Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I just got this guitar 2 days ago... first thing i noticed right away... "It's green..."
Well maybe more of a Turquoise. But a greenish Turquoise. At first I suspected that this was an error in shipping and they just sent me the correct model in a different color. But after inspecting the tag inside the guitar it does say APX500BB (BB - Blue Burst). So yeah... it's not quite as blue as the pictures make it out to be. If that's important to you, there you go. But as far as I'm concerned, it still looks pretty sweet. So I will start there...
Aesthetics - 8/10: It has a very sharp look to it. Excellent glossy finish. The color burst is deep and rich but still reveals the grain of the wood. The sides/back/neck/headstock are all black, with the exception of a slight hint of the burst color on the back of the body and headstock (more noticeable on the headstock). The rosewood bridge and fretboard, coupled with the ivory inlay on the fretboard/headstock emblem and white trim really add some nice contrast. Nice shiny chrome tuners and guitar strap posts. The output jack for the guitar is one of these strap posts. Overall, just a nice looking guitar that seems like it will hold its beauty for years to come.
Craftsmanship/Feel - 8/10: The frets are pressed in well and don't stick up from the fingerboard too far. I have found no fret buzzing anywhere, it's really setup quite nicely. Once I got it in tune, I felt instantly comfortable with it. It felt an a lot like my dad's Gibson acoustic guitar. The electronics... as far as i can tell are nothing to be scoffed at. The tuner functions perfectly... although the symbols were backwards from what I'm used to with the tuner on my amp. The arrows point to where you need to go to be in tune rather than where you are at. The electronics seem to work great, i plugged the guitar into my amp to give these functions a test run. A comfortable setting for a small room for the volume seems to be about 1/3. The EQ is very effective, i was able to add quite a bit of low end to my tone without cranking the low band all the way up. It was actually to the point where i was worried i was going to have an angry neighbor pounding on my door in minutes. The battery compartment is easy to get to.
So at this point, Looks good, feels good... now the most important part...
Tone/Sound - 7/10: I had another nostalgic moment of playing my dad's Gibson acoustic while playing this guitar. But my dad's Gibson being a small body acoustic has the same drawback that this guitar has... weak low end. It has a great tone, it stays in tune and the intonation is excellent so as long as the strings are broken in, any time you pick it up and anywhere you play on it sounds great. It just doesn't have that bassy low end... which is completely compensated for when plugging it in and adjusting the EQ. I will say I'm not a fan of the strings that come stock on the guitar. A lot of squeaking when sliding up and down the guitar... I'm not really a fan of that. I plan on switching them out soon with Elixirs which I've fallen in love with on my electric guitars.
All in all, its just a damn good acoustic guitar for being a shallow body acoustic. The price tag I'd say is appropriate... maybe just a bit high. But Yamaha makes good instruments and I've played some pretty god awful acoustic guitars. This one is definitely up there when the nicer group of acoustics I've played so to pay 300 I'd say is fair.. but i wouldn't go higher.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Yamaha APX500 Acoustic Electric Guitar, Oriental Blue BurstThe APX series places emphasis on playability with a stylish thin profile that fits the musicians' body.As for cosmetics, the APX500 features a beautiful mother-of-pearl sound hole ring inlay, white fingerboard binding, white/black body binding, mother-of-pearl APX & Yamaha headstock logos and position markers. This model comes in five amazing color variations.The APX500 also features a revamped version of the tried and true System55T. This is a 1-way piezo pickup system that comes with a 3-band EQ and built-in tuner.
Get 35% OFF
Click here for more information about Yamaha APX500 Acoustic Electric Guitar, Oriental Blue Burst
