Yamaha AEX-500

Acoustic/Electric Jazz style guitar. Piezo and single pickup. Knob that fades between the two, EQ for piezo, volume knob and that's it. Very simple guitar that attempts to do a lot.

Currently this fits perfectly with the range of sounds I'm after. I wanted a good accoustic/jazz sounds and a clean electric sounds I could then put through FX. Does this quite well. Could be warmer.

Looks good and plays increadibly well. It felt exactly right as soon as I picked it up - and this was compared to much more expensive guitars. Does feel a bit light. Also the internal wires can be seen through the F holes.

I'm not sure how many knocks this thing is going to take. Already the knobs have come loose - I had do a fiddly nut tightening excersice.

It's been doing good service. When it breaks I'll be looking for something a bit more solid that does the same kind of job. I like it's unconventional nature and know of few guitars that offer what this guitar offers.

i bought it back in 00' i wanted a gretsch but i dont have that much cash and finding one of those is rare in Erie PA. I wanted a hollowbody after listening to groups like the stray cats and Living End. Well i found the Yamaha AEX-500. Cost me 699.00. Which was a good price for the gold hardware and the electronics. I dont like the mini humbucker cuz i dont like bass tones for the punk that i play. the piezo though is sweet since it has the treb response yet it has the warm hollowbody sound. Ive had trouble with the tuners they seem to slip very easily so im always out of tune on the D string. Its got a wood bridge with a nylon strip for the string to rest on... doesnt cut my hand when i muffle. World of Music was nice enough to give me a nice gig bag to go with it.

It has the punkabilly sound i like when it comes to the piezo pickup.. i dont like the 9volt thing though ... i have pedals as it is i dont need to spend more money on the guitar as it is. i hate the humbucker..im getting a seymour duncan invader to replace it and i getting it rewired so the 9volt only runs the internal pickup. I use an Ibanez ts7 tubescreamer with it... it gives me a little more crunch and click that i like. Over all the guitar has multiple uses and sounds depending on where you set the active EQ and tone controls.. it can get really dirty or cut through with clarity.

its well constructed i must say.. very smooth although a little neck heavy on the weight distribution. The pickups sound good and are set well so they get the tones and its not muddy sounding. The gold hardware has some oxidizing on it but its only noticable from up close. but everything is in great shape.

ive never used it live cuz i use my strat and tele for that.. i would like to use it especially after i get my invader in it. If i had to though it would last through a show without a back up, its solid and reliable when i need it to be. im waiting for a real gig to use it since my group has only played parties. But im confident in the guitar

never had to get the company for anything except the 1/4 input. that was because the jack had been loose and people were plugging into it causing the wires stripped while at the store.

its my most expensive guitar ive had it over a year and its been great to have.... really great acoustic tones. I have Squier Strat got in 96' and a new squier tele just from dec. they are my main use guitars... cheap in price but get the job done never had a prob with those either. i would like to use my yamaha more but havent had the chance to.

Purchased in 2000 from MARS. BTW- those bastards won't even give you the danged box it comes in. AND they didn't sell the case. See other reviews for features. Basic vers: All hollow body, w/ 1 piezo & 1 mini humbucker. 2 knobs. Volume and pickup mix. I like it pretty much in the middle notch mix between the 2 pick ups. Finish is as thin as reported to facillatate unplugged volume . Bridge is fixed. Tuners are not that great but wil make it through some punkin' around. I ended up buying a used case on eBay.

Sounds as thin as the body or finish unplugged. Which is great because I wanted a guitar i could rock out with plugged in but would make more sound than an electric unplugged (to not wake up baby). I play it into a little 4 channel Fostex mixer to a Digitech RP100 pedal then into a Fender M80 amp. I use the mixer to make all of my synths & guitar go through the same path to the amp. With this set up I have all the sounds I need. The piezo makes for fun feedback on demand or none if you don't want it. I know this was not the design of the guitar, but I play a lot of hard rocking, funky stuff. The noise is good, and so is the control of the noise.

Everything seems to work/lool/play fine. Way better than the POS Epiphone I sent back to the retards at Musician's Friend. I also like the fact that it was like they made an electric guitar, acoustic- rather than an acoustic guitar, electric. Slim, trim and proper! I use GHS 11 guage electric strings. No wound G strings, seems to be the key. Finish is v thin. Maybe the best action I've played and many people who've picked this guitar up have remarked that without prompting or previous discussion.

So far it has lasted but I've scratched it a bunch in the last year. Watch your belt. I suggest taking it off of turning it so the buckle is on the side. One bitch, the battery compartment: The copper contacts have to be rebent (use old string to loop around it) to make contact with replacement/recharged battery. If you don't see the little LED on, then you'll know the battery's about dead when the feedback parade starts. Everything has continued to work like the day I brought it home.

N/a. They build their stuff to work so they don't have to deal with acrimonious jerks like me. I like that.

I've started playing over 20 years ago. I also own a Fender Mustang from about 1977. This guiar weighs less than that one's neck.
I'd like to hear it thru an "acoustic" amp. But since I play raging rock-n-roll, that doesn't matter. If it were stolen, I might buy another one. So many new products come out, it's hard to say.
I love the variety of sounds, the solid state reliability, the ACTION, the weight..., it's also beautiful Sunburst. I'd rather have an ES 335 but I'm not that rich. I am not sure they still make this model...

I really like the deep tone, and the sound varities...

A beautiful piece of work....

Don't know bought it today...

The mini humbucker has not a great sound...too high frequences; but the piezo is OK

Humbucker and piezo electric. With EQ and on-board pre-amp (I think).I'm no techie (More of a feel merchant).

I write a lot of songs, and this has a clean/jangly/sonorous/bell-like quality (somewhere between a warm Tele and an acoustic) - which is ideal. Preferred settings Humbucker or Humbucker /piezo split.
( Yes I know that teles are single coil guitars - I'm just following what my ears tell me).

Good action - easier to play than my acoustics ( Norman B20, and Sigma Martin copy thang). Very seductive appearance, not really a typical arch top / jazz guitar. Mine is a particularly fetching sunburst dark brown. Finish appears good.

Hard to answer - only had it a few days.

To early to say, and no reason to try as yet.

I've been playing haphazardly for years (sub standard blues cliches mostly), but much more seriously over the last year. Yes I'd buy this guitar again if purloined. I'm taken by the sound, looks and general aura...and went into a deep trance while trying it out in the shop.

My other 'axes' are: Fender Jazz Bass & Telecaster (refried Mexican models), Norman B20 Folk acoustic, Sigma Dreadnought, (cheapo) Ukulele, and papier mache jazz wonder guitar from Panjim - Goa - India (complete with warped neck and serrated frets).

Bringing the bass EQ gives a solid crunch in a distorted application, unsatisfied with Ovation acoustics this gives a much warmer acoustic tone in clean situations.

Looks beautiful, sortta like a women, it's curves and f-holes were the first attracted me... we've been goin' steady for about a year now.

Live? - Yes.
Mosh? - No.
Studio? - Yes.
Let little brother play? - No.

The Taiwanese-built AEX-500 has a retro-jazzy kind of vibe. There's a single gold mini-humbucker, a rosewood piezo-loaded fixed bridge, a simple gold tailpiece and a pair of f-holes. This particular model has a brown sunburst finish, the back and sides being black, with a single layer cream binding on the top edge. The angled maple headstock, faced in black, is joined to the rest of the maple neck behind the first and second frets. The flat rosewood fingerboard (radius 13 ?") has 20 smoothly dressed and neatly fitted frets, and the neck joins the body at the 14th fret. Four recessed bolts anchor the neck to the ?alder body (back and sides). The laminated spruce top is pretty thin, comparable to a regular acoustic, but is glued to a solid block which runs from the neck joint to the bridge. The back is also thin, and largely free to vibrate, but the sides are pretty thick, at least a centimetre. The strings feed through the raised back of the rosewood bridge where they are anchored through the tailpiece. This doesn't translate the tension to the end pin, but probably helps spread the load over the whole bridge. The mini-humbucker is neatly mounted into the body at the end of the neck, but isn't height-adjustable. The piezo pickup is under the one-piece saddle, which isn't shaped for intonation. Controls are simple: two rotary knobs (master volume and pickup blend, with centre notch) on the face of the guitar, and an active EQ panel on the upper shoulder which controls the piezo tone via three sliders. The battery compartment round the back is very neat. My guitar didn't come with a case, unfortunately, and it's not easy to find a hard case that fits as the guitar is slightly bigger than your average electric, but rather smaller than the usual semis, archtops or acoustics. Still working on this!

This is quite a unique sounding guitar in my experience. Acoustically the guitar is surprisingly loud, but it doesn't compete with your average acoustic and sounds a bit thin. However, it is a whole lot better than an unplugged electric, tons louder and free from buzzes and rattles, which makes it a handy instrument for polishing up your electric licks when you can't be bothered untangling all your cables and setting up your amp. Plugging in, the neck mini-humbucker alone is pleasant enough, with a clear but warm sound. However, in the absence of any tone control to affect the pickup, the sound is fairly bright, and, since the output isn't particularly high, it doesn't really get anywhere near the mellow, thick jazz tone that is implied by the guitar's looks. On the other hand, the piezo bridge pickup does a better job of impersonating a regular electro-acoustic, though you do need to scoop out the mid range and/or boost the bass and treble using the active e.q. to get a decent tone. Besides, the class A tube combo I'm using probably isn't the best choice for a good electro-acoustic tone! Where things do start to come together really nicely, however, is in the blended sounds. Merging a small amount of the neck humbucker in with the peizo output gives a lovely depth and richness to the acoustic tones, while a small amount of piezo tone added to the mini humbucker adds a nice percussive snap to the sound. And maybe it's just this particular guitar, but the sounds really come alive when you tune down to an open D tuning; the sustain and resonance are tremendous.

Set up was about right for this style of guitar, high enough and with sufficient tension to allow a good strum in electro-acoustic mode, but a lot easier on the fingers than the average acoustic for more complex jazz/lead work. The tuners do a reasonable job, but tuning stability isn't perfect when strumming hard, and there are minor intonation problems related to the short scale length and the uncompensated bridge. As per usual with Yamaha guitars, the quality of construction is top notch, everything fits together very nicely. The only flaw I could find was that the two white plastic dots on the side of the rosewood fretboard at the 12th fret weren't quite level with each other! The finish on the top is pretty thin, as mentioned by a previous reviewer, but a thicker, more durable finish could well dampen the resonance of the soundboard and diminish both the sound quality and quantity. The maple neck feels almost as if it is unfinished, like a real chunk of wood not quite perfectly sandpapered. Personally I like this, but some players might prefer a smoother feel. Anyway, with use the feel is gradually getting smoother. The small body is comfortable to manage sitting down, being only an inch or so wider than a telecaster. Standing up the guitar feels very light, rather neck-heavy, but again generally pretty comfortable. Three hours with one of these slung around your neck would be a lot less taxing than three hours with a Les Paul.

I've only had this a few months, but I've always been impressed by the build quality of Yamaha guitars, and I'd expect this guitar to do it's job without fail. It's not the most solid feeling guitar, but treat it the way you would treat a good acoustic guitar or semi (rather than how you might treat a battered old solidbody) and I'm sure it would give years of faithful service.

Never dealt with Yamaha, and I suspect I won't ever need to.

I like this guitar. It's a bit different, there aren't many other instruments out there in the stores which offer this combination of features, along with Yamaha's fine build quality, for this price. Excellent VFM. It encourages you to try a few different styles, gives sounds which you don't get from your average electric or electro-acoustic, and it looks pretty cool. In the process of acquiring this AEX500 I let go a Yamaha Pacifica 402S (fancy finish Tele-style) which was also beautifully made but let down by undistinguished pickups and, for me, a too slim neck (see H-C review). It joins a 1990 USA Fender Standard Strat and a 1997 Japanese Fender Telecaster 72 Thinline reissue in my collection, all played through a Trace Elliot Speed Twin C30 class A tube combo. If it was damaged beyond repair in a bizarre gardening accident I'm pretty sure I would get hold of another.

The AEX500 has a Spruce top and Nato back/sides. It has a bolt-on Maple neck, Rosewood fingerboard, 20 frets, Rosewood bridge and gold hardware. There is 1 mini humbucker at the neck and a piezo bridge pickup. Controls include volume and blend control knobs, and a 3-band EQ control. It appears that the production of these guitars is outsourced to Malaysia. The Particular model I have is a 1998 w/black with gold hardware. Looks-wise this guitar has a Jazz vibe. That's why I bought it. It was purchased mail-order, so looks and features were the only thing I had to go on. The f-holes, mini humbucker and tailpiece simulate that archtop look. Finally, my purchase came with a hardshell case, a nice one I might add.

When I first read about this guitar, I couldn't wait to hear it. In the end I have mixed feelings about the sound. First off, the guitar is alot thinner(and thin sounding) than I had imagined. It's amazing how loud it is when played acoustically though. There is a fairly wide range of tones when you factor in the EQ for the piezo. The piezo is a nice option. You get a really bright tone which I like for some solos and for strumming. The humbucker was a disappointment. First off, it doesn't have enough output for my tastes and you can't really get that "dark" tone(i.e. the Wes Montgomery sound that is synonomous with traditional jazz guitar). It would've also been cool if there was a tone control for the humbucker. Changing the tone with the blend control is limited too. I think putting a nice set of heavy guage strings on this thing would really beef it up. It came with a fairly light guage(.10 I think), so you'll probably need to get it set up if you want to do this. I will say that this thing has no problem sounding like a full sized acoustic.

The guitar was set up fairly well and the action is about what I expected on this guitar. Pretty easy to fret and play just about anything. I'm a little disappointed with the finish. Very fragile, one little bump and you've got a scratch right down to the wood. I'd be interested in seeing one with the brown sunburst finish. The volume dynamics on the piezo could have been set up more evenly, although, I've always had these problems with piezo pickups. The controls and cord jack seem to be of good quality. The balance of the guitar is kind of wierd becuase it's so light. It's balance reminds me of an Gibson SG(except with a lighter body).

I don't plan on using this guitar for gigs, nor have I owned it for a significant amount of time. Therefore, I'll pass on judgements at this time.

N/A

Falls into the champagne on a beer budget category. You can't expect too much for a $400-500 guitar. Promises to be more than it is, but it's a handsome looking guitar and I love the vibe. It offers some unique tones but it's definitly not the definitive Jazz box. My ES335 does a better job in this area. I usually play the AEX500 through an accoustic amp, which seems to be a good combo for this instrument. I wouldn't buy another if it was lost or stolen. I think I'd spend the extra cash and buy something different.