Yamaha AES 620

Nato(mahogany substitute,not bad stuff)body & neck,should have had a coil tap,fire breathing seymour duncan jb sh4 in bridge &generic (but sweet) daewon in neck,in fact I like the neck pick-up better,have taken it out & it is well constructed ,also uses a brass back plate,whereas the pricier duncan uses steel!

Very resonant unplugged,the jb is quite ferocious,a little trebley for my taste but a Quality pick-up ,the neck pup is good,dont dismiss because it has no name, would have got ten but poor pots,crackly,though I still aint replaced mine ,I like to get my moneys worth.

Perfectly intoned,good finish...not 100% but what can you expect from a ??360.00 geetar? Grover tuners do the job,slight sticking at nut,not an issue

Solid,solid ,solid...like a crosss between a tele & a paul

Aint needed,wont ever be,anything that goes wrong could be fixed by oneself

Good solid guitar,looks expensive ,sounds class,highly recommended,pity these aint in production any more,ill keep mine forever

All Mahogany, maple fretboard. Single cutaway. 2x HB PUPs (Duncan JB in the bridge; Yamaha Alnico in the neck). 3-way toggle switch, 2 volumes and 1 master tone knob. String-through body. Grover tuners. There's a lot to like here.

Positives: The Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge / mahogany body / neck / string through design.

Negatives: I think the neck PUP, as said earlier, can get a tiny bit muddy (but's not bad either - and it sounds great using both PUPs at the same time). Also - this might just be personal preference...but I started on tele / strat designs - the 2-volume thing on this guitar is hard to get used to and I don't like it. I'm going to get mine modded for just one volume.

Overall the guitar has great features though. I personally like the angled input for the cable. Also it just feels great - good balance, nice fretboard etc - beefy but not too heavy. Striking, playable. And the appearance really is something else. This is a $1,500 guitar by appearance.

There's a lot to like about the sound. Rich, versatile, warm, with plenty of bite, and OODLES of sustain. I feel like Nigel with this guitar... "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

Even before plugging it in, it just sings. Gigged with it last week. Everyone was blown away by the look and the tone.

My style is eclectic - some bluesy, some folksy, some country, some funky, jam band, etc. etc. I use this guitar for all of it. Real versatile. But I'd use my strat for all of it, too... but anyway it sounds great.

My rig: Ibanez Wah --> Digitech Compressor --> Barber Small Fry Burn Unit --> Tube Screamer --> EHX Q-Tron --> Zoom A2 --> Fender Blues Jr.

The AES plays well with all the pedals. No noise, great tone... It especially loves the Barber Small Fry overdrive. Sounds fantastic.

Anyway - The sound seems real versatile to me. Goes from dark and low to screaming. Responsive to the tone knob. More so than other similar guitars with double humbuckers like this.

I think sound is this guitar's best feature. Just buttery tone and sustain. Gotta hear it.

I got it set up at the store when I got it. No flaws that I can tell. We had to set the action a bit high to avoid buzz, but not too bad.

So action is OK


Feels great - just sits on your body perfectly.


Finish is beautiful. This is an astonishing guitar in appearance.

Too new (less than 6 months) for me to comment on reliability.

Seems solid, though, and all my other Yamaha guitars have been real solid. My favorite guitar maker. I would take this guitar over tons of high end Gibson / Fender types. Honestly, I think Yamaha guitars have been the best kept secret.

I don't think I'd ever gig w/out a backup electric guitar. No matter what.

Been playing over 15 years. I've tried and owned lots of different guitars, and always come back to Yamaha. And this is my favorite guitar I've ever had by far. Great feel, AMAZING sound and look.

Desert island, one guitar...I would take this before a big expensive, overheavy, not as cool looking or as good sounding Les Paul. No joke. And it was really cheap.

Picked this up from relative who had it for about 3 years and took it out of the hard case about 3 times from what I can make out, it's still got all the protective tape on the rear plastic cavity covers; there isn???t a mark on it!!! ??170 for guitar, Spider 6 practice amp, strap, 2 leads, set of strings, tuner, and NY USA big muff!!!!

Read the previous reviews with interest so following is brief thoughts so far.

AS FAR AS I CAN MAKE OUT THIS ISN'T A FLAMED MAPLE TOP AND MOHOGANY BACK. ITS A SLAB OF WHAT I ASSUME IS MOHOGANY WITH A DARK STAIN/LIGHT STAIN TO MAKI IT LOOK LIKE IT'S A TWO PIECE, AWSOME JOB, THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN TELL IS FOLLOW THE GRAIN FROM THE 'TOP' AND SEE THAT IT SIMPLEY FOLLOWS INTO THE DARK 'BACK' - HENCE ITS ONE PIECE!! AS FOR THE BOOK MATCH - IT LOOKS PRINTED TO ME!!!

But if I'm right what a job they have done, it's worth the money just for the engineering that???s gone into fooling us all!!!!

As for the pickup I'm just getting started on it so I think the neck is a bit 'muddy' and the bridge is fantastic, then again I'm playing it through a Vox Valvtronics AVT 120 which has all the patches set-up for different songs and a combination of Tele or PRS; so I need to do some work in to get the best out of it. One thing though, this is the first twin volume guitar I have ever had - man my solo's just punched through the rest of the band at last weeks rehearsal - I blew them away.

No probs, but I'm spoiled with Eggle, PRS and Tele so does it feel quite as good - no but if its a value for money answer then - fantastic and worth a ??30 set-up at the local pro shop.

Don't know, so scored 5, its in the middle!

Don't know, so scored 5, its in the middle!

I love it, it helped that I only went to the brother in laws to say hello to the family after Christmas and my nephew said 'know anybody who wants to buy a guitar?' - second Christmas for me, should have seen the wife???s face when I came down with all the gear!!!!

One can find the specs for this guitar on the Yamaha page. The features I bought it for are the set neck, Grover tuners, Seymour Duncan JB (I can't believe it!!!) Bridge pickup, separate neck/bridge pickup volume knobs.

The only reason I didn't give it a 10 was because of the bad placement/quality of the cable jack. When gigging, one does not always want to have to bring a guitar stand especially when lugging around a half stack and a pedal board.

I like to play hard rock and metal and don't use anything but the distortion generated by the tubes in the amp. I use a wah and a pickup booster on the effects loop for solo volume boost, but thats it. I also prefer the natural, "bottom-heavy" sound of heavier guitars like Les Pauls; I've never really liked Ibanez, BC Rich, or Jacksons because of this.

For this reason, the Duncan JB on Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard and maple top, produce a very balanced tone, which can be difficult with a Duncan JB, which produces a lot of very high end.

I'm still deciding whether or not I like the tone better than my ESP Eclipse Standard with Duncan Custom 5, which sounds great, but the yamaha actually has better sustain and cuts through a bit more without losing that thick bottom end that I love. The pickup certainly makes the most difference here, but considering the price of this guitar, this goes right into its score.

I bought this guitar used, but it still has all of the original parts, as I confirmed on the yamaha web page, so I can really comment on is the non adjustable parts. The neck, being made of mahogany, is almost perfectly straight, there is very little bowing at all. Since I put very thick strings on it to tune it down to C standard, I prefer a stiff neck that won't bend easy because this tuning with the gauge of strings I get seems to actually put less tension on the neck than standard gauge and tuning. Usually this means I have to make considerable adjustments to the truss rod, tuners (some tuners won't accommodate .56 strings) bridge, nut, and of course intonation. This guitar required very little adjustment, only a bit of the bridge for action and intonation. I would have to say that Yamaha had already prepared this guitar for down tuning, because I didn't have to refile the bridge or the nut or drill the tuner. Most low cost guitars that I've seen have notches carved into the nut where the string rests. This nut actually had gradually rounded indentations which is quite nice.

This is great for any guitar, but it was absolutely wonderful for such a low cost guitar.

I haven't had it long enough to really tell, but all of the hardware looks very solid. The cable jack is in a place where it is likely to get damaged without the use of a guitar stand (directly at the butt end of the body, right where one would set any normal shaped guitar down).

I don't gig any guitars without backups because I break strings somewhat quickly (very acidic hand oils). The chrome hardware on this Yamaha also fares better against rust than black hardware. I would definitely trust this guitar right next to my ESP Eclipse Standard which cost me exactly 10 times as much as this yamaha. For every other reason, yes I would gig this with no backup.

I have actually never had to deal with any guitar company's customer support because if a guitar is crappy enough for me to have to send it back to the manufacturer, I'll just get rid of it, which I've had to do for a BC Rich and an Epiphone.

I've been a dedicated player for 8 years or so. I've had lots of other gear of all kinds. So far I haven't liked anything as much as this Yamaha and my ESP Eclipse Standard because they both have tremendous sustain (heavy wood and a set neck), low end responsiveness, the pickups I want, a beautiful finish, a shape that fits into a small case and is comfortable playing while sitting.

As a beginner, it took a long time for to figure out that good pickups make the nearly all the difference for getting the clarity and attack out of a high gain amp without using a modeler or distortion pedal. I decided years ago that guitar modelers were not for me and went on the pickup quest, and decided that any well balanced, high output, passive pickup was what I wanted. If I could have gotten a guitar that was made as well as this one with such a nice pickup for this price, I would have saved a lot of money.

This is a truly excellent guitar regardless of its cost, and for the money you can't beat its construction and hardware.

It is a beautiful guitar with quilted flamed maple top. I have got the Dark Transulent Red color with superb high gloss finish. It is a single cut away Les Paul style guitar but it is not carved top rather it is flat. It has a Tune-O-Matic bridge which excellent new design which has made it very attactive and comfortable. The old sharped edged saddles have been replaced with arched type smooth round ones which has tremendously improved the overall look and playablilty of this beautiful guitar. It is a String-thru body with again a brillant new designed Stop tailpiece. Tuners are from Grover and neck shape is medium fat with medium size highly finished frets. It is made in 2007 in Korea. It has a solid maple top not a liminated one. It has got one Seymour Duncan JB pick up at bridge and one alinco Yamaha made pickup at fret board. The neck is medium fat with C profile specification. The fret board is rosewood made with A class wood used. I am not giving it 10 marks because of the non availability of coil tap switch for pickups.

It is a bright sounding guitar with lot of crispy tones. I guess it is due to the maple top which tends to make it sound more bright. The overall sound is very well balanced with rich and full sound. This guitar suits all my musical styles requirements very nicely like hard rock, Blues, Pop and country. I use Yamaha G50 112 III and Fender FM 212R, Yamaha JX50 amps and it sounds brillant in all repects. I found this guitar handles both clean and overdrive sounds superbly. It is a very quiet guitar and does not makes hiss sound at loud volumes. I rahter did not like the medium fat neck and I wish it would have a slim tapered fast neck. I like about it is the high quality of finsh, unique guitar design, comfortable feel and overall great sound quality.

I found the action of this guitar excellent. It is a real pleasure to play this guitar so smooth and comfortable. The factory set up is just perfect. The pickups are very well adjusted at factory and I have not need to readjust them so far. The bridge is properly routed and I have not noticed any flaw in this guitar. I found the overall action, fit and finish of this guitar in the rank of A class.

Of course I always trust Yamaha products as far as reliability and durability is concerned. It is evident from this fact that I have been using Yamaha guitars and amps for the last 27 years and these never let me down.

Yamaha people are great. They are simply out class, so kind and cooperative. I have dealt with them twice and they are so helpful that you can't imagine. You see I live in Pakistan and we have no proper shop for Yamaha guitars here. So last year I contacted Yamaha On-Line support and told them that I need to purchase this guitar and within a week they told me that they have arranged a dealer who would supply the guitar. Now I am proud to own this incredible guitar because of the tremendous support from Yamaha.

I have been playing for the last 27 years. I know how a good guitar should sound. If this guitar is stolen I would definitely buy it again. I love about it is the super high gloss finish, excellent hard ware design, bright sound. My favorite feature is the two straps buttons provided at the bottom side of guitar for quick strap length changing. I choose this one because it is a Yamaha guitar and secondly due to it amazing overall beauty and sound. I wish it had a coil tap switch for pickups for more versatile tonal range.

It?s lighter than a Les Paul, it has the same sound (almost at least) Great looks, great design. Yamaha has took the classic design of a Les Paul and made it to something of their own.

Mahogany body with flamed maple top. Kind of tiger striped. Set neck.

Made in 2005.

Pickups H/H. A SD Jeff Beck in the bridge position and a stock Yamaha in the neck. They don?t impresse me. I always change PU?s. At the price of this guitar you can afford to buy a better set of PU?s.

I play old school metal. Judas Priest-ish.. My main guitar is a Gibson Les Paul and i was looking for a backup and didn?t like the quality of the Epiphone-replicas. I think this one is gonna cut it..

I use a modified Marshall 2003.

Unplugged the guitar has a very bright sound. I was afraid at first that it was gonna sound too thin when amplified. I was wrong..

It has the same acoustic edge as a Les Paul. The stock PU?s are not to my liking. A SD Jeff Beck in the bridge and a stock Yamaha in the neck position. Both are being replaced with my favorite PU?s, Gibson Classic ?57 Plus. But the acoustic sound tells me it will sound great after the PU change.

The neck is a bit "chunky" but after a while it feels so great. Effects the sound in a very positive way.

Great finish. Feels/looks lke a much more expensive guitar

Action really low, balanced. A wee bit of string buzz, but the i?ll fix that. Intonation great. Nothing to complain on.

The top is great looking. It looks a million bucks...

Everything about this guitar breathe quality. As a said i wanted a backup for my Gibson Les Paul and it seems this one is gonna be my main axe from now on..

Haven?t had any contact yet. No comments..

I?ve been playing for more than 25 years. I have the money to by any guitar, but i think the new Gibson Les Pauls are overpriced. Have always been looking for a reasonable pricy guitar. I just found it.

If you don?t have the money to buy the real thing, or even if you do, check this out.. The new Epiphone Les Paul do NOT have a Mahogany body and it does effect the sound. This guitar great value for the bucks..