Decent Gigging Guitar

[Gfzen]

Hello All—

I’m in need of a decent gigging guitar and wonder what folks here think about these Dreadnought candidates:

1) Yamaha FGX820c—solid spruce top, laminated mahogany back/sides; Yamaha System-66 electronics

2) Alvarez AD60ce—solid spruce top, laminated mahogany back/sides; SYS550 electronics

3) Epiphone DR400MCE—solid spruce top, solid mahogany back/sides; electronics

I want a Dreadnought and I don’t want to spend much more than $400.

I will buy used if in excellent/mint or brand new if the price allows.

Thoughts and experience (ESPECIALLY experience!!!) wanted...

[YamahaGuy]

My buddy has an Epiphone with the eSonic pickup in it and I must say it sounds pretty good. The two strikes for me on it are the neck is a bit thick for my taste and the batteries die very quickly on the pickups.

I own a Yamaha A1M which is virtually the same guitar as the FGX820c but with a slimmer neck profile. The pickup system works pretty well for a piezo system. I gig with my A1M regularly even though I prefer the plugged in tone of a few of other Yamaha guitars a bit better. The tuner is good and the preamp adjustments are great for dialing in your tone.

I can't speak for the Alvarez. At your price point, for a gigging guitar you may want to look at used models. I got my A1M for $250 used at GC. It came with a beat up hard case, grease on the fretboard, a few dings I don't have to worry about putting in/on it, and it works as good as new.

If you can find a Yamaha FGX730SC with the ART pickup I strongly recommend it. Good luck.

[bsman]

Might also want to think check out a Takamine G series (something like the GD20 or GD51, for example.) Takamine makes a very solid guitar that holds up well, in my experience (I have an older G Series 12-string that is rock solid.)