Yamaha AES420

some features others have missed, upon removing the neck pickup on mine to have a look to see the wood (i toyed with a refinishing) i have discovered a LONG neck tenon. this extends well into the neck pickup cavity. nice! kind of dumb for Yamaha not to brag about this.
and the "cheap plastic nut" isn't!.. it is graphite type composite.

i play anything but mostly heavier stuff. i still need good cleans though. this is very versatile. my only complaint is i don't like hot pickups with ceramic magnets.
give me alnico v.
but the pickups are nice, just not my personal faves.

built flawlessly. awesome finish. in a good light it is spectacular.
ergonomic and well balanced.
fretwork is better than many Gibson's. totally smooth rosewood board.

solid as a rock. it feels like one piece. yet smooth as silk.
strap buttons are great, no need for strap locks. they are tight and have huge heads. there isn't a screw on this that is loose. it is built like a tank.
i wouldn't hesitate to use without a backup. a well taken care of guitar should not breakdown, no, i don't break strings.

The big feature here is the bang for the buck. Set mahogany neck, good pickups, and drop dead gorgeous build quality. Numbers on the knobs would be nice, 4 knobs would be nice. Quibbles.

Unplugged, or amplified cleah or with lots of gain, it's pretty darned good. Extremely quiet. The internal shielding is well done. I would prefer a brighter bridge pickup but again, quibbles.

When it arrived, it had rusty strings and not a sign of fret wear. Did this thing ever even get played? I think the seller was just cleaning out unsold inventory.

The setup was crap. The action was high and it neded some polish and tweaking. Intonation was awful. I adjusted the truss rod and played with the bridge and not it's down to 1/8" with no buzzing. Intonation is fine. I do think a little more work could get it even lower.

All that said, the build quality was super. There was not a flaw on this guitar anywhere.

Solid as can be, this baby won't let you down.

Doubt you'll need it!

I've taken up playing after a long "break". This guitar came from e-bay, pretty much stole it for $125. OK, I had to set it up, that's kind of fun to do anyways so no problem. For the money, even twice the money, this is a great guitar. I don't know how Yamaha does it.

Tuners are great. Stays in tune very well. I love the unusual bridge. The sculpted body sides make it very comfortable to play. Neck is fast. Very playable. Only possible wish would be for separate volume/tone controls for each pickup. But for me this is pretty minor. I have this on other guitars and rarely use them. The set neck provides nice sustain.

Great LP type sound, with a little more edge. Great for metal work. I play hard rock and blues. It does both very well.

I cannot evaluate that factory set-up. I bought it used. Frets are great. Quality is better than expected for an instrument of this price range. Very well made. I would like to see some great wood showing through the finish, but at this price, the standard black will do very nicely. The finish is holding up quite well.

Very sturdy construction. I would gig with it without a second thought. Quite solid. I would never gig without a backup, but I think this is a guitar you could depend on.

I've never used customer support for this instrument. Past dealings with Yamaha were good.

Overall, an excellent value for the money. If it were stolen, I would sure find another.

This red metallic AES 420 is made in Korea and has a mahogany body and neck (setneck).
The guitar is equiped with 2 very powerfull sounding ceramic Yamaha humbuckers and has a so called "wrap around" bridge.
The AES 420 has a 3 way selector and 2 modern styled controls for volume and tone.
The fingerboard is rosewood and the guitar has a setneck.
The body has a (modern styled) LP shape and is very well build.
Everything looks solid and reliable on this guitar.

The band I'm playing in mainly plays classic rock ( Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple etc.) and electric blues (Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck etc) and the AES 420 handles all mentioned styles very well.
The sound of the Yamaha humbuckers is warm and intens playing clean and very solid playing with distortion.
The pu's are extremely quiet.
This is a very well sounding and well build quality instrument.

The factory set up was, compared to other guitars I bought, ok but still a little bit to high for my likings.
The pick ups were adjusted nicely and the overall impression is that this is a very well build guitar!

This guitar is build like a tank and will withstand live playing without any doubt. This is a very dependable guitar and, alltough I allways use a backup, I'm convinced you can use this axe without a back up.
Everything on this guitar looks solid an very well manufactured.

I never needed Yamaha company support till so far.

Next to this axe I own a Fender US Player strat with Texas Special pick ups, a London City Spitfire Mark 2 strat, a Samick Pro Artist Series and a Peavey 78 Generation tele.
I'm playing in a rock band for more then 30 years and I can say that this axe is, without any doubt, one of the best guitars I've ever owned.

Poly finish in Metallic red, single cut like a curvatious Les Paul.Solid Mahogany body.Set in neck (C profile chunky).Rosewood board with 22 frets.Gibson scale length (24 3/4")Beautiful,if a little slippery chrome 1xVolume,1xtone,1x3 way (also chrome).Yamaha stock tuners (3 per side).2xYamaha ceramic buckers (non covered) Recessed, angled jack socket. 3 strap buttons (1 front 2 rear)Wraparound intonatable bridge.Came with limited candy, rubbish lead, allen keys. No case but it just squeezes in an LP hard case. Body is contoured and rounded at the edges almost SG like. This guitar is quite heavy as you would expect. The finish didnt look that special on Ebay but, when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised with the red as it has an almost gun metal type effect showing through under certain lights, really nice.Im glad they didnt attempt to make the faux binding look to much like the real thing as the painted silver binding effect looks really cool. Abalone dot markers.
Distinctive and atractive guitar this one.
Made in Korea 2006

At first the sound was nothing special and I thought the stock ceramics would have to be replaced.However after lowering the pickup height as was able to acheive a really good sound through my LC30. Clean, the sound is bright and punchy on the bridge pickup although maybe a bit too bright so rolling of the tone a little is advisable and for my settings I had to also roll the volume down to 7 which gives some nice headroom. Changing to N/B gives a nice almost Tele type quack which was quite surprising, think a nice reggae type Les paul middle tone. These ceramics are not harsh like some Ive tried. Neck pickup is a little unfocussed and muddy on clean. Kicking in some overdrive really brings this beast to life. With my gain on 12 oclock, master on 2, this thing rocks big time. Bridge is cutting bit not icepick. Pinch harmonics are easily acheived. My rendition of black orchid sounds first rate. Harmonics are clear and bags of artifitial harmonics are easily gained. The output of these pickups is quite high and Im glad I lowered them to avoid wolftones. Middle position is very respectable although not as good as bridge alone. Thick and raunch for leads. And powerful for power chords. Neck posion is woman tone country. Singing and sweet.
I am so surprised by these stock pickups. Yamaha need to be congratulated for them. Compared to other low end guitars (as this is) such as Epiphone pauls,PRS SE and such, these are clearly superior.Not the tone of the schaller golden 50s in my Heritage but close.
This guitar had great sustain.
The sound is aimed at Metallers I think but, does a good job on Zep,ZZ top and other more classic styles. Loses a mark for having to adjust the pickups.
Havnt gigged it yet but, cant wait.

Firstly, I would have to say on first appearances this guitar seeded extreamly well made. So solidly buit (as you would expect from Yamaha) The lack of a flamed maple top or real binding was not an issue for me as I bought this as a beater to protect my beloved Heritage H170 (stunner)Action out of the box was a little high but, I tweaked the truss rod to introduce a little relief and lowered the bridge. This process takes a little time as the neck has to settle down and I find I have had to do it on all my guitars. I think the set up takes a while to bed in and requires periodic tweeking to find the right ballance (this is part of the fun)I am a little anal about my setups and try and get the action as low as possible. Strings that came with it were rubbish D'adario ones (you can tell by the coloured ball ends) They were 9s and seamed really rubber band like. Changed them for some Ernie ball 9s and the string tension felt dramaticly better (strange as they are still 9s) Some may argue 9s are too light to get a good tone, this may be true for some (I have not found this) but, boy are they fast. This thing plays like stink now.
No buzz. Neck is a little bassball batty at first. Very much doubt this is a 60s slim taper as the one on my heritage definately is and that is noticably shallower than this.I like it though. Feals like a slightly thinner Les Paul 50s profile.
No high frets (jumbo frets)The nut is the real weak point of this as it is one of those black plasic things that theylike putting on offshore cheapies. WHY WHY WHY !!!. This spoils the whole thing.How much would a tusq nut cost these people!! The nut slots are not deep enough for 10s so 9s it has to be.This thing is going.
Knobs are solid and smooth. 3 way is a little stiff and pops when you change.The wraparound is very good an allows for good intonation via 2 sliding saddles with allen screws and an overall adjustment via two more screws at the bridge posts. Much better than the Wilkinson type.Tuners are smooth and stay in tune well. They are Grover mini roto knock offs but, still very good (as is all yammy furniture) Finsh has a few flaws on close inspectoin but. Only very slight and could have occured at the retailers end orin transit. Certainly no worse than any other brand. VERY solid feel to this guitar.No lose screws.Lovely board to play. Just a pity it has to losse 2 marks for the action and THAT NUT.

VERY VERY solid. Think this will stand up to gigging. Heavy and well made. The electrics seem good with no crackled and the 3 way has already taken some hefty punishment.

Not sure. Not had to contact them but, the website seams quite comprehensive.

What a lot of guitar for the money. A few relatively minor gripes and 1 quite big one (THAT NUT) which applies to almost all manufacturers.Please spend a little time getting this right as this is one of the points of contact where the sound is produced. They wouldnt sell us a car with bald tyres so why skimp on bad nuts for guitars?????
I really think this guitar deserves an award for budget models. Ive not played anything as good in this price range. Or some of the more expensive ones for that matter.The sound is VERY Paul like, yet, distinctive thanks to those wonderful Ceramics (did I say that as an Alnico lover)Playability is very good after a set up which, it seems to be holding very well after 3 months.Love the fingerboard. Wish it had two volume knobs (and some wasy of reading the settings)
This is gonna become a sought after guitar in a few years despite being made in Korea.Please dont discontinue it just yet Yamaha.
Love and light people

Set Mahogany Neck(FAT), Mahogany Body,Rosewood Finger Board, 22 frets, 2 humbuckers, 3 way toggle sw., 1 volume & 1 tone, wrap around bridge,Red Metalflake. Very Solid Guitar.

Playing unplugged it has a clear/full sound,real nice. Playing it thru my Pandora PX4D with headphone's its very very good for the price I paid. The only thing I'll likely change for now is the Neck P.U. as it's to muddy for me, Thinking of a S.D. SH-2. The Bridge P.U.is a little thin, Might go with a SH-4.

I bought this guitar as a close out from Sam Ash,(thur the Mail) The First thing I notice was the Neck was grungy, bought some Dunlop 01 & 02 (great stuff) cleaned up'd nice. Plugged in and the master volume was either on or off, I replaced with CTS 500K pot. I Lowered
the action and raised the P.U.'s. The intonation was set,& The fit and finsh is really good

It's built like a tank

Never contacted them for any of my yamaha Equip.

This guitar was a cheap buy, but I couldn't be more pleased. The only thing I don't like is the wrap around bridge,I don't know if there's a way of changing it out. The Neck is fat took me about a week of playing to get use to it. Really this guitar looks butt ugly to me, But I like it, and I like it more & more,the more I play it.

Black with rosewood neck, two humbuckers, no case. Single tone and volume control

Sounds incredibaly soft for a LP type guitar. Dead quiet. Sounds great with distortion, especially Marshall-type. Sounds great clean. Does not sound harsh and I still can't make it! Sounds a little mushy, pups are not the strongest in the world, could be a little more articulate, but overall, very pleasing through Marsall, JC-120, and blacface amps to me.

A little fret buzz, but incredible action. I did not bother dialing it out, becuase the action on the is lower than on my Taylor! No, it is not perfect, but intonation was fine from the factory. No blems in the finish. Frets not as high as other guitars.

I would hesitate to gig with this axe and leave the PRS at home.

Only had it a year, but no problems.

For $300, it was a steal. I own several tube amps, but also use a solid state Roland as well. I would like to have been offerd a case when I bought it, the the sales punk did not know which one would fit. It ain't no Les Paul, but it sounds exceptional for a guitar in this price range and the quality is inpecable (good).

this is a setneck mahogany guitar, les paul style 22 frets, rosewood fingerboard, Yamaha warp-around bridge

I have always loved les pauls and when I bought this guitar, I understood that this is the sound and guitar I need and love... I' m using my guitar with behringer gdi21, ts9 and it sounds very smooth, I play rock and metal, and I gain very well sound for voth styles...

there are some workmanship flaws on fingerboard and body, but they aren' t important things, it only seems when you look very carefully, no problem I think...frets are very vell made, I couldn' t see any flaws about it...hardware seems that it was made of quality and the pickups are better than I thought before

I played tis guitar 3 days ago in a concert and I loved it more and more... it has wonderful view and playability, I will always depend on this guitar, it' s a very solid one

I have been playing electric guitar for 2 years, I owned two guitars before, but when I buy and play this one, this is better than them for 3-4 times...if it were stolen, I will die...really, because I bought it for only 180 euros(I bought it on internet, and they wrote wrong price at first, they corretcted it after 3-4 days I bought it :),because the real price here is about 450 euros )I choose it because it is setneck and mahogany, I can't find anything better than tih one... I will use it forever, this is my favourite, maybe I' ll change the pickups with Seymour Duncan' s later, but now it' s enough for the style I play in my group...Don' t think, buy it...

Black 2006 model.
Features are mentioned in the earlier review.
I would welcome seperate volume and tone controls for each pick up.

My music styles are rock and blues. It perfectly brings all sounds I need.
I am using a Marshall 1987, a Peavey MX VX and a Fender Hot Rod Deville.
My effect chain consists of a Dunlop Wah Wah, a T-Rex Dr. Swamp, an old Yamaha Chorus and a Danelectro Delay. With all three Amps this guitar sounds good. It is not noisy at all (humbuckers!). The sound of the neck pick up is full and rich. The sound brightens switching to the combination of neck and bridge pickup. The bridge pickup has a good package of treble and punch. Compared to Gibson Les Pauls (!) it has more clarity. The virtual single coil function makes it even more flexible and adds brightness to the neck pickup.
The sustain of this guitar is excellent.

I could not find any flaws. First I was concerned whether I could get a good intonation with the stacked wrap-around-bridge. It finally works very good. The factory set up was o.k. I change the set up of all guitars anyhow, because I prefer a rather high action.
Good fret job. Neck perfectly adjusted. No problems with the cheap looking plastic nut. Maybe this is the first part I will replace.

This guitar will definitely withstand live playing.
I will depend on it although I never gig without a backup.

I am playing in bands for 35 years now. I own an old Framus solid body from 1970, a Gibson SG Standard from 1976, a Yamaha SC 1200 from 1981, a Yamaha RGX TT, a Fender Stratocaster American Series, a Hoefner Shorty and several acoustic guitars.
I was out to buy a Gibson Les Paul as I had in mind to use Paula sounds in some songs of my blues band. After testing about 20 Paulas (Standards, Studios, Classics and Melody Makers) and not finding a decent sound (on a Marshall Plexi!) a grabbed by accident the Yamaha AES420 and had immediatelly what I was looking for.
I could not believe the price. In contradiction to other users I am happy with the Yamaha Premium pickups. Meanwhile I am so tired of the Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickup used on the more expensive AES models. I do not use much gain. Maybe this is the reason.

2004 Yahaha Black AES420
A solid Mahogany body and set Mahogany neck with a Rosewood 22 fret fingerboard. Electronics consist of a pair of premium Yamaha humbucker pickups, a 3-way toggle pickup selector, master volume and tone controls. The guitar also features dot inlays, die cast tuners, new adjustable wrap around tailpiece.

I've played vintage rock/blues for about 20 years and use nothing but vintage TUBE amps. I find that this guitar is perfect for my style and is exceptional for harder edge rock tunes (humbuckers what can I say).
I did play the AES620 in the shop when testing this axe and found the differences so sutle that the price difference was not justified.
Although the 620 does come in a beautiful faded sunburst, has Seymor Duncan pickups and through body stringed tailpeice, these options soon became irrevelant.
I wanted black and had every intention of putting a bigsby on it (which I did) - I do like a bit of tremelo every once in awhile. And to tell the truth, I actually liked the warmth to the original Yahamha humbuckers. I tested in the store on a Peavey valve 50 (which I have) and found the Duncans on the 620 too harsh for my liking.

I did some tweaking to both string and pickup height (I always do, I hate generic) but found the original perfectly playable. I like the neck pickup at about 1/4" and the bridge at 1/8" as I find the difference in sound between the 2 quite differential. As for action, I've always liked @ 1/16" which was half of what it was set at.
This did created 2 fret buzzes (both past 12th fret) which did completely disappear after @ 20 hours of playing (fret wear).
Although some will say the neck is a bit chunky (thicker & wider), it's a Yahmaha, that's the way they are. I really don't mind and appreciate it when playing vintage raw rock (I use a Strat for the blues)
The craftmanship on this baby is astounding. Absolutely not a single flaw on it. The control knobs are inlayed and the cord plugin is angled and closer towards the strap end (really appreciated when sitting down). They way Yamaha has tapered the edges of the top is really unique.

Never had a single problem so far, but as I've only had it for a year I don't think my opinion qualifies.
I do own a Yamaha jumbo acoustic thats 30 years old and been through the wringer more than once and has only actually improved with age (or maybe I did).

Never had to but legend has it Yamaha's one of the best when it comes to customer service.

For a beautifully crafted single cut away guitar that's got the longevity of a Sherman tank and sounds alot like a 70's Les Paul at 1/3 the price this is definitely the best guitar I own.