Yamaha CJ12

The CJ12 is a basic starter jumbo guitar that looks pretty good. Laminated spruce top, agathis back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood frets, creme binding around entire guitar, pearl fret inlays, gold tuners, Gibson style mustache bridge and a Guild style tortoise pickguard. The violin or tobacco sunburst finish is also nice - the back and sides are basically black or a very dark brown. The entire guitar is light for a jumbo guitar - it gives the impression that this is a cheap plywood guitar - which it essentially is - but it looks much more expensive. Not making this guitar with a solid spruce top is a definite negative, but, then again, what do you expect for this price?

For a jumbo guitar, you don't get much bang or boom that you might expect. Mind you, the sound is nice and surprisingly better than you'd expect, but my Guild dreadnought blows this out of the water. Nice note articulation, each string also retains its unique sound...chords don't sound muffled...but it just lacks overall volume. Also, I have no idea what the heck agathis wood is...from the inside, it looks like simple wood you build houses with from Home Depot - no amber or rosy color - just plain white or tan wood...the tone is overall not a solid body guitar...but its decent.

Here is where it shines...the neck on this thing was too straight and the action was too low. It came to me with 80/20 lights and the saddle was way too low. I heightened it by using some sanded down matchsticks in order to raise the height a tad, put on phosphor bronze medium 13 guage strings, and loosened up the truss rod a tad - and now the action is awesome. The strings are still very close to the fretboard, but no buzz whatsoever. I bang away at hard strums and chords and this thing doesn't buzz...I've noticed this about Yamaha's - their necks are usually pretty straight. The neck itself is on the thinner side - smaller hands will be able to handle this jumbo guitar pretty well...it's also slightly smaller than a classic jumbo by perhaps 1/4 inch...I used to own a Guild JF55 and that thing was massive - this is like it's smaller cousin.

I bought this guitar as a thrash around guitar - something I could take outdoors and not get worried about if it got banged up...it will fulfill this purpose nicely. Because of its lightness, I don't know if it will hold up as well as my chunky Guilds...I imagine someone wanting to imitae Hendrix or Townsend can use this guitar as a burning stage sacrifice and then just bang the heck out of it on stage...it seems like it would crack or shatter easily...if mine does, it won't be the end of the world.

I recently had a problem with another Yamaha guitar and sent an email to them via their official website. One fo their folks called me the next day and told me where to take it to get serviced. He was very helpful. It felt like a small guitar company trying to help out a customer when in fact Yamaha is huge. I appreciated the help.

If you're looking at a CJ12 as your main guitar, you might be disappointed. But if your expectations are lower and you want a good starter guitar or a spare thrasher guitar, then this would be a fine choice. For me, I wanted a jumbo but I didn't want to pay a lot and it's nice to know I have a guitar I can let my kids play and not worry about them denting it...so my rating with high expectations is a 4, but with low expectations it's an 8.

I bought mine brand new at Emporio Musicale in Siena, Tuscany (I???m from Rome). The guitar has a laminated spruce top and agatis (a low cost alternative to maple) back and sides, rosewood fretboard and bridge, gold tuners and a dark sunburst finish.

I bought this guitar three years ago ???cause I wanted a jumbo acoustic and I was looking for the Epiphone Elite SJ200 (the expensive series, all solid woods, they make in Japan). I tried the Epi and it was great, with beautiful woods and its price was ??? 1500,00. I was buying it but I took a look at the acoustic guitars above me and I saw this Yamaha. I asked to try this guitar and they gave me it, I played it and it was so similar to the Epi but it costs only 365 ??? and I bought it, and I saved my money for the holidays.
I like very much the playability and the sound, with great basses and highs and a big sound, but not boomy.

Everything works great, for the ears, the hands and the eyes.

I have had this guitar for three years now, and I played it at home, with my band and live several times and everything is ok, and it looks like new.

I play guitar since I was 13 and now I am 31. I had several guitars, most electrics (fender strats, teles, gibson lespauls), and this is my second acoustic after a Fender, but I???ve played expensive Taylors. I bought a second hand (but it was like new) Yamaha DW7 12 strings two months ago for only 150 ??? and it is a great guitar. I bought two Fishman Matrix Natural II for the 2 Yamahas for live playing, and they sound like much more expensive guitars.
I give a 10 for these guitars because I think that any guitar builder can make a very good guitar for 2000 or 3000 bucks, but Yamaha does it for very little money, and it does it better than other cheap brands.
I play live with my band 3 or 4 times a month but I can???t make a living with that and I have a normal job. C???mon folks, let the expensive guitars and gear for rocks stars or rich men (but I would like to hear how good they play!!!). These brands, like Yamaha, build very good guitars for us all without sacrifice our pockets, and I think that the music and our ability are in our hands and minds. Thanx. Peace. www.myspace.com/nizni