Yamaha ERG-121

Ok I've said the specs in Versions 1 + 2 of this post

Now corrected : MDF body is actually Agathis, a close relative of Alder which is as good for making guitars as balsa is for making kickproof furniture. Its about the same density and weight as balsa too. . . Oh, and the neck is great. If you find one second hand, get it for the neck. I wouldnt spend more than #50 on it though. use it for a project or something. Make your own guitar.

Im a grunge guitarist. This passes, but miserably. Its also just about livable for anything. The pickups are pathetic, but then its been trashed about alot so oh well. The single coil broke. the coil wire just snapped short of the connection. Am gonna resolder it.

It was set up fine I guess. finish looks nice on purchase. scratches like hell, chrome doesnt wear off easily though. rubbish hardware but the neck is OK. Get a floyd rose bullet truss nut and fit it to a guitar with an FL trem. . . Oh and the woods a waste of time. mine was badly routed for the neck and the wood is literally as soft as balsa. The spacing between neck and the neck 'bucker broke. Its glueing together on my floor right now. . .

Dont even think about using this guitar as new live. maybe if you change PUs, selector, fix bridge, replace pots, tuners, add an extra string tree, rewire electronics and fit straploks, it might last 2 or 3 gigs before something broke. but I stress this again, the neck is fine. If you build it onto another guitar, then you are rescuing it.

I'm not even gonna bother.

I've been playing 2 years. I've had this guitar 6 months. I'm buying a squier jagmaster. My list of guitars to buy. just dont buy this one. Its not worth mor ethan #50 for the neck.
Grunge: Squier Jagmaster
Metal: " " Fat Stratocaster
jazz: Ibanez Semi acoustic
Blues Squier Affinity Strat
Punk: Vintage Les Paul
Others: Squier Affinity Tele

These are all great guitars, even if they were a higher price. Trust me. This is not the guitar for you. I learned alot wwith it, but If I'd waited and bought a better guitar, It might have lasted alot longer. 6 months is a waste of money forget it.

Made in indonesia
22 frets
solid top
volume,tone and 5 way slector switch
its got 2 humbuckers and a sincgle coil
got a nice maple neack from the luks of it but not sure mite be summin cheaper but its one of the nicest necks ive played on
standard black finish
strat style body
got a strat style bridge, not very nice had to use with a whammy,not pleasent at all
its got poor tuners no very fluent feel rather stuck
neck is nice and thing and really smooth easy to move around on with a rosewood fretboard

with the pickups it has it sounds average nuthin too special on clean it really has no warmth to it on any of the settings,with distortion the guitar comes to life a bit more,but once agen if u want to get a wail of a solo out, this thing wont do it.

the guitar was set up fine, action is fine the pickups are ok not brilliant, the guitar seemed perfectly fine on purchase

well erm dont use this live for ur own good.i have had it a while and many cracks have appeared and dents, also the slector switch has a poor contact with the pickups and it has to be skilfully balanced for it to work,so not good if u wanna change settings quick.but its stays in tune which is a plus

no idea

basically this guitar was my first and it rocked at first,but then afta a year or so i realised it really wasnt good.i mainly use it to practise with now and treat it badly, chukin it about and stuff,but it withstands it all,just the obvious dents and cracks.my evenutal plan for this guitar and peice of advise for neone else with one is to change the pickups to seymour and duncans.and maybe the tuners too and then u will have a really great guitar,new pick ups would make this guitar sing.it has an ace neck and feel to it, so a shame about the poor pickups.

22 frets black guitar with only one volume knob and a 5way selector.
it has a humbucker in bridge and neck position and a single coil in middle. i think those are passive no-name pick-ups.
the body is some "more metall" design.
tuners are not locking.
very thin and good playing fretboard.

it suits my style more or less. cause i play punk and hard rock.
for grunge or alternative i would prefer another, this one is more for hard music.
i run it through a small practice amp it sounds quiet good.
the bridge pu is the best, very nice sound with some kinda reverb. the single coil is very crappy, but not distorted it seems better.

the stock wires were shit. with new good wires it's a better sound.
after a few weeks the selector becomes noisy, but with contactspray i could solve the problem.
anything else is quiet good

i never played it live, just at home.
the hardware is quiet good. but i'm afraid using the tremolo cause it doesn't look very stabile.
i use this guitar now for 1 1/2 year and besides the problem with the selector the motherfucker is tiptop.

never dealt with em cause it's a used guitar

it's quiet a good beginner, intermidate guitar.
more or less for punk and hardrock or metal, but not for blues or jazz. solid body and nice fretboard (very handsome).
the pus could be better but for 40 ? quiet a good deal.

2003 Indonesian MDF guitar with a solid top satin black body, a 21 fret maple neck with rosewood fingerboard HSH passive pickups. Classic Trem (now Locked down) 5 way switch (now replaced by an on/off toggle for each pickup) cheap vol / Tone pots (1 of each) now broken and in need of replacement after 2 months Standard tuners (badly made, uneven movement and now replaced with locking tuners) neck is a slim C-shape with a 25.5" scale length. Came with case (guess what? broken!) cheap unshielded lead (binned) Bad quality strings and tremolo bar. Yamaha GA-10 7 watt amplifier (ibanez clone like the guitar)

I love the way the humbuckers sound on this guitar. I run it through a Boss DS1 distortion, a Rockson CH-40 chorus and a coloursound Original Wah, and finally the original amp. The sound is bright, crunchy yet clear, and silent. until you select the single coil. This makes a nice strat tone, but is the noisiest single coil I've ever heard. And, to make matters worse, Im stuck with it since the threads gone on one of the screws so It's stuck there. At least till I can get it off somehow. . . . . Then I'll put a hot rail in or something.

The guitar was quite well set up at the factory but the bridge was pulled by the strings, meaning that I found it at 10 degrees in the air with the strings buzzing against the frets. now the bridge is locked, It sounds great and plays really well. The wood was of the most poor quality I've ever used, but then its made of MDF so what do you expect. The only real problems that I've found and cant fix are the facts that the body is made of MDF and the screws keep destroying the threads and becoming loose, and that the neck has been fitted a millimetre or so out of place. The only real disadvantage of this is that the strings go over the pickups slightly to one side, although they still go over the poles, and are slightly oddly angled to play.The stiff pickup selector has become the 3 nice toggles, And when I can, I will replace the 2 worn out pots and put new steel covers on them. The jack socket has come loose once or twice but this is two seconds work with a fingernail to tighten so i dont mind.

I have also replaced the strap nuts with locking nuts and a leather fender strap which can lock onto them. This means that i can play live without the guitar falling off. Because of all the replacement components of good quality, This guitar could quite easily withstand a gig. The strings I use are D'addario XLs, heavy to light guage, and make the guitar sound even better, as well as last a long time. There is only one electric guitar in my hands and thats this one. I cannot use a backup, because I dont have one. And anyway, I'm not sure what I'd do with it. . . It just wouldnt be the same. . . . .

Ack, screw them, I'm upgrading it myself.

Ive been playing for 2 years now, I own this guitar and an argoustic (dont ask. . . Its a cheap classical guitar which I changed to look like a steel string when i got bored) I would never replace thhis guitar. I would go out, save up and buy a Fender jazzmaster, and fit it with a fixed bridge and a pair of EMG81 Active humbuckers. I wish this guitar had come a little better made, I'd have gladly paid #200 for the guitar I nearly have now, If it had a better made body. It would be the same design, but in ALder with a metal flake or black finish. A better single coil would be good too, and forget about the amp. That guitar for #200 or even #250 - #300 would be well worth it. I made the mistake of buying this guitar and having to go through this laborious trial and replacemnet. Dont bother. Theres nothing worse than learning on a rubbish guitar and then being stuck with it and having it drag you down. Beginners, Dont buy a cheap guitar like this, buy something like a real mexican fender or a guitar that may cost alot, but trust me: will far outlive and outplay and be in general a hundred times better than something like this. Its a great sounding guitar, but it just wasnt worth the money.

I think this was made in Japan...
22 frets.
Laminated top.
One volume knob, one tone, 5 way PU selector
humbucker - single coil - humbucker

Plenty of features. Nothing spectacular though. I really love being able to switch from SC to HB in the flick of a switch. That's partly what sold me on this guitar.

My style is somewhat similar to Tool and Janes Addiction. I love that thin dry metallic tone. I like my tone to sound brittle and crisp, not lumpy and saturated.

On the SC PU it's quite noisy. If you can find the right position you'll be ok.

The sound is fairly basic. Doesn't really drastically sound like one thing or another. Just neutral...

The actuall look, feel, and durability of the guitar seems just fine. I'm using it in a 'studio' setting only and haven't had many problems.

The one thing that did bother me somewhat is the cable jack. Some internal parts came loose and I had to spend $15 to get it replaced and repaired.

I've had this guitar for 2 years and nothing seems loose or warped. Fairly solid.

I'm not sure if I would want to use this to play live. Considering the problems with the cable jack...
I'm sure that it would be fine without that one problem. And that's probably just me anyway.

The finish hasn't pealed off whatsoever. :)

I wouldn't use it without a backup.

Bought it at a local store. No problems so far.

I've been playing about 8 years. I also own a Yamaha acoustic, a Peavy bass, 2 amps, a delay pedal, and a home studio based on Cool Edit Pro.

If it were lost I would not get a new one. I'd save up my $ for something better. BUT, I would make sure that the new guitar, whatever it is, had the PUs in the exact same configuration as the ERG121.

Ok thes 20 reviews so I wont go into details, but I'm an intermediate but more of a beginner. I've been playing for a year now but I've been limeted in the amount of music I can do because of my guitar. I have a very old spanish, a family heirloom, a playable but barely #35 guitar from argos. I'll play anything from oasis to slipknot if it'll stand still long enough. The band I'm in kinda shares that sentiment, so thats what I do. I dont need a big guitar, and this one to me feels just right. I always liked strats, but they were just too rounded. Which is why I quite like this one. I have very little money, so I needed something that was cheap and came twith an amp. I can tune a guitar, so tuning wasnt a problem. Mine comes on friday of this week. It cost #140 from digital village. This is the standard pack. Frankly, If I find that the middle pickup and 5 way are poor quality, I'll get my guitar teacher to replace thewm for me when I've bought the new parts. I love this guitar. It's like Kurt Cobain when He got his Fender custom. It's my dream guitar. If I think the bridge is crap, I'll buy a floyd rose tremolo and get it fitted. It doesnt bother me too much.

I have no style in particular, and with a warm a crunchy and a clean pickup this is good for me. If there are any tuning or selector problems I'll get them sorted but a friend of mine has this guitar and he finds it fine!

I'll tell you that when i've got it but my friends is fine.

I have no backup! If it failed, We'd play with only a lead guitar. By what I've seen It'll last for as long as I need it. If I become a pro, I'll get a fender custom exactly the same as this one, only with better quality parts (real floyd rose, 2 grand pickups, maple capped body yada yada yada. . .)

Havent got a clue and dont care really, If something fails I'll soup it up when I replace it!!!

I havent finished getting my set up done yet, I dont ecven have the guitar yet, but i'll probably end up with something on the lines of: ERG121, some digital effects box or mebbe a pod, A marshall amp an My #50 phonic mixer for recording or gigs. I've been playing for a year. I need an electric. This is better than a strat. (they're made of MDF for cryin out loud!!!!!) It came complete, it cost #60 less than a strat, I like it better. It sounds better, I just wish the amp was a 10w marshall instead of a yamaha. I love this guitar in all it's glory. If i need to make it better electronics, I will! All hail yamaha for this almighty masterpiece.

This (my first guitar) came in a package which also had a Yamaha G-10 amp (crap), a tutor book + CD, a lead and a gig bag.
The ERG-121 is a black, Ibanez/Strat shape (H/S/H) made from basswood (i think), with a vintage vibrato bridge (strat style), and a slimish maple neck (25.5" scale) with a rosewood fretboard with 22 frets.
It has 2 ceramic humbuckers and 1 single coil in the mid position (all uncovered, non-wax-potted and passive), with a 5-way switch, 1 vol and 1 tone.
They could have included a strap, picks and maybe strings, but the guitar more than makes up for it.

The bridge PU is good for rock, metal and some clean stuff, as it is crisp and full sounding in distortion (my Laney HCM30R). Good when thicker strings are put on. It's a bit honky when digging into the strings hard on clean, but it is none-the-less versaltile.
The bridge/mid opt is good for a funk, strat like tone.
The mid PU is good for rythm (clean or dist) but is a bit thin for lead.The mid/neck is, again, thin sounding, for rythm.
The neck PU is good for blues licks and solos in overdrive etc., but it is quite muddy with chords. It is bassier and smoother than the bridge on clean, and not that muddy. It again, has a crisp kind of tone.
The pickups could have been wax-potted as they are a little noisy, but nothing unbearable.

The build quality of this guitar is above average for its price. I am impressed. The nut, electronics and tuners are all fine. I had to replace the selector switch cos it broke.
I had 10-52 Ernie Ball strings put on for lower tunigs, and it really improved the guitars tone (it came with 09's and a nice, lowish action). The frets are Jumbo or high (easier to play than my Epiphone G-400 with medium frets), and look well done, without any sharp edges. The balance is good too.
The vibrato is ok when used spraringly, but too hard and it affects tuning. I dont use it much anyway.

This guitar seems really solidly built; as above. The finish has several light dents in it. The guitar doesnt go out of tune easily; very good. It is also quite light (compared to eg, a Les Paul).

N/A

I've been playing for 2+ years now, and I still play this guitar. Its really solid and well built, and will seem to last. The black finish is smart, too.
I got this guitar instead of a Squier Strat package, and I'm glad I did. To me, it is more versatile than a Strat (the humbuckers are good) and, although the package was lacking a little, it's a great guitar. I now have an Epiphone G-400 (cherry) and it is not good, though not as versatile as the ERG-121.
If stolen, I would might buy again, but I would probably look into a different Yamaha model (Pacifia or RGX420s/D6).

Made in 2001 in Indonesia. 22 frets, H/S/H etc, etc, etc... See other reviews. Nice black finish. Features are pretty what you'd expect for the price (cheap,) maybe a bit more even.

I play black/death/thrash metal and such. I use a V-Amp2 for recording and occasionally an Ibanez TB15R 15-watt amp. The single coil pickup is awfully noisy but gives a nice clean sounds. The neck humbucker is pretty worthless, too little gain. Bridge pickup sounds rather good, although a tad noisy at times it is what I use and I'm reasonably satisfied with it for the price. With the ridiculous amounts of cheap digital distortion I usually use it's not as if more expensive pickups would really make that much of a difference anyway.

Very easy to play, that's basically it. I can't and won't go into details.

I've had this for more than a year now... What's happened is this:

* Cable jack thingie gets loose very easily. I think it should stay put now though.
* Tone control has become loose. Ironically I probably use the Volume control much more and that works just fine, so I assume that is built better...
* Pickup selector has become noisier and changing to the neck pickup doesn't always work. Not like I ever used that anyway though.
* Low E tuner has become sensitive as fuck. The guitar still stays in tune reasonably well though.

I couldn't really depend on this live for the above mentioned reasons... But it's not really designed for live playing either, and I don't plan on playing live.

Haven't dealt with 'em.

I have been playing more or less for about 3 years. This is my first electric guitar and looking back I wish I had bought something a TAD more expensive perhaps, but then again this was an infinitely better choice than some generic cheapo Strat clone for what I play. If it was stolen, I'd get something better. A not-too-expensive Gibson, Jackson or Ibanez probably. This is good stuff for the price but is not without its share of problems.

2001 Indonesian,
22 fret
voulme, tone and 5 way pickup selector
Pickups: H/S/H passive
Probably a plywood body
Black Double cutaway body, no pickguard
Start style trem
Comes with Gig bag and Yamaha 10W amp.

It is a starter guitar so what can you expect, it sounds worse than a pacifica but better than any squire I know. I started off using the original amp and it was awfull, very low gain, though when using higher gain amps and effects it gets better. Clean is good anyway. The pickups make a lot of noise, expecially the middle single coil. You cant expect much for the price.

One of the best playing guitars Ive ever played, though I learnt on this gutar so its not suprising. Epiphones have a much less comfortable neck, the neck on this guitar is superb. Finish on it is good, basic, but good.

The pickup selector makes a lot of noise after some use but appart from that the only problem Ive had over the last one and half years is the strap button, which I replaced with strap locks anyway, coming loose, pretty solid Id say, though I take care of it.

Never delt with them.

Very good first guitar, could use better pickups and pickup selector, but a very nice guitar to play and well built, Id say the use the same necks as on the pacifica. Ideal starter pack appart from the amp which sounds weak when overdriven.

I think as far as i know it was made in 2000, in a really crappy country (Indonesia, i mean think i bet they are paying little children to mass produce these,) shame really, anyway ill go on. It has 22 frets, two bridge humbuckers and one single coil, black (i think this is the only colour it is available in) with a plastic finish :( , volume and tone control, not sure on the neck or body wood however, although they seem to be average.
Its a strange looking guitar, but as someone said earlier it really does make a nice change from all the damn strat copies. NO PICKGUARD which i will explain how bad it is later.
EXTRAS
GIG BAG (no strap!!! grrr)
CRAPPY CABLE (broke few weeks after i got it)
BOOK (had a look, but it was all REALLY begginer stuff like how to hold a guitar lol, although i think there is some good stuff in there near the end)
CD ( had a listen but i didnt understand it so ill try later :S)
YAMAHA 10W AMP (i would swear to god this isnt ten watt, but other than that its a very reliable little amp, only basic controls but the sound produced is fairly good if you experiment a bit)
WHAMMY BAR (there is no way im sticking this in my guitar, firstly because the strange looking tremolo doesnt look like it could take it and second it looks as if it would break on first try)

Since i play any punk/rock,(mainly NFG Blink Ataris Good Charlotte)the guitar suited my needs with A LOT of configuring of buttons and controls. Irritatingly my cord broke very quickly for no apparent reason :S and i had to get a huge thick one to keep the guitar in place. Since i rarely play clean and now that ive moved onto a Marshal MG series 50WDFX amp i dont suppose ill ever know what the clean sounds like, but the distortion was fantastic when i fixed the bad displacement of the pickups. I have to put the guitar down in the pickup department; at the time of getting the guitar i was a begginer and i didnt know the difference in pickups, however now im at pretty much intermediate level and the pickup quality is poor. I was thinking of gettin seymour duncan invader humbuckers however
it isnt worth the money on this guitar since it isnt a performer and i plan on getting a new one soon. Tuning the damned thing is a nightmare, it is always out of tune and it didnt come with a tuner (and i cant be arsed to go down to the shops and get one) so i have to either tune it by ear (GOD there is nothing mroe annoying) or use the one on my comp which someimes refuses to work. Other than that i think in general this guitar gives off a good sound for its price, but it seriously (unless you muck around with it and buy new things A LOT, which isnt worth the money and effort) is only for Punk/ Rock, or maybe Metal with a new amp.

For the first few months of owning it, i thought it was great in the finish department, and i had no idea it was made in Indonesia. Unfortunatley as time went on i learnt more and more about te guitars stats and origin.Iwas really pissed off when i had bought a new pleck and found HUGE scratches on an area where the pickguard should have been. I have to pay extra for a pickguard now to cover it up because the scratches look so horrible. Lots of little dents, smudges and other things are on the guitars main body (even on the pickups) even though i clean and polish it regularly. Terrible pickup selector (although it doesnt bother me couse i never change pickups, no need to) which only moves if a fair bit of effort is put in, which would probably not be very useful when playing live. The actual strings (which i am guessing are of low quality anyway) have done me well, not one as ever snapped so i never needed to change them. I think people playing this gutiar live (not recommended) would want to change the strings to some Ernie Ball Top Heavy or something similar because the Yamaha Strings were actually designed to play slow songs which wont last for constant violent strumming.

Ive never used this guitar live, although i will test it soon but i cant say it would be a great choice. I would recommend straplocks if you do however, since the strap buttons are REALLY bad and the strap will slip off very easily. For some reason the Input is located on the side of the guitar instead of near the volume controls etc, so if your leg hits it it might be knocked out of place :S. The finish is really bad, the worst thing on the guitar and really pisses me off the amount of scratches that are so easily put onto it.

Luckily have never had to use customer support.

Ive been playing for around a year, at about intermediate Grade 1 level. There is no way i would buy this guitar again if it was lost or stolen, not because of the guitar but simply because i would want to move onto something better.

Likes: the sound, when configured and moved onto a better amp you can really get some good stuff out of a begginers guitar thats pretty cheap.

Dislikes: pickups, strap buttons, finish, whammy bar and indonesian origin (no racism just indonesia isnt known for high quality guitars)

Nice change from millions of wannabe guitarists with strat copies, but i cant say its a fantastic guitar. its just a fairly good thing all round which is good considering its a Yamaha.