Yamaha AEX-500N

this is the one with the f-holes and single walnut volume knob,rose wood board and bridge,piezo pickup,thinbody,3 band eq.
it is a hybrid piece,mix of a gibson and a nylon string,and the effect is quite pleasing on the eye,which is primarily why i bought it,
it is currently discontinued,but can still be found at dealers.
it has nice size frets for a nylon string,medium jumbo it seems,but not wide like some jumbo frets.on a nylon string,these sure feel nice ,along with the narrow fingerboard- which could be just a sixteenth wider at the nut because sometimes the nail on my ring finger will buzz the adjacent string.for the price,it will do
as i am still angling toward a taylor ns32ce.
i believe in the "keep it simple stupid" theory,and this is as simple featurewise as it gets.comes with no case,but a battery for the eq and a cable is included.it will fit right in a strat softcase.
you will get your moneys worth on this,its a "sleeper".

How does it suit your music style (and what is that style)? jazz,brazil,blues it is fine--not enuf bite for blues if you play out imho.
What amps and effects are you using it with? -carvin x60 and pignose.
Is it noisy? On what settings?- more treble/no bass and mids will pick up string noises.
Rich/Full sound? Bright sound? can be controlled on the amp/eq
yes.
thru the pignose,the sound starts to get dirty,which is kinda cool.

How well was the guitar set-up at the factory? (How was the action?)
action is beautiful,better than the taylor i want in the future,as low as it can get with a nylon string and the frets are nice.
Properly bookmatched top.
Did the guitar contain any flaws? none

Will this guitar withstand live playing?
as long as you are sitting down and not jumping around,it will.
Does the hardware seem like it will last?
plastic tuner keys will be first to go it seems.
Can you depend on it?Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
yes i believe so,because it has very basic electronics and therefore nothing to break.you should always have a backup tho.

playing 20 years,have usa strat-yamaha fg 450-epiphone broadway-allparts telecaster.
i would buy this guitar again if it were cataloged again,but i am certainly going to get that taylor ns32ce eventually.
it is really nice for the money,is a looker,plays better than i do,and has easy manuverability because its thin.it is a unique item.

Bought new May, 2003. Natural (laminated) spruce top, one piece black plastic sides and back. Has the f holes and looks really good to me. Over-all smallish size. Thin back. Etc. Etc.

Sounds okay. Nylon strings lack treble. Reverb/delay effects helps the sound. Basically, sounds kind of muffled. W/o amp loud enough for practicing alone only. W/amp not bad, good enough. Decent three band EQ, either flat or deep "V" (scooped out mids).

Very nicely finished. I like the heavily "laquered" clear top. Action inspires confidence. Bar chords all the way up the neck is easy and solid. The neck is narrow like a steel string (not wide like a traditional nylon stringed guitar). I like that because I'm basically play electric and electric acoustic. That's a

No concerns here. Feels solid but I wouldn't want to throw it around.

Playing since 1970. Also, have Ibanez strat, G&L F-100, vintage Yamaha dreadnought, Takamine slimline acoustic-electric, Yamaha bass. Play through Yamaha/Soldano all tube amp, various PA equipment, Carvin, JBL, Bose, Soundcraft, Event Monitors. Various effects. Record through Roland VS-1680. I bought this guitar on first sight when I went to pick up my Yamaha amp from servicing and re-tubing. I first noticed this guitar in a Musicians Friend catalog and wanted one to round out my guitar collection. This item looks like it is intended for electric/acoustic players like me instead of "classical" players. This ain't no Haride $1,200 plus classical (which my brother has and plays like a dream and sounds incredible). In contrast this thing sounds "muted". I like the solid maple neck and confidence inspiring action all the way up the neck. For what this guitar is intended to be, I give in a perfect score...10. I really like looking at it. Playing it and knowing that this is a "limited" run item. In fact, Yamaha discountinued it and the replacement product, AEX500NS doesn't have the f holes (so it doesn't look as good to me) and doesn't have any sound when palying unplugged (vs this one that has useable unplugged sound for solo practicing. I glad I picked up this model while still in the stores. Note: The ten I'm giving this thing is because I really like it and it is a niche item...NOT because its a fantastic value. However, it is a good value, attractively priced.

as above

unplugged- non-existant. Plugged into a PA godawful. into a decent am p (AER comp60) a bit more like it! Starts to develop personality. Not bad

Stupid skinny little neck, laughable stringspacing at the bridge, uninspiring custard yellow spruce veneer top. Cover-all-sins "non-more-black" finish on back and sides

Don't see why anyone would be that worried. As far as nylon strings goes this thing's built like a bradley tank! Will take much dinging to splat this one I can tell you! Good for playing while on the crapper/in the bath

not needed them so far for this guitar, ok on the whole in other respects but a bit impersonal

Playing 19 years since the age of 7. Own Lowden, Martin, Fender and Parker guitars. pro teacher / workshopper / sessions etc. If this got pinched I'm not sure I'd really care. I love the f-holes, I hate the poxy, dry, rosewood neck like an Ibanez widdle-o-caster. Yuk! I compared it to several guitars that I couldn't afford at the time! I wish it had a bigsby tremelo. I wish that there was a law about playing a nylon-string with distortion and then com[plaining that the tapping section sounds weird. Strewth!

I don't know when this guitar born,and the features....well,is not a my job to tell...
1 pick-up piezo (active) with 3 way eq
It's light,very light....and nice.

AEX-500N is unbelieveble: unplugged is to burn,plugged is wonderful!
It's a bit noisy on low freq.,but is a fault of active electronics.
Sound is very wide:from rich to crystal.
Simply wonderful!
I play renaissance music with it,my amp is a Marshall AS100D.
Finger-picking is very easy with it 'cause the action is low and soft.
Simply Wonderful

As i've told,the action is low and soft,strings are a bit....electric.
Try D'Addario Pro Arte'...
Volume knob is horrible,i have changed with a skirt knob.
Finish is beautyfull and solid but, try a good case!

"Rock solid" is too....but is a very solid instrument...

I only tell...buy it!!!

Almost no sound when unplugged. WHen plugged though, it sounds wonderful.

the neck is almost like an electric. very thin and narrow. It is a little hard to adjust he fingerpicking if you want to bring your classical music to the stage, but it is worthy. Very well done. The finish is beautiful.

It looks strong. But the finish is so well done that you will want to protect it with an good hardshell case.

?

Nice instrument. Very unusual. Its a hybrid of a jazz guitar, a classical and with an almost electric style neck. Will make you very happy on stage and it looks great.

I only wanted to talk about one thing with this guitar....
the low E tuned to concert pitch, is half the volume of the other strings.
We even ordered another one from Toronto, and it was the same story.
I would like to know what the problem is, and how it can be fixed...

This piece seem very fragile to me, although it fits many criteria
for what I need to address the market before me, namely electric nylon string playing-Jesse Cook, Robert Michaels, et al.

very fast delivery for the second unit, which I never bothered to take, so yes, good service on this anyway.

I've been playing 32 years.
All my gear is on my website, which is here....
www.multiboard.com/~gmcgill

This is a strange guitar. A semiacoustic Les Paul with solid spruce top and a Piezo and bolt-on neck and nylonstrings. Bought it because of my Bossa Nova-stuff. The neck are fairly thin, not like a "real" classic gutar.

For beginner-chords, it sound great (open D chords and so on). When you play that bossa-stuff (G7b13, Edim and so) my Gibson Les Paul sound a lot better. Actually, the Yamaha sound better just acoustic than electric. You can't get crunch out of the piezo.
There's a fault in the 3-band EQ, that means, that the bass are noisy. Yamaha are aware of this problem.

The strings should be replaced immidately to hard-tension strings. Else, the guitar will get out of tune.

I can depend on it, but I depend more on my Les Paul.

Not good enough. Waiting for replacement parts for the EQ for months (still haven't got them).

A little disappointed. You can't hear, that this guitar are a nylonstring one, when it is amplified. What can I say? I wish, that I have purchased an other guitar to my bossa nova-stuff.

Please refer to the other reviews for details on the features. In short, Yamaha AEX-500N is a very well made nylon-string acoustic/electric guitar. Its blown-up Les Paul shaped body has a flat back and a flat top with two f holes. Gold hardware with one wood volume knob and 3-band eq's. A 9 Volt battery compartment is located at the back of body. What makes AEX-500N shine is a saddle piezo pickup that thinks it is an over-wound magnetic one.

When unplugged, AEX-500N is only a low volume regular Joe in the nylon string neighborhood. But, the plug-in sound is excellent with proper volume/eq's adjustment! I tried AEX-500N with an all-tube guitar combo amp(Carvin X60A), a full-range keyboard amp(Peavey KB300), and Digitech GSP-2101 tube preamp processor through a Yamaha studio power amp. They all sound great once I set the volum and eq's right. I could tune to various convincing electric and nylon acoustic guitar tones with proper eq's combinations on both AEX-500N and pre-amp/amps. With X60A, I even got a less crunchy Marshall-like sound for Hard Rock. With KB300, AEX-500N gave me a very clean and sweet nylon string tone for Classical and Jazz music. I am really impressed by AEX-500N's versatile plug-in sounds! If Parker guitar's piezo pickup for acoustic sound simulation is rated as 10, I'd give AEX-500N's electric sound simulation a 9. Minu 1 from perfect due to the less biting nylon strings. Overall, I'd give it a 9 in the sound department because it fits into most music styles I play. If you don't mistakenly expect AEX-500N to emulate a >$1000 Gibson Les Paul, PRS, or Fender Strat/Tele, you too will be satisfied with its sound quality.

Finish is great. Flawless! The straight maple neck is bolted seamlessly onto the alder body. Action is low for an acoustic guitar. Thanks to the low tension on nylon strings and smooth neck/fingerboard/medium frets combination, I felt my fingers were flying with 16th note rolls on the AEX-500N. Since it doesn't seems to have a truss rod, I'd better treat it in a climate-controlled environment.

The hardware and strap buttons look and feel sturdily built to last for long. AEX-500N's classical-guitar-shaped headstock and tuning pegs look somewhat fragile like most other nylon string guitars. I would play AEX-500N live without a backup since I usually render my acoustic instrument with great respect on stage.

No, I've never dealt with Yamaha support before.

On and off, I have been playing guitar music for the last 18 years. My favorite music styles over the years have been: Classic, Hard Rock, Metal, Blues, and Jazz. In addition to AEX-500N, I currently own 3 electric guitars (Fender American Standard Telecaster, Cavin DC200 ST, Custom Strat), and 2 acoustic guitars (Guild F-20 NT, Fender Montclair). If my AEX-500N were stolen, I'd be very upset and would probably buy it again or check out the steel-string model, AEX-500, instead. AEX-500N's overall quality well worths the dollars spent, so I give it a 10 in the overall rating owing to no other similar guitars in the same category.

Refer to the previous reviews for details. In short, Yamaha AEX-500N is a very well made nylon-string acoustic/electric guitar. Its blown-up Les Paul shaped body has a flat back and a flat top with two f holes. Gold hardware with one wood volume knob and 3-band eq's. A 9 Volt battery compartment is located at the back of body. What makes AEX-500N shine is a saddle piezo pickup that thinks it is an over-wound magnetic one.

When unplugged, AEX-500 is only a low volume regular Joe in the nylon string neighborhood. But, the plug-in sound is excellent with proper volume/eq's adjustment! I tried AEX-500N with an all-tube guitar combo amp(Carvin X60A_, a full-range keyboard amp(Peavey KB300), and Digitech GSP-2101 tube preamp processor through a Yamaha studio power amp. They all sound great once I set the volum and eq's right. I could tune to various convincing electric and nylon acoustic guitar tones with proper eq's combinations on both AEX-500N and pre-amp/amps. With X60A, I even got a less crunchy Marshall-like sound for Hard Rock. With KB300, AEX-500N gave me a very clean and sweet nylon string tone for Classical and Jazz music. I am really impressed by AEX-500N's versatile plug-in sounds! If Parker guitar's piezo pickup for acoustic sound simulation is rated as 10, I'd give AEX-500N's electric sound simulation a 9. Minu 1 from perfect due to the less biting nylon strings. Overall, I'd give it a 9 in the sound department because it fits into most music styles I play. If you don't mistakenly expect AEX-500N to emulate a >$1000 Gibson Les Paul, PRS, or Fender Strat/Tele, you too will be satisfied with its sound quality.

Finish is great. Flawless! The straight maple neck is bolted seamlessly onto the alder body. Action is low for an acoustic guitar. Thanks to the low tension on nylon strings and smooth neck/fingerboard/medium frets combination, I felt my fingers were flying with 16th note rolls on the AEX-500N. Since it doesn't seems to have a truss rod, I'd better treat it in climate control environment.

The hardware and strap buttons look and feel sturdily built to last for long. AEX-500N's classical-guitar-shaped headstock and tuning pegs look somewhat fragile like most other nylon string guitars. I would play AEX-500N live without a backup since I usually render my acoustic instrument with great respect on stage.

No, I've never dealt with Yamaha support before.

On and off, I have been playing guitar music for last 18 years. My favorite music styles over the years have been:Classic, Hard Rock, Metal, Blues, and Jazz. In addition to AEX-500N, I currently own 3 electric guitars: Fender American Standard Telecaster, Cavin DC200 ST, Custom Strat, and 2 acoustic guitars: Guild F-20 NT, Fender Montclair. If my AEX-500N were stolen, I'd be very upset and would probably buy it again or check out AEX-500 instead. AEX-500N's overall quality well worths the dollars spent, so I give it a 10 in overall rating owing to no other similar guitars in the same category.

Nylon string, semi-hollow, piezo pickup. That's about it. Not alot of features--doesn't need them. Wish it came with a case though.

Unplugged it's nothing to write about. Plugged in and it sounds great. As warm or cold as you want. I still haven't had it feedback. Have played through acoustic amps and electric guitar amps and it sounds great through either type.

I bought mine as a blem from Musicians Friend. I emailed them before hand to find out what kind of blem but they were did not have access to the condition. I thought this was kind of odd but decided to get one anyway. I had played one in a store to know that it was a great guitar. When it arrived, I looked it over and the blem appears to be some raised grain on the front near the bridge. Big deal. I can live with that. The volume knob was loose and the strings were shot but all was easily put right. Action is fantastic. Nice height and no fret buzz anywhere.

Seems very solid. I have other guitars.

Haven't dealt with Yamaha. Will probably never need to except to buy another model someday.

Been playing around 25 years. Started with classical then moved to hard rock and blues. Currently play in a church/worship band. Overall, this guitar is agreat addition to a player's tool box. Its sounds and feel send you in new directions. I would buy another and I would buy other Yamaha products as well. They seem to be really well made and priced competitively.