Yamaha AEX 520

My Yamaha has the Brown Sunburst finish. Two mini humbuckers. 3 way toggle switch, Master volume and Master tone. Bridge is tune-o-matic. The top is maple veneer, the neck is maple, fretboard is rosewood. The body is semi-hollow Alder with maple veneer. Let's skip the rest of this b.s. and get to the sound.

This guitar, to me, sounds exactly like a Les Paul with 490/490 humbuckers. I also have a Les Paul Smartwood and I cannot hear much of any difference between them. In fact, this guitar is more like a Les Paul as it weighs 3x what my Smartwood weighs. It also has less of a hum. The sound is very full and bright, loads of sustain. It sounds great. Especially for the price.

The action isn't all that fast. I didn't get it from the factory, bought it used. The action could be set a little lower, but for the most part its pretty good. The finish is excellent. I've played the hell out of it and I don't even notice a pick scratch. Very solid guitar.

Would you gig without a backup? That's such a stupid question. Yes, I don't need to carry two of f'n everything with me. When I feel lazy, I bring another guitar in case I break a string. In my case, this works well because the Smartwood and the Yamaha are identical in sound. The guitar is very solid, with the exception of my volume knob which is lose.

Wouldn't know.

I've been playing for 8 years. I play through a Vox amp, have a few pedals, but for the most part I don't have that much gear. I'd rather buy instruments than gear. This is a great guitar for the price, that's what I love about it. Today, you could pick this guitar up for $250 or less. If you don't have the cash for a Les Paul, this is a fantastic substitute. Looks like a Les Paul as well.

Semi-hollow body, looks sorta like a Les Paul, but the body is bigger. Comes with 2 mini-humbuckers that sound strikingly similar to the soapbar pickups in the AEX502. One volume, one tone, 3 way toggle switch. Tune-o-matic bridge, and grover-style tuners (I've replaced them with Sperzel locking tuners). Came with nothing for me, but I bought a gig bag, and a hardshell case since buying it.

I play basically rock in all sorts of forms (The Who to Metallica to Oasis to treble charger and the list goes on), and this guitar delivers a very good sound on most fronts. It obviously gets slightly lacking in the heavy metal front, but for everything else, it sounds awesome. I run it through a Fender Blues Junior, via a Boss TU-2, Boss MT-2 and a Dunlop Cry-baby Wah, and it sounds fabulous. The pots are clean, no noise at all, same goes for the pickup selector. The semi-hollow body really responds to clean stuff well, and distorted sounds are great as long as they aren't too loud. At really high volumes, the pickups are a little muddy, but for the most part, it sounds great.

I bought this as a floor model, and it was already set up quite well. There were no real flaws that I could see, although when I bought it, I wasn't paying that much attention to detail. I did find that the jack works its way loose quite easily, but everything else is great.

Seems to be built well, although I like to think that I treat it nicely. I've had it since May of 2001, and it's never looked or sounded better. As I said before, the jack plate works its way loose quite easily, which is something I don't like, but the connection is solid. I replaced the tuners because the G string wasn't staying in tune at all, but I still have that problem, so I think it might be the bridge, which is too bad, because everything else seems to be built very solidly.

I've been playing for 3 years now, and I've had this guitar for 2 of those years. It has fulfilled all my expectations, and I love it. I may be parting with it soon, however, as there ARE better guitars that I've played out there, and I'm quite close to obtaining a significantly better one. I think this axe is great for someone looking for a step up from a entry-level guitar, but not looking to pay over $1000 for it. As I understand, this model is discontinued, which means that it'll be even cheaper to buy (I don't think it falls into the "classic" category). Great value for the price I paid, and I bet it could be had for even less!

i acquiered mine from a music shop at a mall, it looked kinda plain-jane but it stood out from the other stuff on the rack. it has an orange translucent colour, 22 frets, tune-o-matic bridge, 2 mini-humbuckers. maple neck with rosewood fretboard, hollow alder body with maple top. it looks kinda gretchy. it came with a short yucky cable that i probably wont employ and an allen wrench.

the music i play runs the gamut, but i'd describe most of the stuff i do as jazz-fusiony, but i have a band that does alternative covers. i run it through a boss dm-3 delay for ambience, and a peavey studio pro.
i totally love the sound, especially the tone i get from the mini-buckers. its somewhere between a single coil & humbucker, you get the best of both worlds here. the semi hollow (should i say "chambered"?) body adds to the airyness. bridge pick up sounds great for crunchy blues stuff, through heavy overdrive notes are well defined. even when you ease back the tone knob, this baby sounds sweet and it sings! i enjoy the liveliness i get from it, the instrument breaths and vibrates. i can coax great feedback from it too. the neck bucker is a charm, very warm. you can get tele-like tones in mid-position.
over-all, it is a full sounding guitar. i'm an advocate of hollow instruments.

the set-up out of the box, frankly, sucked. the intonation was terrible, but the action was ok. i had to send mine in to a real repairman to fix the intonation. the frets were ok, i liked the size but i intend to get a fret-dress job on it in the future. the pick ups height i had to tweak myself, but thats a matter of finding the sweet spot to your preference. i found chips in the hardware, i'm not making a big deal out of it.
as for the maple top, i choose a rickity one on purpose. i'm not a big fan of curly tops. i've checked out other aex520s, from my point of view, i dont think these tops are of "high-class" quality, but i consider it ok for the price range.

this guitar is built like a tank, but i'm sure the gold plating on the hardware will fade. i rubbed the bridge with my thumb and the plating rubbed off! quite thin, it would've been better if it was chrome. strap buttons are ok, but i'd encourage anyone to get locks.
its a dependable instrument. it can hack the live wear and tear.

never dealt with the company.

i've been playing for 10 years, i've always played yamahas, my very 1st guitar was one. i've always been astounded by their quality and tone. i've had washburns, fenders, hohners, epiphones over the years. i'm currently building a brand new set up.
the guitar is solid, its basic composition is great! but i'm the type of guy who likes to modify instruments with aftermarket hardware, so i do intend to change the bridge in the future. i've changed the crappy plastic nut into bone, it added more tone. i compared it to an ibanez ar 250. the yamaha beats it hands down.
i love its look, very original and jazzy. i love its tone! perfect for me! i just wish it didnt have the crappy gold plating, coz i've seen others in showrooms that have faded out terribly.
if stolen, i would get another one for sure.

Well, this guitar is an interesting mixture of many different guitars. It looks like a Les Paul on first view, but it isn't. The body is larger and it is semi-solid which means that they have taken a solid wood - made of 3 or 4 pieces - and then made it semi-solid, 10 or 12 cm remaining in the middle from neck to the end of the body. The neck is bolt on, not glued. It has two mini-humbuckers. Colour is orange-stain, very nice, almost Gretsch'ish ...

This guitar is very versatile and can imititate other guitars while still remaining unique. You can play everything from smooth jazz notes on the neck PU to crunchy hard rock chords on the "hot" PU. You can use this guitar for any music style. Sometimes it even sounds like a little Gretsch.

I bought new and therefore it could have been adjusted better. Neck is not adjusted perfectly. The worst thing is the saddle, made from cheap plastic I think. You should replace it soon. The rest is very good. Very nice woods, good painting, nothing to cry about. But because of the bad setup and saddle it's not more than a 6

This guitar should withstand live playing for a long time. Who knows what is going to happen to the electrical components one day. They don't look best quality. But, these parts can always be replaced easily.

You are looking for an alternative to your Strat or whatever? It should be versatile and cover a big range of different sounds? It has to be good looking? Check it out. It is a very good guitar for a low price. God knows why Yamaha have discontinued this model after 2 or 3 years only.

Features are very nice...bridge and tailpiece are gibson tunematic type, and they look and perform every bit as good as the gibson equipment. Tuners are grover rotomatic clones, again, excellent. nice finish and binding. only one volume and one tone...I suppose that's a drawback, but it simplifies on the fly adjustments during performance.

Sound is very neutral...can use this instrument for any style of play. Mine is set up jazzy right now (flat 12's)...but I had round 11's and it twanged out. Overall airy musical sound. Mini-humbuckers are the great underappreciated pickups...very warm, without the heaviness and mudiness of humbuckers...airy sound. Add in the semi-hollow body with the center block and you have a great combo.

for the money, this is a slam dunk...really nicely made. frets are great. hardware is outstanding...check out the way the neck is bolted on...beautiful.

built like a tank

see reliability score...no need

The great thing about this guitar is that it's not an imitation of anything else. It's a unique guitar, designed from the ground up to give good looks and great performance for a reasonable price. For the price of an Epiphone imitation Gibson, or a DeArmond imitation Guild...instruments clearly inferior to their big brothers with the big names and high prices, you can get a real original guitar. It's semi hollow, but with a flat top...produces the semi-hollow airy sound, without the cost of a curved top. This guitar is better made, and has better features than anything available under $850.

At first galnce this was a bueatiful but feature less guitar. I walked right by it. Then my wife saw it and give me that oh honey isn't this pretty this they do. So I looked close. Bueatiful Gold Grover tuners. Gold tuneomatic bridge and stop piece. pearl dod inlays, orange sunburst colar mahogany body with double F holes two mini humbuckers 1 tone 1 volume. I picked it up cheap to to a small shipping damage spot on the back that can't be seen when playing and doesn't effect the way it plays.

The sound this thing gives is awesome. I can get any thing from a Blues to hard rock sound and even a somewhat teleish sound in the middle position. super resonate and awesume sustain. If you can imagine a sound it will make it from chicken picken country to trashing ac/dc style stuff. I play contempoary christian and was recently at a show where my band and another where both performing. The guitar player for the other band was a girl with a 2600 dollar custom shop Les Paul. After the show she came up and said that thing is so bueatiful can i play it? I let her and a major Jamming sesion soon followed with both bands. 2 hours later they turned off the sound on us and ran us home. She never put the axe back down. Thought i might have to thump her to get my guitar back. I've been playing for 20 years, she's been at it about 15. Last I seen her she was headed to the music shop i bought it from to see if they had another. Others have reported feedback problems associated with all semi's and To date i have not experienced this.

aside form the shipping damge the guitar is perfect. Gave it a 7 due to the shopping problem. other wise would be a 10. It is set up with rather heavy strings for my taste (it came with 10's)but the action is great anyway. I half no porblems when doing bends and such. may set it up later with 9's but for now am sticking with the factory set up.

Been playing it now about 4 months as my main stage axe and have had no problems.

Comes with a lifetime warranty that i haven't had to use.

Over all this is a super nice guitar for any playing style. Befor buying this one my stage axe was a strat. I use it now only for a back up which means it has spent alot of time in its case. Strats are very jealouse guitars and I'm afraid it may one day attack the yamaha while i sleep. If my wife would let me i would sleep with the guitar to prevent this from ever happening. I stolen tonight i would replace it with out even thinking.

the guitar was made in 2000 in TAIWAN there is 22 frets. It is an alder body with a maple layer on top. The body is semi acoustic. I got a volume and a tone plus a 3 way switch. 2 passive mini humbuckers. The neck seem to be maple with a rosewood board. Finish is Natural orange satin (very beautiful) all hardware are gold. Single cutaway (gretchs-y looking). Stop tailpiece bridge. Grover style tuners. 24.75" neck scale. Came with an allen key and a cable. Bolt on neck but no metal plate instead they put 4 recessed screw. it is a very beautiful bolt on neck!

I searched for a year to buy a guitar to play jazz. And well this one is quite good the mini humbuckers are more alive that the standard humbuckers. I use the guitar with my line 6 spider and it sound really good. The sounds range from Clapton clean on wonderful tonight to george benson jazz tone. The further you can achive in the overdrive sounds are AC/DC the Cult crunch you can go a bit further than that but if you go too much into overdrive the guitar will feedback! it is a semi after all! Anyway if you want mega crunch buy something with a floyd rose!

I tried a similar guitar in the store and i find it more resonant and the action was lower than on the epiphone dot and the hamer echotone and also the gretch electromatic. Then i ordered mine because they did not have the color i wanted in stock. It took a month for the guitar to arrived but it was worth the wait the set up was a bit better than the one it tried in the store! Everything on the guitar was to my taste, maybe this set up would not suit somebody else but it was perfect for me. I played the guitar for four month and i have not find a flaw on it!

I think this guitar is pretty solid! bu it is a semi so if you sit on it you can break it, but for normal use everything seem quite solid ! especially the 3 way switch! it is the better switch i ever got on a guitar! the neck joint is a bolt on and is good!

Never dealt with Yamaha but the store guy was very helpful

I played since 1988. I owned 12 guitars in 12 years this mean that i buy a guitar each year. I had a mexican strat, an aria strat and aria standard bass, an epiphone les paul special, a vantage avenger bass and an avenger guitar, a maria acoustic, a norman electric guitar an ibanez studio a yamaha RGX 821D a yamaha BBN5II Bass And the AEX 520. I sold all those guitars exept the yamahas the ibanez and the norman! I kept the yamahas because all yamaha guitars are so good for the money it is incredible! each time i pick up one of my 3 yamahas it is a joy to play. Some people will say that there is nothing like a real fender or a real gibson but this is not my opinion after years of playing i decided that some instrument of foreign origin are being discarded by peoples that don t gave those instruments the real test of everyday playing! Those yammys are a 10!

My AEX is a totally black alder body, maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard. The gold mini humbuckers make a great sound and i was really impressed by the great way the guitar resonates. Its got a three way selector switch, 1 volume, and 1 Tone control.

The Guitar can really make any sound you want, and no matter what that is it will sound great. I play through a Fender Blues junior and i can crank it with the AEX for a great blues tone, and yet i can bring it down and make an acoustic sound that just melts when it hits your ears.

This guitar is obviously well made. just pick one up in any store and try it out

This guitar is built to last. The tuners are wonderful and i would defiantly play live with it or record. Simply one of the best you can buy.

overall a great guitar.

This stuff's already been covered in the other reviews. Mine's the brown one. Would've preferred orange, but I got it on Ebay and had to take what was available. Came brand new in the box with a cheesy cable and an allen wrench (which I promptly lost). Features aren't anything to knock your socks off at this price level.

This is the first electric that I've had in a long time, so I'm just wankin' around on it. I play a little bit of everything, and it's got good versatility. I like the nice fat mellow sound from the neck pickup. I would probably be more impressed with the guitar if I had a better amp. The current one I have is a Trace Elliott Tube Tramp that has a single tube in the preamp. It's pretty flat compared to a real tube amp. Well, my budget was limited, so what can ya do? I did play this guitar through a friend's Crate Club 35 (which has all tubes) and it got me pretty excited. So I'm withholding final judgement on the sound until I can get a real amp. I really love Neil Young's electric sound from the 70's, and I can occasionally get this baby to do a reasonable imitation.

Not sure how much effect the semihollow body has on the sound of this guitar. When you play it unplugged, it sure doesn't resonate like some others that I've played.

The finish was pretty much flawless as far as I could tell. Nice color. Really nice maple neck, very smooth. The fingerboard looks like they skimped a bit, though. The wood's kind of, I don't know, rough, I guess. Doesn't seem to affect the playability much, though. I'm thinking about rubbing some sort of oil into it to darken it and make it a bit smoother. The frets are sort of high, but once I got used to that, it didn't bother me at all. Action all the way up is nice, set up good from the factory. I STILL haven't got it set up by a tech, so I'm sure it will be even better when I do that.

I reckon it would handle live playing, not that I'm planning on doing any in the near future. I'm a rookie. Seems to be very well built, though, and I feel like it's trustworthy. Finish is good, and even the gold hardware hasn't started flaking off yet. That's a good sign, because there's something in my sweat that seems to corrode metal. If I don't wipe down my strings after I play, they'll be dust in a couple weeks.

Haven't dealt with them. No warranty that I know of.

I've been playing guitar for about 13 years now, and I really should be a lot better than I am. This is the first electric that I've had in about 12 years, been playing acoustic during the rest of the years. Have a Martin D28 that my girlfriend surprised me with about 4 years ago so that I could off my crappy Washburn. Bought the Yamaha because I was on a budget of about $600 to buy a guitar and an amp, so I really had to work it to get something that I could bear to play! The first setup I had was a POS (piece o' shit) Squier Strat ripoff with a horrible little Fender solid state amp. With a setup like that, it's a wonder that I continued WANTING to play guitar! Parents note: if you want to discourage your kids from playing guitar, buy 'em a setup like the above. They'll get so sick of the horrible sound that they'll give up in two weeks max. Anyway, I knew that it'd be false economy to put money into some crap that sounded horrible. But dammit, I HAD to have an electric, even if it wasn't my dream setup! Epi's were reasonable, but the ones that I'd played didn't impress me too much. I had champagne tastes on a beer budget, basically. Then I thought about Yamaha. Seems like they always made decent stuff, and the name didn't automatically increase the price like Fender, Gibson, etc. So I did my research, and picked up my AEX 520 on Ebay for $320. I was psyched by the price, since they were retailing for about $450 new. Imagine my disappointment when my buddy showed me a Guitar World catalog 2 weeks later that listed 'em for about $260! Geez, at that price, I would have bought two of 'em! Bought the Trace amp on Ebay, too, got it for $240, so I came in under my limit, at least. My main gripe is with my amp, I think. You can have a great guitar, but if your amp is poop, well then...

Onward... If it were stolen or lost, I'd buy it again if I had the same budget constraints. I'm setting my sights higher, though. Gotta save for a Gretsch or 335 or one of the Yamaha AES series. I love the fact that it's inexpensive and plays good for the price. It's definitely not a cheap POS like some stuff out there. It's nice to get a semi-hollow at such a price!

This aex Yamaha Is Black with two gold mini humbuckers ,gold grover like tuners and top cream binding . with two controls for voume and tone . Its a semi hollow body with F holes . Alder body , maple neck . spruce top with laminated figured maple top.

I use this axe for Jazz , R&B , and Rock and its is capable of any sound you like . I use it with a Crate GX65 through a Boss VF-1 studio Effects processor with another cord going out to a univox B50 bass amp 10 ft away. the sound is awsome. the guitar is absolutly quiet and the single tone control used with the three way p/u switch can produce an unbelievable wide range of tones. the basic sound useing the neck P/U is slightly woody and the bridge is very sharp like my strocaster. This is my first favorite out of my six Guitars.

The action was terrible when first brought home from the store as guitar center doesnt seem to set any guitars up . After giving it some neck relief ( it had none ) i was able to bring down the bridge to the point where It can be Played comfortable around 5/65 at the 12th fret bass string and 4/64th for the high E . then i raised the pickups just a fraction. after these basic adjustments the guitar is now perfect and have found no flaws in fit and finish . However I wish Yamaha would have included a pick guard with this model. Its realy pretty In black with the gold hardware and looks something like a Gibson Black Beauty.

In my opinion this guitar will stand up to anything and is built like a tank. Its always in tune except it may stray some for temperature changes but thats normal. you can completey depend on this unit and I dont think you can get a Better Guitar no matter how much you spend and this includes its premium sound.

I havent had to deal with Yamaha.
Once E-mailed there tech for something else though and never got a responce.

I have Been playing since 1962 and Have owned First a 3/4 Martin, Hagstrom 2, Gibson ES335S, YAMAHA G235S AND FG180 ,FENDER STRATOCASTER, IBENEZ SOUNDGEAR BASS , WASHBURN WI-64 .
I had at first bought the aex 502 and returned it as I thought that the p90 P/U's were a little too clean for the variety that i play.
when i went back this aex 520 was there so i traded. and am very glad that i did. I wish that it had a pick guard and that the single cut out was two fretts deeper . I have never found anything absolutly perfect though and have played every type of guitar . this one is as close as one can get . it sounds better than anyand all epiphones and most Gibbsons under $3k . I chose this guitar for its good looks and excellent ability to reproduce a very Jazzy tone as well as any tones you desire.