Yamaha AES620HB

Korean made. Semi-hollow version of the award-winning AES620. Mahogany body (hollowed-out single piece), mahogony set neck (I can't see any join near the headstock), standard scale, 22 fairly wide frets in a nice rosewood board with abalone dot inlays, bookmatched flamed maple top, solid not laminated, about 6mm (1/4")thick, art-deco-ish single "f" hole. Twin humbuckers, bridge by Seymour Duncan and neck by Yamaha. Volume knob for each p/u, one overall tone control, nice metal knobs. Two strap buttons for quick and easy height adjustment. Jack socket is angled upward to facilitate passing cable behind strap, a nice touch. Tunamatic-style bridge. Staggered through-body string anchors. Grover machines, non-locking. Supplied with a cable and some allen keys. I'd give it 10/10 if there was a coil tap.

The shape and style is clearly in Les Paul territory which is how I think it sounds, with some unique tonal character added by the hollowed body. The tone ranges from medium-fat mellow to sharp edgy bite, with some nice woody overtones and wonderful sustain. It overdrives well and IMHO is very versatile. With my Digitech RP200 it can do almost all mainstream sounds except for clean strat twang and quirky stuff like Rickenbacker jangle. The pick-ups are not super hot but they are hot enough, while allowing plenty of subtlety when played quietly. No noise or interference. I'm not contemplating changing the Yamaha pickup, it sounds fine to me.

The set up from the shop (Musik Raas, Bern, Switzerland) was very good but the strings were too light for me so I changed them, which necessitated small truss rod and bridge height adjustments. It's very well made and finished, look and feel say high quality.

I haven't gigged with it but it feels very solid.

1 year warranty through the shop. Never tried Yamaha service. I've had three other Yamaha guitars and never had a mechanical problem.

I've been playing for 43 years (aargh! but I was only 10 when I started...). I have a Peavey Predator, a Yamaha AEX nylon electro-acoustic and an Epiphone EBM5 5 string fretless bass, and a modest PC-based home studio with a Studiocraft Spirit Floio Lite mixer. I use a Digitech RP200 pedal and a Roland GA 120 amplifier with an Art Studio V3 for a bit of valve warmth. I play light rock, pop, blues, electric folk. The AES620HB gives me the warmth and versatility of the classic twin humbucker semi-hollow sound in an attractive, playable and affordable package. I tried 12 semi-hollow guitars in 5 shops priced up to CHF1,000, including Epi Dots and Ibanez Artcores; this was head and shoulders the best built with the best components. And it looks so cool! I love it and would be very sorry to lose it. Once the warranty is finished I might add a coil tap.