Yamaha ERG-121

The ERG212 is actually made in indonesia ... sorta says it for this guitar huh? I bought it as my first guitar, and knowing nothing about guitars i thought "sweet, looks nice", oh was i wrong. Its got 22 frets wich hardly suited my neo-classicl style, so if your yngwie malmsteen fans kids, DO NOT get the ERG 121! However if you just want it for nu-metal/mainstream/punk rock ... try it out.
The guitars a superstart body with black laminated finish and features 1 tone switch and 1 volume control, and may i say now the pickups and pickup selector are both awful. I had this guitar for about half a year and one of the humbuckers broke :/ and when i went to fit my seymore duncan invader i saw "Indonesia" on the bottom of the pickwich came with the ERG121. Before i fitted the new picked i didnt even play on my neck pickups (where the humbucker was) and i wasnt exactly ruthless with it ... how did it break? poor electrics? I think so!
The guitars neck is made out of rosewood and is horrible for slides, though when your new to guitar i suppose your not to bother about the neck, so hey dont worry.
The bridge on the ERG121 is also poor (suprise suprise) ...and doesnt even compare to any floyd rose products, saying that there both worlds apart.
My ERG121 pack cost #170 English Pounds, i look back and wonder why in the world i paid that. It came with Book/Cd, Gig Bag, Yamaha 10watt amp (wich isnt 10watt at all! its pathetic cracks up at quater volume!)
Also this guitar is the worst guitar to play with live, i mean me and my band were in the midst of Yngwie Malmsteen - Faster Than The Speed Of Light (neo classical guitars look that song up ... now!) and i started to hear my guitar slip outta tune, so i went 2mins with fucked tuning, probably drop c (not exagerating). By the time we were on again i had to retune, maximu count through out the gig of 7 tunings (hehe i should have bought lock in nuts)
I say to all new guitarists spend the extra money and buy a Yamaha Pacifica and amp pack, it worth it, DAMIT dont even consider the ERG121.
My current setup: Yamaha RGX -> DOD PEDAL -> 65Watt Peavey Studio Pro 112 Amp, is rather alot better than what i started with :)

As for suiting my music style, it doesnt, i play Neo-Classical. The ERG121 is far to high gain, horrible pre amp. Produces a fuzzy thick monotanous sound :/

Likes:
.... the distortion when i first bought it for "Bush - Machine Head"

Dislikes:
The Guitar ...?

Again terrible pickups, fit new ones if you buy the ERG121!

Stats: 1 = Terrible - 10 = ooooo whats that in my boxers ><``??

Live Playing: 1
Finish: 3 (dents very easily)
Dependant?: nope not at all
Would i use it for a gig?: you kidding!! no way!

Yamaha are quite helpfull. Ironically had to phone them to enquire about a broken pickup (haha)...

Overall:

Playability: 2
LifeSpan: 1
Character: 0
Sound: -1

Final Words:

Ok for those people just breaking into guitar and finding your sound, soon as your upto scales and modes you contemplate the choice of the ERG121. To all experience players, stay clear (like youd buy it anyway).

- Dan P 2003

About 2000 NOK

Yamaha strat style, black, H\S\H, 5 way megasvitch, Thin and slow neck. Standard bridge, 22 frets, bolt on, 1 volum and 1 tone knob well that should be it, read other rewievs for more detaljs.

It was in pack that i bought for 3-4 years before with:

Gigbag
Amp (GA 10, monster!)
Picks
Tuner
Cable
Extra pack of strings (hella sucked)
Strap

Let's make this thing clear, IT IS FOR BEGINNERS, an experienced player would start to cry if he bought this.

I give it 8 because it is perfeck for beginners. I threw it away after one year.

And please forgive my language, i'm Norwegian.

I play anything from black metal (Dimmu Borgir) too blues. The guitar is very verstile, the pickups suck but they can do for a beginner. I played i throught a zoom 707 - amp, it is noisy on the singlecoil in the middle. The guitar can play deep and high. Again it's for beginners

It was not well set up from the store, the pickups were totally wrong adjusted, the strings was too low and to much fret buzz, that was adjusted easily. the color seem to last. the tuners SUCK, if i leave it alone for 5 min it is out of tune.

This guitar can't withstand live playing, i played it 2 times for the school and i was lucky. The first time we were playing "bad moon rising", i left the guitar on stage before the show and when it our turn I HAD TO TUNE IT FIVE TIMES before it came in tune. The other time went well (only two times). I don't depend on it. If you play too hard it will get out of tune.

Beginners should get a jackson dx10 instead.

I give it 3 because only squirers fall apart.

Haven't tried, can fixs everything myself.

I've played for 3 years now and know every kirk solo. If you have money for only this, save more and get a jackson dx10. Thats it!

Bought it in 2001. 22 frets, 5 way selector 1 volume and 1 tone, H/S/H, passive pickups, Basswood, came with 10 watt Laney amp, good quality bag, strap, cable. AUD$400 (australia) excellent value for money for a beginner.

I play a variety of styles but mainly hard rock/mainstream metal(Incubus,Deftones,SOAD,Ratm).
my setup is Yamaha ERG 121 ----> Boss GT6 multi effects -----> Laney harcore max 10 watt amp
the bridge pickup is excellent for rock/hardrock styles. Neck HB gives a reasonable blues tone when used with GT6. the single coil middle pickup is the only drawback as far as a good beginners tone is concerned. when i use high gain it is very nosiy, and in my opinion sounds terrible. Overall, if you only use the HB's the tone is great for a guitar of this price range

Set up was exellent, the body and fretboard were flawless. i bought this guitar about a year ago and i had little experience so i didn't really notice the pickups. about 7 months after i got it i noticed that a screw from the pickup holder had come off from the neck HB and the pickup become loose. Also after about 9 months the toggle switch made noticible humming noises when i changed pickups. i fixed this by removing the back plate behind the toggle switch and filed the contacts with a bit of sandpaper and tweezers. it fixed the problem reasonable well. Overall very good setup, but the toggle switch is poor.

THis guitar is fairly durable, ive been playing it non stop for the past year and the only defects were the one that i stated previously. ive had no problems with the strap buttons. the finish is definitly good enough to last, has had not signs of wearing. i use it mainly to jam with friends, i haven't played live.

1 year warrenty

Played it for a year and it has done its job outstandingly - which was to raise me from a complete beginner to about an intermediate guitarist. As i am fairly experinced now, if it were stolen i would not buy it again, NOT because it is a poor guitar but because i am at the stage now where i have out growen this beginners guitar. This guitar as a package with an amp is an ideal option for a beginner. Overall i'd say its championship material for the price.

Early 2000's made somewhere in the east.
22 frets
Volume, Tone and 5 way selector
H/S/H
Black finish
RGX and pacifica hybrid styling (not as sharp as the RGX but no pickguard)
Normal Whammy bar
GA-10 amp, gig bag and tutor.

I play metal and any other rock, but my guitar doesnt, I play through the GA-10 amp a BOSS SD-1 and sometimes I put in a zoom 503 for delay, chorus etc. I get lots of feedback because the sound it makes forces me to use both the SD-1 and amp distortion to get a metal sound. I realy hate the sound of it genrally and every guitar Ive played sounds better.

I dont know much about the setup it was my first guitar, but every guitar Ive tried since is easier to play. Finished well but doesnt play well.

Ive never played it live but its quite rugged, the pickup selector stoppeed working but some switch cleaner fixed that, the finish is a tough plastic but scratches do show. The strapp buttons fall off but I jammed a matchstick to fix that, mind you I did change them for straplocks.

Never used it.

Ive been playing for just about a year and Im itching to get a better guitar, one which sounds good and plays easily, but it was cheap. But some strat copies are better even if cheaper.

made in indonesia not sure when
standard guage strings altho i changed mine to 8-38's i like em that way.
22 frets
maple wood neck(smooth back easy sliding :))
1 volume, 1 tone, 5way pick up selector
black,black and black shiny :)
strat style body
very thin neck
came with a gig bag, some random which i have ignored, some beginners book. comes with a CD,
also had a cheapy cable(angled)
NO strap!

all these ratings are considering the price which was dirt cheap!

right i play from the blues, led zep to pumpkins, tool so pretty much everything. Does the job pretty well considering the price.
guitar--->zoom707II--->fender 15R
has a bit of noise but what do you expect for #100
i quite like it as a whole, i can switch from blues to hard rock easily. I used this for my recording coursework and the sound was fine, make sure you are not too close to the equipment and standing at the right andgle to it and you get almost no noise :)

right action is quite high, but that's what i'm used to now :(. the pickups were fine, the pcik up selector does make quite alot of noise when switching between them, the pcik up selector was loose when it arrived, the screw fell out and i didn't find it for months so i had to put up with a loose pick up for a bit.

never played live, but i don't think this will last. The finish is fine and will last some time, back of the neck is still smooth and easily "slidable" after 8 months .but, my pick up selector is buggered(from today) cos i carried it to school. i need to pull it to a certain angle otherwise sound doesn't come thru . should be able to adjust it so it works. Right one thing i now realise why the jack plug socket on all other guitars is on the main body rather than on the side of the guitar(look for pics and you know what i mean). Imagine dropping this guitar, well the jack plug got stuck in the guitar. managed to get it out but plastic is a bit worn, altho it's cheapy plastic so i could easily make a replacement cover. The cover on the back has a small segment of it, nothing major, but bear in mind i have done no live playing only taken it to school to do some recording. The strap buttons suck! that's why i dropped this guitar in the first place! Altho you can depend on this just take care of it like everything else. bumping it around doesn't do any major damage. Fret wear is minimal but noticable.
I would not gig with this, this would be my back up. i don't wanna drop my guitar on stage!

never dealt with them

I've been playing 8 months, i don't own anything else but hey. this is definately a good beginners guitar and the price is amazing. If this were stolen i would get round to buying another guitar, but until then, or until it breaks i will use this. I do like this guitar tho, it is sooooo easy to play. Altho i do wish that yamaha supplied a larger gig bag, it's a tight fit as the extra length of the fret board. In comparison to my pals guitars, this isn't so bad apart from those will fender strats and #500 guitars. But the advantage of this is that it makes a nice change from just seeing the fender/squire. And once again the price is brilliant :)

Its been writen before but you know the drill.... Black cool shape, NO PICK GUARD, 22 frets, nice sized neck for my hands (and everyone else who has played it). Two humbuckers and a single but i never use the neck humbucker or the single, they are Ok tho i just dont find they suit the sound that i am looking for. It came with 10 watt practice amp, lead, strap, pic and learn to play guide.

Yamaha ERG-121 ---> Boss DS-1 ---> GA-10 Watt amp supplied. I find that it is great for my kind of music (nirvana to green day) but then again i dont have a lot of experience. I've been playing for a year now, on this for 10 months, a borrowed acoustic the first two.

Set up pretty well tho the guys at the shop did some work on it too. Pickups came loose but i tightened them up. one problem is fret buzz on the 6th fret on the g b and e stings.

I have dropped it countless times and it is still good. I havent played live yet but i will be doing so soon nad i will use this guitar. i have faith in it! Strap buttons are good, the strap itself is bad. i would have to depend on it in a live situation becasue i couldnt afford another guitar at the moment.

Never dealt with them

I love this guitar and when i try my friends strat it makes me sooooo glad i got this one instead! the neck and body are more comfy and the pickups are better. if lost or stolen, i would search around for a different guitar, but only because my experience has increased. the guitar is fine as it is but it has its limitations in that tjhe pickups arent really top quality and there is that fret buzz problem. One final thing is the strings that it comes with! they are amazing, i've had them for ten months and not one of them has broken (and i play very violently) and they all have top-banana tone to them still!

A YAMAHA ERG 121 IN BLACK!! USUAL SPECS... E.T.C.

AN AVERAGE TYPE OF QUALITY

CHEAP FITTINGS BUT HEY I GOT IT CHEAP AS TO ADD TO MY COLLECTION OF 20 GUITARS... AND BOUGHT IT NEW AS THE WHOLESALERS COULDNT SELL THEM, SO I BOUGHT 10 UNITS AND MADE A PROFITT..

GOOD FOR ME EH!!

I USED IT ON STAGE AT A GIG WITH MY BAND AND SMASHED IT UP DELIBETRATLEY AFTER THE SECOND SONG, CAME BACK ON STAGE WITH AN IDENTICLE ONE THEN THOUGHT FUCK THIS AND BRIOUGHT IN MY BC RICH WARLOCK CUSTOM MADE WITH GOLD PLATED FITTINGS AND NAME INSCRIBED INTO THE FRETBOARD THATS WHEN THE SOUND OF THE BAND SOUNDED HOW IT SHOULD "HARD ROCK HEAVY METAL"

NONE, THEY WONT ACCEPT CUSTOMER DAMAGE "STAGE DAMAGE"

SORRY GUYS DONT TELL YA FRIENDS ABOUT IT OR THEY WILL HATE YOU.

Here is the reviev of my brother's guitar.

Made in Indonesia. Parchaps 2000 year. 22 frets. 5-way selector. H-S-H. Piskups made by Samshin or something like that. Passive electronics. Body basswood. I do not have any idea what is neck made from. Body is black and looks very good. A bit like RGX by Ibanez. Came with a gig bag. It's quite light axe.

Well. This body can produce good sound but not with these pickups. Single coil is noisy, humbuckers are better. I am plying rock and the sound of the humbuckers isn't exatctly what I want, the same about my brother (did I mention that it's his guitar?). But after 4 months he was able to seriously damage bridge humbucker so I replaced it with Schaller Golden 50 and the combination of ERG 121 body and Schaller pickup gives so good sound that I am seriouslu considerating putting the same pickup to my EG 112.
Body - 8/10
Pickups - 6/10

Everything OK, almost everything. Sometimes pickup selector create noise. But after all almost everything was OK.

Heh. The guitar is rock solid. Very reliable. After small tuning it can be used for live playing. My brother can depend on it. It will last forever

I said something about czanging the pickup - my brother was trying to regulate it's position (he wanted it to be deeper inside guitar). But he was using a knife (idiot) and he cut wiring, so it wasn't Yamaha's fault.

There wasn't problems (except for that humbucker).

If it were stolen and I could'nt afoord Pacifica I'd buy it again. But I would change the pickup. But this is god guitars for practicng, and after few modifications it is great also forr experienced players

this is such a kewl guitar! especially if your into heavier music. if your into the softer stuff, i wouldnt recommend getting it (get a squier for a slightly higher price or pacifica for big gay price).
22 frets, very shiny and stuff, vol and tone knobs and 5-way selector, 1 single-coil pickup and 2 humbuckers, basswood body, rosewood and maple neck, black finish.

BY THE WAY ITS AN RGX-STYLE SHAPE

all the stuff u need and a gig bag come with it.
buy this now, stupid.

#117 for guitar

it is, as i say, a heavy harsh evil guitar. and very, very loud.

the pickups werent great. thats all i can say on the negatives.
the finish was superb and it was just the right size.

i only got this a few weeks ago but it looks like itll last for ages. possibly become a family heir loom.

hell, its Yamaha.
but ive obviously never needed any support with the thing so i dunno.

Overall, this is what you should be in order for this to be your guitar-
a kid
a heavy rock fan (eg slipknot etc.)
a newcomer
someone that saw an RGX in a shop, said look at that! then said look at that price tag!
this is a damn good bargain.

things u shud not be
someone old
someone expecting a mellow sound
a 5 year old that is trying to be a rock star

Standard Yamaha ERG-121

-21 frets
-5 way selector, 1 tone, 1 volume
-H/S/H Stock Pickups
-Black Strat(-style) w/Rosewood neck.
-Non-locking tuners
-Inc. 10watt Yamaha Amp, and gig bag.

This guitar suits most styles in terms of beginner levels. My friend uses this with the Yamaha GA10 amp supplied, and a Marshall G30RCD amp at our music centre. (I use a Squier Strat, with Peavy Rage 158/Marshall MG80RCD, which in my opinion is much better.)

Good points of the guitar:

- Good variations on tone due to 5 way selector switch
- Reasonably good (for price) bridge pick-up

Bad points:

- Poor sound difference between humbuckers and single coil
- Bridge humbucker sounds very muddy clean
- Middle pickup sounds very harsh
- Poor sustain
- Pickups are very noisy

Reasonably well set up:

Action is ok, not very high, not great though, could do with lowering.

Pickups are well placed, but not very good unfortunately.

No flaws in the body or neck.

Haha, well, he's got his first gig on Thursday, so we'll see.

Personally I think it is reasonably well built, with only a few qualms.

- Strap buttons do not hold straps very well.
- Gold bridge looks cheap and will probably wear off.

I would never gig without a back up, unfortunately he will have to, as he doesn't have another guitar.

Never dealt with Yamaha

I have been playing 1 1/2 years, my friend (who owns the guitar), about 4 months.

I was not particularly impressed by the guitar overall. To be honest it is mediocre for that price range. In a similar range I feel the Squier Affinity Stratocaster is a much better bargain.