Yamaha AES820

This is for MoonWalkers problem with the noise when touching the toggle/pickup selector.

It grounding problem. I've encountered this annoying problem many times and it has always been #1 a cold solder that came loose, #2 they never grounded everything properly and just sent it out the door or #3 the volume pots. Pots(vol/tone), pickups, and switches all need to be grounded. The problem is you gotta know what you're looking for and sometimes its frustrating because it could be any where inside the wiring. The most logical place to check is the selector switch.

Made in Japan as all Yamaha guitars are. I believe my model is a 2002. I have the regular (not drop 6) version in black. 22 frets solid mohagany body - I believe the neck is maple with rosewood fretboard but I'm not sure. Lots of tone controls - a pickup switch selects either bridge, neck or both, then it has a 3 way knob that has a single coil tone (my favorite), full humbucker, and a third that is customizable with a dial inside the body but defaults to a somewhat dark jazzy tone. Tune-O-Matic bridge that's extremely easy to set up. Yamaha says the neck is "massive", however I wouldn't describe it that way. It feels like a les-paul neck to me. I have small hands and it's very comfortable. Also the neck has a satin finish which is very fast. Comes with Dimarzio pick-ups, but mine has been upgraded with higher-end dimarzios so I don't know what the stock sound like. Sperzel locking tuners that are custom made for the guitar so that the string pull is completely straight. Unique input jack in the back that stays out of the way. Lots of thought went into the design of this guitar and it shows in all areas.

I like to play somewhat mellow sounding music when I jam by myself, just sort of improvising and using a lot of open strings in the chords - usually play without distortion and a heavy chorus effect. I've tried this with distortion though and the sound impressed me. I love the rich sound of this guitar - every string comes though clearly. I can't comment on the stock pickups, but I can say that this is about as versatile as a solid body can get without sticking on a piezo.

I bought this guitar used so I don't know how the factory set-up is, but this guitar is very easy to set-up. The prior owner had the action extremely low and the 5th and 6th strings would buzz. I simply raised that end of the bridge a bit and the buzz went away. The action is now still very low (the way I like it). The pick-ups were raised very close to the stings, and although it sounded great, the guitar was having brief fits of static here and there. I lowered the pickups down and the problem seems to have gone away. I hope this isn't a wiring problem that will re-surface. As far as the workmanship, I'm very impressed. The neck especially is flawless. Everything else looks just right and brand-new, and this is a used guitar. Bottom line is this guitar is very easy even for a noob to set up the way they want it. My friend has a gibson SG and overall I think this Yamaha surpasses it in quality, plus I paid half as much for it.

I'm not sure how to rate this since I haven't had the guitar very long, but I can say that everything on it still looks brand new even though it's over a year old. The prior owner may have had it in a case and never played it though for all I know. It seems to be of very high quality, as I mentioned above, but only time will tell... My gigging days are over but I would never go without some kind of backup... you never know what can happen!

Never dealt with Yamaha. Their website isn't very informative though.

I've never owned a very high quality guitar. A couple Ibanez and a Kramer, all korean made. Bass was my instrument and I've had a couple of really nice basses - stuck with a nice Japan made Ibanez with EMG pickups that I love. This guitar really impressed me the moment I laid eyes on it. The attention to detail and love that went into designing this guitar is really evident. I decided to sell all my crappy instruments and get one nice guitar, and finally picked this one due to it's unique tone set up and all the features it had (and the great deal I got on it). If you've got your eye on this guitar, I can safely say that you won't be disappointed.

The model i have is the AES820D6 (drop 6 version). Just go to yamaha's site, or look at the previous review's list.

I just started learning to play the guitar, so I can't really comment on the sound, tone, etc. All I can say is that I like it. I am currently using a Ibanez TS-9 w/808 mod (heard it's good, and I had money to burn) --> Marshall 30DFX.

Everything was almost perfect. There's a problem with my pickup selector. It seems to have a lot of static when I touch it or switch to a dirrent pickup. I have yet to fix this problem (as I don't know how to do it). Other than that, everything is excellent. Also, big points on the style (it was the reason I bought it). Looks VERY stylish; has that retro-modern look to it. I have the Light Metallic Brown and it looks great with the neck. Yamaha's picture on their site is misleading (it shows that the neck is black, but it's really brown), it's not a regular AES820but part of Yamaha's signature series for some guy. I would have given a perfect 10, but -1 for the noisy pickup selector defect on mine.

The guitar seems to be very durable. I'm not sure how long my noisy selector will last though. The finish seems to be good enough to last a long time. Strap buttons appear to be very solid. I think I could depend on it. I would use it on a gig without a backup (only cause I can't afford another guitar after getting this one.

Haven't contacted Yamaha before, and I probably won't (cause I'm lazy).

I've only been playing for a couple of months. This is the only guitar I have (but I will buy another one soon). I just wish I bought it somewhere online cheaper. If it were stolen, I wouldn't be able to afford another one. I would probably buy another guitar off ebay or something. The thing I love about this guitar the most is its looks. I was comparing this guitar to an ESP F-200, I got this guitar because I couldn't find an F-200 here. I wish it had a whammy bar and a tone selector. Otherwise, I'm loving this guitar!

Two dimarzio humbucker equipped solid alder body, nice and thick, but not gigantic, comfortable maple neck. Strings pass straight thru nut to sperzel locking tuners with no bend east to west. String thru body, great padded gig bag. Two volumes, but no traditional tone knob. Instead it has a three position knob that gives you humbucker tone, single coil emulation, which sounds pretty good actually, and jazzbox sort of tone killed type sound. One point off for no actual tone knob.

My musical style is varied from rockabilly classics to c&w to classic rock to modern high gain stuff. Use 2 boogie amps, all different kinds of stomp boxes, not noisy at all in hum mode. In single coil emulation, a little hum. Sound clean is great, with distortion its super. Really made for hard rock, I would say. I don't understand the tone-killed jazz setting on this guitar.

Set up was great when I got it used. No flaws at all in construction. Best Yamaha I have seen, played, owned or heard. Well made and designed well.

Defieitely solid. No problem beating some sense into a drummer with this ax. The alder body is a little soft, tho, so there are a coupla dings on the front, probably from drummer teeth or somesuch.

Don't know.

I have many guitars, many amps. I got this one cause I like big necks, and this one is a beaut. I probably wont keep it, cause I like to fine tune the tone with the tone knob. You know, turn the treble all the way up and back off a little sometimes. Sound of the dimarzios is great, they make great pickups, the locking sperzels are just the best tuners. Light guitar on the shoulder, cool blue paint. Great gig bag. Almost a 10 overall, but no, a 9 in the end.

This guitar is of a Les Paul shape and scale, no vibrato bar, either. On the other hand, it doesn?t weigh quite as much and has through-the-body string anchors. It has two humbuckers and volume controls, the standard toggle and a rotary switch for three different tones: humbucker, simulated single-coil and a configurable tone (stay tuned for details on this). Mine is "flat blue", which has a kind of sparkle and depth to it - the images on the net and in magazines do no justice to this color.
The chrome knobs have no position indicator or numbers - pure elegance, just like the lacking fretboard markers. The Sperzel locking tuners are matte silver. Chrome would have suited the guitar a bit better, matching the other hardware, but as it is, it goes well with the blue.
I like the angled jack at the back, though I always have to get the cord out of the way when putting on the strap. You nu-metallers won?t be having this problem, you?ll be using the upper pin instead (there?s two to chose from) to hang the guitar lower than I do.
The strings that came with are a .009 - .042 set, I will be changing to .010 - .046. The neck is thick and incredibly smooth for non-stick playability. The bridge is Tune-O-Matic style.
The manual is a generic booklet covering all types of bridges, pickups etc. and the adjustments they might need. Useful, but not pretty. Yamaha, please send me a nice AES 820 owner manual with color pictures. The only dedicated document is a separate sheet with a sketch of the guitar, revealing not much more than the names of the three tone positions of the rotary switch.

I respect this guitar for it's really good clean sound, though I play just as much with distortion. Clean, the bridge pickup sounds a bit nasal, but I use the neck or combined pickups in this case anyway. Distorted the bridge pickup is quite smooth.
Here the details on the single coil simulation: it's the second tone position of the rotary tone-switch, the first being plain humbucker. Yamaha claims they don't split the coils, but just use a dedicated RC (resistor / capacitor) circuit. A British guitar mag states that Yamaha removes the tone (i. e. harmonics) completely from just one half of the humbuckers (implying a tap) and the hum thus still gets cancelled (being of a low frequency). In any case, this is one of the highlights of this guitar. As it comes from the factory, the third tone position won't be of interest to you nu-metallers, but is good for jazz chords. Then again you can actually configure the tone of this position with an inside pot - a hidden feature of the guitar. So we have three separate RC circuits here.
A guitar mag wrote that both pickups have a very high DC resistance (12k and 18k), thus reasoning that they have a high output but also high impedance, which would imply an attenuation of higher harmonics - both they and I can confirm that this is not the case.

The plastic nut is OK. Intonation was almost perfect. The shielding inside the pickup cavity looked OK and seemed to be grounded correctly. Frets are fine.
Gripe 1: Both pickups were originally too far from the strings by any standards. Raising them with the screws was partly successful, but now they were not straight anymore and also wobbly. Turns out the foam they rest on is not only not thick enough, but deformed as well. I have already helped myself by placing a few layers of thin foam underneath.
Gripe 2: As delivered, the strings had been locked in the tuners with no slack at all. After a few (too many?) detunement operations (for adjusting truss rod and bridge) three strings snapped right at the tuners while detuning. I gave the new ones about 1 or 2 cm slack before locking the strings, have been OK since. ShouId they snap again, at least I can still re-use them.
I had to undo the truss rod and bridge adjustments the dealer made when I complained about fret buzzing in the store, he was not a gifted guitar tech. Now I have the neck and action as well as pickups set up just right for me.

The switches and pots seem to be of very good quality, practically all lower priced guitars disappoint me in this area. Pretty solid guitar. The bridge seems a bit more fragile than others of this style. I am also I bit wary of where the strings get a sharp change in direction at the ferrules (those shiny long pieces of metal the strings come out of before going to the bridge). No problems so far in the three weeks I own it.

Called them once here in Germany, about the pickup height problem. Very friendly and willing to help. Recommended putting some more foam underneath. Confirmed the existence of the inside tone-pot. Read me a statement from Japan explaining that the single coil simulation is done with a dedicated capacitor, not a split.

Finally a good looking guitar with a design that doesn't say "don't I look like a '55 so-and-so", though reminding of a Les Paul. It is a bit top-heavy, no big deal, though. I like the blue more every day, though I'm sure the black one is pretty cool, too.
I am more than pleased with the range of sounds I can get using the three RC circuits and haven't even experimented with the "hidden feature" (inside pot) yet. I was able to fix all the gripes I had (strings breaking at the tuners, wobbly pickups).
Try it out. You will be comparing it to different guitars than I did, but for me the combination of design, solid build and quality, three tone circuits, no-hum single coil simulation, good clean and distorted sounds and very playable neck won me over. Great value for the money, too.

This is a dark blue guitar, bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fretboard, dual passive DiMarzio humbuckers, locking tuners, alder body, tune-o-matic bridge with strings-thru-body tailpiece, chrome metal knobs. Body is highly sculpted and feels great (no edges to bother your arms). The neck and frets feel absolutely excellent. Neck is very very solid feeling. Headstock design pulls strings straight to locking tuners without any sideways pull on strings.

The sound and feel of the AES820 is definitely excellent for hard progressive rock.

I had to change the stings out from a 09 to a 10 ~ 46 set, otherwise setup fine.

No one could possibly argue that this is a flimsy guitar, not by any stretch of the imagination. This machine was designed to play and work hard. The neck attachment is just a killer, *way* ahead of a Strat or other typical bolt-on neck.

I have not dealt with Yamaha customer support.

I also own a 1973 Stratocaster (USA) and a 1974 Telecaster (USA), both hand-me-downs from my older brother. I have been playing for 10 years now. I have been in the market for a Les Paul type of guitar, tho not a Gibson as they tend to be rather expensive. So I have been looking for some time now at Epiphone, Fender, ESP, Ibanez, Yamaha for a 2 humbucker type of guitar and have generally liked what I've seen, but then I came upon this new model AES820 Yamaha at Mars Music and it was just way too good to pass up. I also have noticed some recent new ESP guitars somewhat similar to the AES820 but not quite like this.