Product: Yamaha AES820
Price Paid: US $550
Submitted
07/29/2002
at
12:06am
by
Bill French
Features
:
10
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.
Sound
:
10
The sound and feel of the AES820 is definitely excellent for hard progressive rock.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
I had to change the stings out from a 09 to a 10 ~ 46 set, otherwise setup fine.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
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.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I have not dealt with Yamaha customer support.
Overall Rating
:
10
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.
