Yamaha CGX171CCA

Electric acoustic classical guitar, Thinner neck than most classicals. Gloss finish. Bought from Music Vann on line and it came with a Gig Bag, truss rod allen wrench and battery for internal microphone.

Could smell the fresh finish as this guitar came hot of the press from China. Had to send the first guitar back tp california as it came in the wrong box, had no allen wrench, buzzed and was probably a used guitar or a demo.

Cost me $25 bucks to return but with a very good the price from Music Vann($500 plus $40 shipping) sending back was easy enough to offset the iteration without me getting too irate. STill glad I bought from a dealer because there was a 7 day return policy

Very nice sound unamplified. Really expressive sound with amplifier. It is so much fun for a novice or intermediate to play because you can easily hear the nuances of each string plucked and experiment to get better as a player

Everything was delivered in perfect condition. Found that there was a string buzz. Took it to a luthier who filed the nut so the strings would lie flat and did some other adjustments that really took the buzz out and lets it play with a low action. I have to carefully place my fingers on the 4th and 5th strings (2nd, third and fourth frets) near the fret bar not to have a buzz. I've been told that is somewhat normal to have to be precise playing these notes.

Marked action fit and finish category down a bit since I had to spend money to have action adjusted.

Really well built, No glue stains, perfect finish, tuners not precisely centered in guitar head. Tuners look like cheap gold jewelry but they work awfully well. Thought I'd be bothered but after playing the guitar for three monthhs I find am not sensitive about the looks and am enamoured with the way it plays.

Music Vann
Price = 10
Delivery of "new in box hardware" = 2 (had to send first one back)
Set up of guitar action when I reciveved= 4

Yamaha PArts 10 I ordered a new saddle to play with string spacing. PArt QA 078700 Came in quickly
Yamaha factoy - 4 - Had to take guitar to aluthier to get out a buzz and re-set the action .

Buy again. - Absolutely
Years spent playing guitars ?
I strummed chords years ago and not very well
Within the last year and a half have learned musical notes and have been playing simple songs with finger picking style. This is a great guitar for this type of play.

Moved primarily from playing a Zager orchestra model steel string guitar (awesome guitar) to this simple to play, Great sounding, classical guitar( narrow neck - low action) from Yamaha.

I feel I will be learning much more quickly with this guitar than my steel string. The neck spacing of the two guitars is close enough I don't have to adjust at all to switch from one to the other.

OK, I'll give this guitar a "10" rating for features since I think it has all the "features" one might expect in a acoustic/electric guitar.

What other features could they have added? An espresso maker perhaps?

It came with a battery and an allen wrench(for anyone insane/stupid enough to mess with the truss-rod)

There is no "rant section" so I will hijack this "Features" category for my general rant. I made a big mistake. I repeat. I made a big mistake-

I purchased this instrument from Musician's Friend. When it arrived at my house, I inspected everything about it. The finish was flawless, although lots of lacquer on it. This has pros(protection from scratches, sweat, moisture, temp and humidity, adds durability and also some cons(appearance, feel, dampers the acoustic tone a bit)

In any case, everything about it was flawless as far as the appearance and build quality. Workmanship appeared flawless, etc...BUT...The one thing I did not try out was the electronics. I tried it plugged in, the next day when I got home from work. Nothing. Nada. Checked the battery, checked my cable, checked every freakin' thing. NADA. No output at all. Don't they test this before shipping it from the factory??????

For this reason I would rate Yamaha's internal quality control a big fat zero.

I used to work in manufacturing and QA, and an "out of the box failure" is the worst possible thing that could ever happen quality control wise. I don't blame M.F. for this, since they can't test every instrument before sending. But I am positive no one tested the pickups on this at Yamaha before shipping to M.F.

OK. I could have called Musician's Friend and waste tons of time on the phone and shipping it back to them. But what if the next one they sent had working pickups, but a small defect in the neck....Or a ding in it, or something was wrong with a tuner, or it was damaged in hsipping, etc...? I decided to keep my blood pressure in check, and just take it to a repair shop. I work on 48th street in Manhattan and some of the best tech's in the country are on the same block. The problem was the endpin jack was defective and they simply replaced it. (With a Fishman endpin jack)

The repair manager stated to me that 50% of their acoustic repairs are faulty "endpin jacks." The entire design of them is pretty messed up. When you plug a standard guitar cable in, there is a lot of weight pulling down/strain on them, in the best case. But the design of endpin jacks, is fundamentally flawed. They are prone to failure and breakage. (I am an engineer btw)

EMG has the best design out there-

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Acoustic+Guitar+Pickup/product/EMG/Ultrajak/10/1

http://www.sonic.net/~emgman/acoustic.html

In retrospect I believe all the BS that happened is all my own fault. I think M.F. is a good company but I would never, ever, never again buy an acoustic guitar from them or online period. There is just too much that can go wrong. And the biggest reason is that acoustics vary widely in feel and tone. I think it is basically stupid to buy an acoustic without playing it and examining it in person. Oh well, we're all human and make mistakes. I would buy a hard-body electric online, but not an acoustic. And especially a classical style, nylon string, with electronics built in. They are on the fragile side to begin with.

:Rant = OFF

In my opinion, do not buy this guitar if you want good acoustic tone. You won't find it. However, the acoustic tone is decent enough and usable/workable for what it is. Fine for practicing, fooling around, jamming, even some basic recording, etc. Considering the cutaway, the thin body, and heavy lacquer, the solid cedar top does not do much for pure acoustic tone.

I believe this instrument is primarily designed for amplification and I would rate this tone as an "8" which I consider very good. Of course, it does take a fair amount of work dialing in the right setting on the built in eq, pre-amp, phase switch, and two mic types.

The first years these guitars were produced they actually came with Fishman electronics. I actually had one of these before, and the sound was even better, I would rate it a 9.5 with the Fishman electronic system. I'm debating whether to sometime in the future, just put in an entire Fishman system on this one and dispose of the Yamaha electronics. I wish they still just came with Fishman, even if the price of the axe was $100 higher or whatever. It would still be worth it. There is a reason that virtually all the top end builders install Fishman electronics. Fishman just nails the tone it every time. I'm a big fan of their prooducts. Besides, it just looks cheezy using a Yamaha system- Again, it makes it obvious that Yamaha is skimping on quality.

I give this a "1" because the pickups did not work at all "out of the box." I spent my own bread to repair the endpin jack, since Yamaha uses cheap hardware and does not test properly before their products ships.

The tuning pegs appear "light-duty" and extremely cheap. But these can be replaced if needed.

The action was definitely on the high side. But not life or death here, it can be lowered easily enough.

There was no fret buzz at all.

Face it. These types of axes are on the fragile side. I can't really say that this axe is more or less durable than some custom, Spanish, built by hand masterpiece, work of art, guitar. Ironically, the better this type of guitar, the more fragile it is, due to thinner woods, less lacquer, finer bracing, etc...

If this new endpin jack fails on me, I will try the EMG "UkltaJak"

If that fails on me, I will design and patent my own endpin jack system. (Not kidding here)

I'd say if something does go wrong on this guitar, 90% chance is it will be something related to the electronics. Put in a Fishman for God's Sake!!!!

Never had to deal with it.

I have a been a musician for 30 years and a pro-musician for 15 years.

Believe it or not, I am going to give this guitar an "8." Considering the street price, its amplified tone, and the overall value for the money.

My main complaint is the quality of the electronics used, and Yamaha's QA practices. Do yourself a big favor and buy this type of guitar locally.

I believe with a Fishman installed, this guitar would rival guitars at double or triple its price, at least as far as the amplified tone and playability.

I just picked this guitar up after looking around for a couple weeks. It has a solid cedar top, rosewood sides and back and a nato neck. Nato is an Asian mohogany. It has two sources for pickups; under the bridge and a mic. The electronics are quite flexible. Its definitely not lacking in features.

The sound is pretty good when compared to guitars in a similar price range. I also played a Taylor 32 ($1500), a few Seagulls, some Ibanez, Washburn and Takamine and a Rodriguez ACE ($1000) before finally settling on this. For sound, the Rodriguez was the richest in harmonic content. It sounded beautiful. The Taylor was well made but was unusable due to the buzzing on the B string. There wasn't any way around it. I think they set the action too low. The Yamaha was the third in line when comparing tone. None of the other brands sounded any better. They were all fairly similar. The Rodriguez was plagued with problems. Great sound, but horrible craftsmanship. There was visible glue on the inside, the sided of the fingerboard looked like someone hit it with a hammer 100 times. Action was so high that it was nearly impossible to play. Still, I loved the sound of the Rodriguez. When running them through an amp, the Yamaha was easily better. The combination of saddle pickup and mic was very good. The Rodriguez was unusable with an amp. Top two strings almost silent, bottom 4 very loud. I mostly play live, so this was a big thing for me. I'm not rating it too high because I have played great sounding classical guitars. This is not a "virtuoso" type instrument. Compared to others in the same price range, I'd give it a 9-10. But compared to hand made >$2k guitars, it sounds somewhat lifeless.

Flawless action fit and finish. I know the guitar is made in China, which I have little respect for, but this is so well made. I've inspected it closely and I can't find flaws in the build quality. I wish the tone were a bit richer, but the build quality is great. The action is perfect. Not so low it buzzes, but low enough to make it comfortable to play. I checked out every note on the neck. All were clear. I couldn't say that about most of my other choices in classical guitars.

Seems well enough made that I don't fear taking it on shows. It has a truss rod, which give a little more security that it can be adjusted if necessary. I really don't have experience with taking it on the road yet, so I give it a 9.

I have no idea how support will be if I ever need it.

I've been playing for 38 years professionally. I'm first a songwriter and arranger. Instruments are just tools to me. Up till now, I didn't have a nylon string guitar. I'm not going to be the next Segovia or Williams. I just need the sound of a nylon string guitar in some arrangements. I wanted one that would sound great live and pretty decent in the studio. This guitar won't win awards for being a world class classical guitar, but I don't think its meant to be. It seems they tailored it to people like me. That said, it does what it should. It's extremely well made and sounds pretty good for a guitar under $1000. Out of my options, this seemed the best choice.

I've had the Yamaha CGX171CCA for about a month and love the way it plays and sounds.The active electronics are a plus.

It has very rich overtones with or without amplification.The volume settings must be set correctly to avoid feedback.

The intonation seems perfect.Nice low action.

The guitar can easily withstand live playing

I believe there is a one year warranty.

I've been playing approximately 33yrs,with lapses of 10yrs or so,I put up a short finger style video at youtube.com THEJMILLSBAND after having it about a week.There was some buzzing,but not from the guitar,it was from the camcorder.The Yamaha CGX171CCA has got to be the best value
I've seen for any guitar acoustic or electric for quite some time.

Just got it a few days ago. All I can say is "W.O.W." I have been playing for over 40 years. I played classical guitars that sell for $10k USD +. Yamaha just seems to get it right, and price is awesome. I paid $699 brand new, no case, but I bought a good TKL case for my new baby

Delivers both straight and with the pickup. Caution - acoustic pickups are tricky - try to use a PA amp. A guitar amp may be too bright. Also, try it with an envelope filter or a phasr shifter for that total altered state.

Even Yamaha's $60 guitars are well made. I recently bought a spanish made standard classical for $1400, and it had glue marks on it. Kudo's to Yahama for the quality, fit and finish.

excellent - but it still is a delicate instrument, so treat it as such

don't know, because I have had no need to talk with either the merchan I purchased it from, of Yamahs.

Especially with the ebony fretboard, it blows away guitars costing $3000. Remember, and I know from experience, just because a guitar is expensive, does not mean it is an expensive guitar. Japan & Asia make some great guitars, but the classical world, which is snobby to say the least, won't touch them. Their loss and our gain

Finish: High gloss finish Size/Style: standard classical size body top & back. Not very deep, but not thinline.
Electronics: Active B-Band piezo + mic. Master volume + mic blend volume. 3 band EQ +/-. Notch slider filter. Routed headstock with gold classical tuners. Nut width approx 1 7/8".
Tonewoods: Cutaway solid Cedar top, Rosewood back & sides. Standard rosewood bridge. Ebony fretboard. Nato neck with 19 frets. Rosette soundhole & back joint.

My style is eklectic.
I had a 1st class classical 20 yrs ago but traded it for a Korg keyboard to compose with. It was confusing switching between the 2"
neck & my Ibanez RS-440's neck.
Being 1/2 Greek I cut my teeth on mediterranean music and after listening to Al DiMeola's last 2 albums I decided it was time to go
nylon.
I played it through a Digitech GNX4 to a Roland KC-350 keyboard amp.
You really need an acoustic or keyboard amp for this kind of sound.
RE noise: you have to limit the mic volumn through an amp unless you
can get out of range, otherwise it squeals like a piglett.
The sound has a wide dynamic range. You can get classical to flamenco to modern nylon sounds (ie. Al DiMeloa).
I like the sound. It sounds great acoustically and plugged in. Because of the semi-shallow body it isn't very loud but the rosewood really makes it fat. Plugged in is a little better.

It was setup fine. I may lower the action via neck adjustment a little. I usually overdo that. The nylon strings are very easy to
fret but too high action messes with the intonation some.
The fit and finish are perfect.

You should baby any guitar that is worth playing: this one is, even though the price is reasonable.

I've been playing since '66. I have way too many guitars & gear for
a , CURRENLY, non-giging musician.
I just got a Godin ACS-SA (nylon too!), so I'm really getting into
a latin/med sound and adding synth with the Godin.
I also have a Godin LGX-SA for rock sounds + synth.
I have 2 synth setups- GI-20+Emu P2K & GR-20.
If lost or stolen I'd try to find another.
I'm giving an overall 9 because I probably would have a hard time selling it due to it's brand name, but will probally keep it forever!
I just bought a Godin so I didn't want to pay a lot for another nylon. This guitar has a high value/ bang-for-the buck.