Me & My Style?
- What Wood Is Used To Construct The Neck?
- What Are The Bridge and Fingerboard Made Of?
- Is The Intonation Set Correctly?
- What Are The Tuning Machines Made of?
- What Type Of Finish Is On The Guitar?
Solid Sitka Spruce Tone-wood Top
“It’s where the guitar gets its acoustic sound”
The top of the guitar has arguably been the most important part of the acoustic guitar. It’s where the guitar gets its acoustic sound. Sitka seems to be the most sought after guitar top that is preferred my most acoustic players. It has a very pleasant tone and resonates very well. Also, having a solid top is preferred rather than a laminate. Laminates (several pieces of cheap wood bonded together like ply wood with a thinner piece of quality wood used on the top) tend to not improve with age like a solid top guitar. The Yamaha FG700s comes equipped with a beautiful solid Sitka top where the sound should improve with age.
Body Style Of The Yamaha FG700S
The standard body style for an acoustic guitar basically comes in 3 different styles. Jumbo, Classical & Dreadnought. Classical guitars have nylon strings and are almost always finger picked. You wouldn’t want to use a pick generally when strumming this guitar. This is why it doesn’t have a pick guard around the sound hole. A Jumbo is a much bigger guitar with a much bigger sound. A dreadnought is the standard shape and is the most popular amongst guitarists of all genres. Again these are all a preference.
Within these three styles you can get two different body shapes. Standard and a Cutaway. The Cutaway gives you easy access to the higher frets on the guitar.
The Yamaha FG700S comes as a standard dreadnought guitar.
What Is The Neck Made Of?
The Yamaha FG700S comes with a Nato wood neck. This is often referred to as “eastern mahogany”. This is a very inexpensive wood that is readily available in Asian countries and really keeps the cost of overseas guitars down. It’s a tough wood and should hold up for years. This will extend the reliability of the guitar
Rosewood Fingerboard
“They hold up well, are very comfortable to the touch and don’t show much wear and tear”
A majority of guitars are built with rosewood fingerboards. They hold up well, are very comfortable to the touch and don’t show much wear and tear. The Yamaha FG700s comes equipped with a rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard width is a standard 43 mm (1 11/16″). So, it works well with both smaller and med-large hands and fingers. However, you can really make any guitar fingerboard work with practice no matter how large or small you fingers. Just my opinion 
The fingerboard has a very comfortable feel. Just what you’d expect in a great acoustic guitar.
How Is The Intonation?
If your intonation is off on your guitar? You’re guitar will sound out of tune when you play it even if it’s in tune when you play open strings. So, basically you want the guitar to be in tune when you press down on the frets.
There’s a really easy way to check the intonation of a guitar that everyone who is purchasing a guitar should do. You want to play three of the same notes and check them with a digital tuner. Start at the 12th fret. Play a harmonic (barely touch the string on the 12th fret and pluck the string and remove your finger quickly. You should get a bell like sound) on the 12th fret and check the tuner to see if it’s the correct tuned note. Let’s take the high E string. Then, play it open and check the tuner. Then play the note on the 12th fret. All of these should register the same. If not? Your intonation is off. Do this on all 6 strings at the 12th fret (octave).
I checked the intonation in the store with a tuner and it was almost perfect.
Chrome Die-cast Tuners
“This keeps your tuners maintenance free to last for years”
This is very desirable in a guitar. The die-casting surrounds the gears to keep them protected and also permanently lubricated. This keeps your tuners maintenance free to last for years. The Yamaha FG700s comes with these little beauties and I noticed right away how well the guitar stayed tuned after playing it for quite a bit. I’m not sure how old the strings were or how often the guitar had been tuned and the strings stretched. But, it held tune very well.
Accented with black-and-white body binding
“In some high end guitars wood binding is used”
The back and top of the guitar are bound to the sides with a nice black and white plastic binding. Now, binding doesn’t really affect the sound of the guitar. It just really is a preference. In some high end guitars wood binding is used. However, some very high end guitars coming from Martin, Takamine & Taylor use plastic binding. So it’s really just for decoration in my book.
Anyway, I think it’s a beautiful choice of color contrast of the black and white binding and the Nato (A less expensive hardwood that allows manufacturers to produce less expensive guitars that still sound great) back and sides. Very classy for a guitar in the price range.
tortoise pick guard
“This is not an actual tortoise pick guard”
No. This is not an actual tortoise pick guard. Anything using tortoise shell nowadays has been banned because of the endangered species act. So, this pick guard is made of plastic resins just like anything made today that say’s “tortoise shell”.
The Yamaha FG700s is made with a 4 ply plastic tortoise pick guard that will stand up to any kind of beating you give it. I really liked the pick guard. Great shape and looks classy.
The Yamaha FG700S comes with a nice classy High Gloss Finish
What Others Are Saying About The Yamaha FG700S….
From Amazon
“Please if you are looking at playing guitar. PLEASE start with something like this instead of the $99-189 range… This is a 350 guitar hiding behind a 199 price tag. I know most ppl just want a guitar now but if you get a cheaper one you will quit playing because you can only take so much pain.”
Rating: 
“To me, this thing is an investment. They say that guitars age kind of like wine. You take good care of it and it will just sound better and better the older it gets. My father’s got an FG110 from the 70′s and it sounds amazing now. I figure that give this thing 20 years and it will sound as good as anything out there.”
Rating:
“Immediately after picking the guitar up my playing improved, mainly due to the strings actually being close to the fret board as opposed to a few inches away. I have been playing it pretty solidly every day for the past 4 months and have really enjoyed this guitar.”
Rating:
From Guitar Center
“This is the best guitar for the money; actually, it’s better than guitars that cost two or three times as much. It’s beautiful, well made, very durable, and the sound improves with age”
Rating:
“We have a group of us over here in Iraq trying to teach ourselves guitar. Out of the three guitars we have this FG700S outperforms all the rest”
Rating:
“I’m impressed with this guitar’s overall quality. It sounds great and has little or no buzzing while playing.”
Rating:
More From Guitar Center
From Musicians Friend
“For what you are getting, this is the best bang for the buck. You really have to check out the videos on YouTube to see why. The other models are made in an inferior Chinese factory (check out Ibanez Guitar Factory…), while this is made in a state of the art factory custom built by Yamaha, with workers trained by Japanese”
Rating:
“For the price, this guitar is truly amazing. A solid spruce top for this price. I haven’t played any dreadnought for three times the price that beats it.”
Rating:
“I bought this for my 14 yr old niece, it’s her first real guitar. I am really impressed with it and I own a lot of expensive guitars (12 of them, actually). It looks good. The neck feels great. I adjusted the truss rod slightly before I gave it to her. And the sound…REALLY nice. Rich and Articulate with good volume. If she didn’t want it, I’d keep it. I honestly think it sounds as good as many guitars you’d find at 3 or 4 times the price.”
Rating:
More From Musicians Friend
Any complaints?
I was able to find only one complaint at the time. Someone said the guitar came with defective strings. This really doesn’t raise any concern for me. Strings have nothing to do with the quality of the guitar. I really think this was a less experienced person who over tuned the guitar.
What Should You Expect To Pay & What’s Included?
The Yamaha FG700S retails for $322. However, I’ve seen both online and walk-in music stores sell this guitar for under $200.
This guitar DOES NOT COME WITH A CASE. However, I found a great deal on a Yamaha FG700S Acoustic Guitar BUNDLE including Hard Case, Strap, Stand, Polish, Tuner, Strings, Picks, Capo, String winder and DVD
at Amazon that comes with FREE shipping! No Deal really comes close.
This package comes with:
GA01 Hard Case For The FG700s
This is a high quality case that comes with heavy duty gold hardware & a black plush cushion interior. the outside is made of a black Tolex which is just a hard vinyl covering. This is the same material they use on guitar amplifiers. So, it can take a beating. It also comes with a screwed in neck brace that keeps your guitar snug. You won’t have to worry about it moving around in the case.
The hard case that comes with this package is enough to purchase it right of the bat. After all, You’re only paying about $50 more for the whole package than you would if you just bought the guitar. I was quite impressed with the case.
The Guitar Stand
It’s really important that you have a guitar stand when you’re learning to play the guitar. You want to have your guitar out on display as a reminder to practice. It’s good to keep it in a room you’re in all the time so you’re always reminded.
This is a pretty good guitar stand. You really don’t need a high quality guitar stand anyway. I have one that I’ve had for over 20 years that I paid 6 bucks for that still works great.
Ernie Ball Guitar Polish and Cloth
This is what I use on all my guitars. It’s cheap and does a really good job. Also, beginners really don’t quite understand how important it is to keep the guitar clean. Grime build up can happen quite quickly. If I’m lazy? I usually polish and clean the guitar every time I change the strings. If I’m not being lazy? I wipe my guitar down every week. This will really help the guitar to last.
Ernie Ball is a well known company that is mostly known for making excellent guitar strings. I’ve used them for years and Slash from Gun’s & Roses Swears by them.
Planet Waves CT09 Tuner
- Easy to read LCD and LED displays
- Over sized note indicator
- Dual-mode operation for Auto or Manual tuning of pitches
- Fully chromatic – tunes all acoustic and electric instruments
- Built-in microphone for acoustic instruments and 1/4″ input for electronic instruments
- Dual-mode operation for Auto or Manual tuning
- LCD and LED displays for tuning in both well-lit and dark environments
This is a really easy and cheap guitar tuner. I have others that are my favorites. But, this one works and it works well. Here you can read some more reviews and learn more about it’s operation. Planet Waves Universal II Chromatic Tuner
2 Packs Yamaha FG12 Strings, 12 Picks, String winder
Yamaha makes high quality strings. So, these are great. You can usually pick up a pack of strings $8. Plus, beginners tend to break their high E string a lot from over tightening. So, it’s great that this is included in the pack.
The string winder that comes with this pack is standard. There are much higher quality ones available that will actually have string cutters on them. But, this one is fine. You’ll find that changing strings can be pretty tedious if you don’t have a wider. You can check out how to change guitar strings here.
Yamaha FG700S Demo
“I found A Great Demo On This Guitar”
Sound
Wow! I was very impressed by the sound coming out of this guitar. It sounds like the best of them and for the price I really don’t think anything can beat it. It has a great balance between the highs and the lows which isn’t surprising since it does have a solid sitka top. I really wasn’t expecting this from a Nato wood either. It just seams like some manufactures are progressing in providing affordable guitars that sound great. The Yamaha FG700s is no exception!
Action
I think the action on this guitar is great. After reading a few of the reviews some don’t agree. However, from what they said I’m not sure they’re that experienced with acoustic dreadnought guitars. Most of the reviews I’ve read agree that it has a great action.
Just in case you were wondering? The action is the distance between the strings and the fret board. If you have a high action? You’ll have to press much harder and this can lead to quite a bit of finger pain. So, a nice well balanced action is very important!
Reliability
This guitar is a well made piece. It’s very solid and sounds great. I’ve heard from many that have had this guitar for years that say it just keeps getting better with age. With it’s well craftsmanship and given care the FG700S will last you for years. Many have felt no need to purchase a more high end guitar. That says a lot since most of these people are very experienced.
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