Yamaha "The FG" limited edition guitar.

[10drum]

Greetings,

I was at music store yesterday and ran across a new Yamaha "The FG" limited edition guitar #1 of 40.

I found this link, which looks to be the same guitar:

http://artisanguitars.com/2009-yamah...tion-29-of-40/

The store has had it a long time and has it priced low (when compare to original sale price). The price is still more than what should be paid for a well built Japanese guitar. It is very nice and I'm tempted to buy it, but I don't know how desirable it may be later. I can't find any that sold on ebay so it's hard to get a feel for the true value. I'm not interested in making money on it, I just don't want to lose my shirt if I decide to sell it later.

I'm just curious what folks may think.

Thanks for all replies.

[frenchie]

It`s a model that has been available in Japan for some time now, although not in huge numbers. Those 40 were the guitars exported to the U.S.A. (It`s basically a domestic market model). There is also a smaller bodied FS model too. Both guitars are made in the small workshop that builds the Japanese LL line, and are a tribute to the early FG models made by Yamaha in the late 60s, but made out of top notch solid woods, unlike the originals which were all laminates. As for value, here in the U.K. prices ranged from about £1000-1400, with the true value being closer to the £900-1000 mark. The "FG" that I had a chance to play a couple of years back was very nice indeed, it was extremely light in weight, and had a rather sweet vibrant tone.

Hope this helps.

Steve.

[Shawnglory]

I have absolutely no love for Yamaha Acoustics and Electrics. Great classicals though, probably made together with Hofmas. There is a huge Yamaha learning center 5 minutes away from where I am and that's where I get my strings, tools and any sort of replacements.

Thing here is that I've tried their > $2000 and never have I ever bonded with any or even enjoyed playing them. It's all solid all good all wood and I tend to give Full Solids a fighting chance but I've never been able to do so with any Yamahas and yeap even that whole rack stretch full of both entry level and intermediate FGs. I think the word I'm looking for here is. Void. I don't sense any character or soul from them.

Like the first 15 seconds of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxpeyLOECgI

Edit: Or maybe it's just that the pianos I played there were so wonderful I got disconnected.

[sneaky]

Yeah, this has been covered before...the guitar has been in production in Japan for well over 10 years, as to exactly how huge the number is, hard to say since Japanese companies don`t really release those numbers...I`ve tried. The local Yamaha shop had one on sale a couple of years ago and I played it but the nut was just too narrow for my hands. Nice guitar though, they show up used regularly in Japan.

[10drum]

Thanks for the info sneaky & frenchie. I'm a fan of Japanese built guitars. Usually good Japanese guitars guitar can be purchased between $500 to $1000. I don't think the label glued to the back of the head stock of "the fg" is worth what what I'd have to pay to own it. Thanks again.

[sneaky]

The USA I and USA II, the Pac 10th anniversary models, the SA-2200, SAS-1500, the high end SG`s...all great Yamaha electrics...and I`m sure I missed some...as good as anything I see coming out of the US in local stores today. My favorite Yamahas...and people have their own... are the nylon string models they made before they brought out the GC line in `67...the GC 3, 5 , 7 and 10.

[sneaky]

Originally Posted by 10drum

Thanks for the info sneaky & frenchie. I'm a fan of Japanese built guitars. Usually good Japanese guitars guitar can be purchased between $500 to $1000. I don't think the label glued to the back of the head stock of "the fg" is worth what what I'd have to pay to own it. Thanks again.

Well, I never paid more than $120.00 for any of my Yamaha Dynamics, and paid as little as $10.00...not a typo...for all solid wood models from the early `50`s to the early/mid `60s. There are lots of old MIJ acoustics available for well under $500.00 here, and with the purchasing services available nowadays, people from anywhere can bid on them on Yahoo Japan, for a fee of course...and I never used any of them, just going by what I have read.

[10drum]

Sneaky, I know about the fine old Yamaha from the 60's, they are few and far between. There are some fine Japanese models of recent years, the Epiphone Elite/elitist are great, the actual K. Yairi's sold in only in Japan and Europe are great, and some of the Alvarez Yairi are notable also. All of those are worth less than $1k. The Yamaha FG (1 of 40), I saw at Samuel Music in Effingham, Il is a fine instrument, but they had it priced slightly above $1k. Some one could offer them less and they would probably take it, but it may only be worth $500 in a couple of years, who knows.

[sneaky]

Yes, I saw the Elites when they came out, never bought one.
This shop sells current Japanese guitars regularly....there are a LOT of builders that ate totally unknown outside the country...



http://www.dolphin-gt.co.jp/

[YamahaGuy]

There are two of these at GC used #12 and #22. Thinking about grabbing one...

[redi]

11yo thread reborn.

[Railroad Bum]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

There are two of these at GC used #12 and #22. Thinking about grabbing one...

Dude, you definitely should. Pretty rare.

[YamahaGuy]

Both are gone now. You snooze you lose.

[redi]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

Both are gone now. You snooze you lose.

However GC has a used LL36, if anyone is interested. Price is reasonable too. A much much better guitar.

[singlechange]

I read on another guitar forum about this Yamaha Limited Edition FG. According to a report there, Yamaha at first claimed that each country in the world that sold the model would only get a certain number and no more. Later that number was increased. So, if the U.S.A. was allotted #1-#40 the year the FG was released, Yamaha later produced more after that for the U.S.A. market.
If it were me, I'd have chosen instead to buy the used Yamaha FG5 I saw recently priced at half the asking price of the new Limited Edition FG.