Yamaha ERG-121

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.

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.

#175
Nice chrome bridge, nothing particularly fancy, 22 frets. Gig back, trem (whammy) bar 10W amp, strings, strap came with it. Simple but very good.

I play nearly every type of music, ill play punk, blues, metal, grunge, anything. I play it through a zoom 505II multi-effects pedal and a Marshall G30OR CD 30W amp. It stands up to anything i play and offers unbelievable sound. Without the Zoom 505II it still sounds brilliant, with sharp tone from the bridge pickup and smooth rythm tone from the neck pickup. Can't believe it was so cheap!

Low action, very easy to play, black finish with chrome accessories.I play it more than 2 hrs every day and i've had it for about 8 months and it's still in mint condition. Still got the same tone + sustain as the day i bought it!

I've played live quite a few times with this guitar and it handels it very well. The hardware seems like it will last forever , no faults yet and i cant see any coming in the near future. No fretboard wearing and i play it a lot!

Never needed it, dont think i ever will.

I own a boston acoustic, i've been playing for about 1 1/2 years and i play regular live gigs with my band. We mainly play metallica and some of our own stuff, i play lead (the solos n stuff) this guitar is perfect. It's a lot better than fenders squire started pack, the tone is so good on this guitar.

Made in Indonesia, 6 string Ibanez/Strat mixture, without a scratchplate, shiny and black, goddam sexy! H/S/H config, 5 way selector and 1 tone and volume knob. Nice Chrome bridge to finish it off. simplistic but nice, if kinda evil looking. Dont know about the wood types, but the action is real close to the board without any buzzing whatsoever, and with the thin neck and low action it is a beast to play.
Comes with a standard tremolo, gig bag, tuner, strings and amp.

i play Metal (pantera, korn, metallica, slipknot and my own stuff). currentlly i run it through a GFX 707 and a marshall G50RCD, and trust me it sounds great, whatever tuning, either standard to dropped B. The humbuckers are fantastic for finger tapping and have a great sustain. Also sounds great clean. pickups are very sensitive, which may be a problem clean, but it depends what ur playing.
there isnt one part i dont like.

Action is great for a guitar that cost around 100 quid. pickups are nicely set, no problems with wiring, no humming etc. got this one as a replacemnt for the EG112 and it rules.

this guitar has been used for at leats an hour a day, often m,ore for the last 8 months. and it still plays as good as the day i got it. no rust on the hardware as yet, still nice n shiny. no problems with the strap as long as its not twisted. as long as the strings hold up to my shredding the guitar will easily withstand a live act. the body itslef seems a little easy to scratch but nothing easily noticable, no dents as yet.

never tried.

have been playing for 18 months and out of a EG112, squire strat and ERG121, the ERG121 rules in sound quality. proper distortion! the humbuckers, as they were from the box seem even better than that of an epiphone les paul, a mere #200 more expensive. Fretboard is fast and takes a lot to get dirty. no knobs have fallen off after 8 months of use and with decent enough attention i reckon it will last for at least 5 more years, or till i can afford a top of the range BC Rich

The Yamaha ERG-121 is a double cutaway, stylized super-strat body style with no pickguard. It has a solid, basswood body and bolt-on maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets. The pickup configuration is Humbucker/Single Coil/Humbucker. One volume knob, one tone knob, 5-way selector switch and vintange trem bridge. Inexpensive, but decent chrome hardware. The finish comes in your choice of black, black, or black. ;) The guitar was purchased in January, 2002 as part of Yamaha's new "Gigmaker" Electric package. The package comes with a GA-10 ten watt (actually 7 watts) practice amp, a gig bag, string winder, Yamaha electronic tuner, string winder, 09 strings, nylon strap and a few picks. This is marketed as a "Starter Package," aimed at the low end market. Yamaha's marketing materials even tout the guitar and accessory package as something kids will enjoy without busting the parents' budget. But, with the exception of the basswood body, this is almost the same guitar as Yamaha's RGX series. This may be a low-priced guitar, but it is not a low quality instrument at all. The whole shebang cost $300 US, brand new.

I have no set style. I play everything with a discernible melody and chord progression, including blues and rock, pop, country, jazz and my own stuff. The long scale length, vintage tremolo bridge and H/S/H pickup configuration of this guitar provides a lot of versatility. The 5-way selector allows you to choose the neck humbucker by itself, the neck HB with the single coil, the single coil by itself, the S with the bridge HB, and the bridge HB by itself. You ought to be able to play almost any style of music with this guitar. However, we are not talking about top-of-the-line gear here, so there are some quality issues. For starters, basswood is not the prime choice of tonewoods. It's Ok, but that's it. The single coil PU hums when it's cranked, and the bridge humbucker sounds a little cheesy if you try to get a clean tone out of it. Crank it up and drive it out though, and you'll get plenty of crunch. I've been able to get throbbing bass out of it, clean rock tones, wailing blues and warm, jazzy color. None of these qualities stand out, though. This guitar does many sounds well, but none of them exceptionally. About what you'd expect from a lower end, stock guitar aimed at the mass market.

Factory setup was very nice. The action is low, clean and quick; intonation is right on target. It is very easy to play, with no fret buzz. I've gone over the guitar with a 4x reading glass. There are no visible flaws. Yamaha's quality control has always been exacting, and there is absolutely nothing poorly done with this guitar. It's not top-end, but it's not cheap, either.

The back of the box this thing sells in says that it includes a 'full size, professional quality guitar.' Ok, it is full-sized, but professional quality may be a bit of a stretch. It certainly plays easily enough to pass as professional quality. It looks good enough. But whether it's built well enough to take the constant abuse of professional play (both studio and live gigs) remains to be seen. Durability aside, the factory pickups are definitely NOT professional quality. Replace the pickups with something a little better, and we have a different story. A professional musician probably wouldn't take this axe on the road, except as a backup, an alternate tuning axe for one set, etc. If you only play at home or only intend to jam with friends, this is a great guitar.

Yamaha offers a limited lifetime warranty. I'll probably never need it.

I'm an intermediate acoustic guitarist. This is my first solid body electric. I was looking for a versatile, low-priced, solid-body axe to play around with and expand into electric guitar. After playing Epiphone, Fender and Ibanez 'starter guitars,' I was blown away by this package. It cost about $100 more than I thought I would spend (giving you an idea of just how low-end I was looking for). I could tell very little difference between this guitar and Yamaha's pricier RGX series. From a quality vs. price standpoint, Fender's Squier series isn't even in the same league. Ibanez makes a decent entry level axe, but the sound quality issues killed the deal. Aesthetically, this guitar is sexy and seductive. Yamaha's interpretation of the Super Strat style, the high gloss black finish and chrome hardware just look great. If you're just starting out and need a decent guitar at a decent price, the ERG121 is tough to beat. It sounds Ok. It looks good. It's priced right. The only thing that prevents this guitar from scoring a 10 is that it is a lower-end axe and it's not going to sound like a $1,000 Super Strat or Paul Reed Smith. The humming SC pickup and cheesy tone of the bridge HB are the only significant drawbacks to this guitar. If it were lost or stolen, I'd take the insurance check and get another one (and have new pickups installed). It's a good value.

The ERG121 is a guitare with 22frets. It`s solid with 1 Volume and 1 Tone Leveler, 5-way-switch and two Humbuckers and 1 Single Coile between them. You could choose them with a 5-way-switch. It has got a Tremolo which I don`t used, because I had to tune the guitar after playing with this. The accessories were a gig bag and a 3mtr cable and a tool to convex or concarve the nec.

The sound iss very good. I use it with a Hughes & Kettner thirty and a Zoom effect. I play all kind music (punk,country,hard) and I could play all styles with the guitar.

I had some problems with the switch, because it doesn't work properly after playing a year. But I repaired it with cleaning the switch. The other thing is the tremolo which I never used, because if you use it, you have to tune your guitar always. From factory it is a good guitar. I changed no pickups or so.

It`s easy to play this guitar. It`s ideal for beginners because it has all features which you use, and when you play some years you can buy a new guitar which has the features you only need. I missed no feature when I played the guitar. The guitar is also good as a second gutare with another tuning on stage or as a training guitare at home

I never needed Customer support, and that is the best costumer support which a company can ever give.

Overall it's a good beginner guitare and had all features which you need at first. It's a very good guitar for price I'd paied. So I would buy it again as a beginner or if I wouldn`t have the money to buy me Really good guitar. I played it over a year on every day and took it with me to play with my band.

Double cutaway, Strat-style body (but leaner, more comfortable), 22 frets, humbuckers at neck and bridge, single coil in the middle position, 5-way switch, 1 volume, 1 tone, vintage tremolo bridge.

I play it through a small Crate GX-15 practice amp, all styles of guitar music, I play punk, rock, blues, basically whatever comes to my mind.

The bridge humbucker gives a lot of power for distorsion (which is what I use it for), for clean sound it's a bit too "quacky", I think. Bridge HB together with the middle SC gives a good rock clean sound for single notes and also heavy chord play. Middle SC + neck HB is somehow best for clean chord play, it has depth, warmth, but also snaps if you hit the strings hard, so I pretty much like that setting (play it second most, next to distorted bridge). If you want even more snap in your clean chords (or maybe some softly distorted snap), take the middle SC on it's own, and it just delivers what you ask for (although the bottom end is naturally a bit weaker than with the HBs). Last but not least, the neck HB: it's best for soft blues sound, turn the tone half way down (actually one of the few cases in which I turn down the tone at all) and you get an extremely warm sound, which is great for single note play in blues and jazz style. You may also use the neck HB (with tone at 10) for clean chord play, it will then really make the floor vibrate because of it's massive bottom end, or play it distorted, if you want a bit more "tamed" distorsion than what you get from the bridge.

As you can see the sound of this guitar is very versitile and for it's price I think there is no competition in terms of sound quality (please don't compare this guitar to a 1000 EUR guitar and expect it to sound the same!)

Great action, very easy and comfortable to play (which is maybe the most important thing about a guitar). Black finish looks cool and solid.

Extremely reliable, as far as I can see. I'm probably not the best one to judge this, because I treat it with care, but read the reviews of the EG-112 (very similar guitar, only with SC at neck, which I don't like so much) to get an impression of the durability.

I played some other guitar in that price range in a shop and as far as I can see there is absolutely no competition. I also tried the Yamaha EG-112, which is quite similar but has a SC at the neck and a white pickguard, but I chose the ERG 121, because the neck SC of the EG sounds nearly the same as the middle SC, so it would be quite useless, while the neck HB of the ERG sounds just great and I wouldn't want to miss it. But try for your self.