Yamaha FG820 Solid Top Acoustic Guitar, Natural, Dreadnought

I couldn't be happier with my new FG820 guitar. I'm not an accomplished player-- sort of an intermediate-- but I know my way around acoustic guitars a bit. I'm not wealthy and it would be silly to consider a $2,000 guitar, and besides I'm admittedly not such a serious player. I play for the enjoyment, and in hopes of getting better and better. This guitar is exactly right for someone like me. It just arrived, and I inspected it, wiped it down, tuned it, and played it. There are two very minor blemishes in the finish that aren't at all critical; one is a slight wave in the lacquer finish on the top, the other is a tiny dent. The action right out of the box is excellent. No string buzz or any other troubles with the factory setup, but very easy to apply bar chords to, and a nice light touch with the rather light strings. "But what about the sound?", you ask. Very bright, capable of real loudness, beautiful sustain and projection, very balanced throughout the frequency range-- as everyone has already said. For $300, my goodness! This does not sound like an inexpensive guitar. Being mostly mahogany, the guitar is surprisingly light in weight, but I'm accustomed to heavier woods like rosewood and I know it's no reflection on quality. The mahogany back and sides, though laminate, are just gorgeous, and the neck is a very comfortable size and cross section, finished in a matte treatment for good grip. I love the ivory-colored binding and mother-of-pearl Yamaha emblem on the headstock. If you're like me and aren't a professional musician, but appreciate great value and craftsmanship in a beautiful acoustic guitar, I highly recommend this Yamaha FG820. It would be a great starter guitar or for refining your skills, since its playability is so good. For a bit over $300. Amazing.

Just got my FS820 yesterday at about 3pm. It was pretty cold so I let it warm up before tuning it. Since it came with 12s (and I usually play 11s) I tuned it flat. No problems with that. Played it for a little bit looking for the places of fret buzz and could not find any. The neck and frets are a good match for my hand and the frets are not sharp and this guitar is just straight out of the box. The strings are not to my liking but I played for over an hour last night and enjoyed the sound quite a bit. It has a nice tone and every part of the sound (highs, mids, lows) were to my liking. This is the FS so it is like a OOO and has the Autumn Burst color which is pretty nice. Although I could tell that the sides are laminate, the top is solid spruce and it sounds really good for an inexpensive guitar. On one song I was playing, "The Garden Song" it actually sounded better than my Martin JC15E. This is a nice guitar and worth the cost, it is an excellent guitar for beginners and for a travel guitar. I recommend it for anyone that wants a nice looking, sounding and playing guitar that they can keep in the living room and not be too worried about someone bumping into it. A home-run for Yamaha, and it is made in China - which is kind of mind blowing. Okay, a little later the next day I noticed that there were stress marks in the varnish below the bridge, there is no bow and no bulge and the stress marks line up to where they are not annoying so I am going to keep the guitar at this point.

As others have said, this is an amazing guitar for the price. I got the FG-820 (mahogany laminate b&s). Its well put together, the QC seems good. I've had it only 2 weeks though. I lowered the action a bit and added a bone saddle. It still sounded great before that, and I haven't tested enough to see if it sound better with the bone or original saddle yet. The tone is very nice, notes are clear, volume is good, great balance for a big-size guitar. One gripe, the guitar came shipped in a small cardboard box wrapped only in a bit of plastic wrap, ie hardly any padding. But I guess it was sufficient because the guitar came in excellent condition. I wanted a beater guitar to take camping, the beach, maybe travel, play it around my mischevious toddler, let her strum/abuse it a little. At $260, its great for that. But now I don't want to abuse it, as it is a nice guitar and doesn't deserve that abuse! I have a Taylor 314ce. Its 4x the price. But the tone of that Taylor is only about 10% better (due to its richness). Also this 820 has somewhat better volume and bass. The Taylor is obviously a higher quality guitar but I'm seriously considering getting rid of it just to make more space for a rosewood body guitar. For my needs the tone of the 820 is "good enough" to replace that particular Taylor. I'm very glad I bought this guitar. Its a good guitar that I can take anywhere and gives me flexibility and convenience because its not a "precious" guitar like Martin, Taylor, etc. Also these Yamaha FG guitars are closer in sound to a Taylor than to a Martin. I did end up returning it though, but because it has a 1-11/16" nut, while I decided I needed 1.75" as my other 2-3 guitars were 1.75" and wanted switching between them to be completely seamless.

Can't go wrong with a Yamaha, and this FS850 is a beautiful edition to the F line. I also have an FG820 I alternate play with (the FG820 is the one I got on Amazon Warehouse with a tiny scratch for $100 less - great deal). I am slightly larger than average, with med-large hands (5 11). I can play either guitar easily. If I'm in my study, I play the FG - its is a bit louder and slightly easier to finger pick, and also has more mid range; its good to play in my office chair. I replaced the bridge and pins on the FG with bone (on AMZ for under $15), and it brightened the sound a bit. I also sanded the bone bridge down a little more to lower the "action" (how far you need to press down on the string to make a note). I liked it so much I picked up the FS850. The FS850 is easier to reach over to strum when on the couch, looks great, and has a warm sound which I would say is smoother and more mellow - it doesn't have the pronounced twang the FG820 can have when doing individual notes; the all mahogany body cuts the edges. I love the finish on the FS850, and must say it FS looks much better than my blue FG. The FG might be easier for a beginner to isolate notes and finger positioning, although smaller hands would like the FS. Both are great and a bargain for the price, but the 820 (or even 800 I imagine) is fine if you are on a budget...

Obviously not the best sounding guitar I have tried, but it was a good backup guitar. It would have been a great beginner guitar. Sound is loud, though the neck was too sticky due to coating for me to move my hands around freely.

I am no way an expert on playing guitar but I have guitars from the past that are not really good, they hurt my fingers, sound awful, always out of tune so I ended not playing. Now that I can afford a better one, I decided to buy a yamaha based on youtube reviews. I believe I got this black version for $190 used like new. Right at the first time of tuning it, I immediately realized how bad my previous guitars were. Then I have a friend one time who came ro our house and played my guitar. He couldn’t believe how much I paid for it that he have look in amazon for himself. I told him I changed the bridge pins to brass and the sadle to a real bone which I also got from amazon. He said it sounds better than his martin.

Excellent guitar! Sounds great and stays in tune.

I'm very disapointed with this purchase, very expensive y low quality materials, especial the strings. do you think you are doing us a favor to the customers, no way, every body is paying money, I thought because Yamaha is a good brand and has a good reputation is a very good product, I was wrong, the first time that I was tuning the string broke two of them, that is a swindle, you have to be honest, and do you want money ok, then sell quality products, I demand You replace the string with good quality ones and spare parts, and please do not send trash, so far I'm using DAddario 80/20 BRONZE EJ12 - .013 - 056, may be there are a better one, another thing the grooves of the bones there has not enought deep to hold the strings, conclusión, very quality product and I'm very unhappy.

I bought this beautiful guitar originally as an art piece for my wall. The colour is absolutely gorgeous!! I also play it every day. It sounds wonderful for the price!!

I just like it . Value for the money is reasonable . beginners or professionals alike will surely like it. Intonation stays long and hopefully stays as it is just as long as it is being taken care of . From action comes playability which any guitar player will enjoy .

I like the sunburst colour, it goes well in my living room

This is a great guitar, especially at this price. I love the bass string especially. If you are in the market for a guitar, don't miss this one.

This is great for the price. Looks very nice and has a big sound for a small guitar. I've played much more expensive guitars that don't sound half as good as this one. Definitely worth the money.