Yamaha SA2200

features can be found at:

http://www.yamaha.com/guitars/products/productdetail/0,,CNTID%253D60166%2526CTID%253D600005%2526CNTYP%253DPRODUCT,00.html

I think that, for the price, you wont find a better apportioned guitar. Very well made and of fine materials. (This guitar was supposed to come with a case... havent seen it yet.)

I love the sound of this guitar. I have played it through a Fender CyberDeluxe and a Roland Cube 30. Very versatile sound. I will primarily be using this guitar to play jazz, although i was able to dial in very cool blues, rock and country tones (coil tap). Its a very 'woody' sound that reminds me of John Scofield or Larry Carlton and is similar to most quality 335-type guitars.

The action was awesome, very low and without buzz... it came with 9's or 10's. I changed the gague to 12's, which required an expected adjustment. Again, the action is now very low and buzz free. I love the neck on this guitar. It really reminds me of an Ibanez neck. Its not too wide or fat. Very easy to play. The frets were highly polished and without any rough edges. So far, I havent found anything wrong with this instrument. No buyers remorse here.

This guitar seems quite dependable. I will definitely gig with it and there will be times I wont use a backup. Quality materials and well built.

I havent yet had a chance to deal directly with Yamaha. I am still trying to track down the case that should have come with the guitar from the dealer.

I love this guitar. Because of its great sound and versatility, It has become my main guitar. I really feel like the higher-end Yamaha guitars are underrated. I would definitely replace this guitar is stolen. I also must put in a plug for music123.com... once they send my case.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Year 2000. Model

1. How does it suit your music style?
From jazz/fusion to Norah Jones. Perfect if clean is what you need.
2. What amps and effects are you using it with?
Mesa/Boogie Studio 22+ (sold it because it is not good amp!!!), custom wah, C.Martin analog? delay, chorus and contour & boost.
3. Is it noisy?
No
4. Rich/Full sound?
Rich/Full sound - depense on amp and your knowlege about how to produce it with your guitar.
5. What kind of sounds can the guitar make?
From Scofield to N. Brown or even R. Jordan
6. How much variety?
It can not be strat or L5, but still produce 3 nice sounds.
a)Neck humbucker (vol 5-7 tone 9-10)
b)Neck single (vol 9 tone 8) + bridge humb.(vol 10 tone 4) interesting to play with fingers
c)Bridge humbacker (vol 10 tone 4) play with pick near the bridge
7. Likes and dislikes?
For money - pure 10. I like everything about this guitar.

I gave my guitar to jazz guitar bilder and told him: "make my guitar to be a good jazz instrument".
Why I did this?
1.Because I put 11-49 D'Addario and neck looked like this letter "U"!!!
2. Because of the wrong distance from pickups to strings...
3. Nut was too low...
So, action, fit, finish...I don`t know. Now, pure 10 again, but befeore it was not an instrument, but piece of wood with electronics like almost every guitar. It is hard to find a good instrument. Or it is not, but you have to pay 1,000,000,000 fot it.
Or even better - pianino before, piano now.
There is big difference between something with the shape of guitar, and real guitar.

1. How long have you been playing?
20 years
2. What other gear do you own?
Yamaha classic guitar
3. If it were stolen or....
Yes, yes, yes....
4. Did you compare it to other guitars?
Yes. Ibanez, Gibson, Epi... 335s.
5. Why did you choose this one?
Others are no better than this guitar, just different!!! Everybody should remember this!!! Gibson and Ibanez are no better!!! DIFFERENT!!!!

Too simple and standard to write. I bought it used. Gave my Fender telecaster for it.

I play my own kind of jazz/fusion/funky/blues since I don`t know how to play real jazz/fusion...(think of Scofield/Benson/Metheny/Burrell) This is very cool guitar for my style, BUT, if I had 4000? or more, I would buy much better guitar. This guitar is something like excelent pianino, but there are pianos to play.
YOU MUST KNOW that all guitars are good, even the one that cost 50$, but it is always about what you can do with it. Don`t be under presure of imitating sobody elses sound. You`ll never do it OK. Find your own sound. Let somebody else to copy your sound.
I used this guitar through Mesa Studio 22+, but prefere Fender amps for this guitar.
My efects are Carl Martin DeLayla, Chorus XII, Contoure and Boost and custom Wah. As you see, after 12 years of playing I don`t know how to use OD or Distortion. In fact I hate them.
You can get pretty woody sound out of this guitar which is the most important for me.
Most of the time I use neck pup in humbucker mode with volume from 5-7 and tone 7-10. Then when I put it in single mode, vol at 10 and tone around 7 to kill brightness. If I use bridge pup vol 10, tone 4-5 and play with pick very near to bridge. You get Scofield type of sound.
Everything is very usable on this guitar.
If you are interested in what this guirat can really do, try to find Primoz Grasic jazz CD (man from Slovenia - very cool european player, or listen to Frank Gambale -sometimes he uses this guitar.)

If I think of all guitars in the world, this one would be rated at 6-7. But, if I think of 335 style guitars, this one gets 10 and only 10.

Few things here. Top is NOT bookmatched. It is far more beautiful than in the book. Something like the most beautiful 335 I have ever seen. Maby this is just my luck.
Neck has very, very big problems with .11-.49 D`Addario ss. Since you are all guitar players, you know what it means. I will give it to guitar builder to remove this problems if it is posible, and it must be or it is. With .12 strings, this guitar should be in total problems. We will se.
Everything else is perfect.
My rate here should be perfect 10, but since this neck problems make me mad I`ll put 5 here.

If I correct my neck, this guitar will be perfect. Beckup no needed, often tuning no needed... I can be focused on playing only.

LAST WORDS. If you are thinking about Ibanez/Gibson/Yamaha it is all the same $%^&. Try to find good guitar. Nevermind the brand. This Yamaha SA2200 could be the best guitar that you ever seen.

I?ve bought it (twice) new from a lokal store in Helsinki.
At first i fell in love with the looks and the relatively wide neck.
Sold the rest of my very small guitar/amp "collection" to finance
the one and only guitar i thought to own.
Nice looking semiacoustic guitar made in japan (year?) . Flamed Maple body, Mahogany neck Ebony fretboard, gold hardware. Splitable humbucking pickups.
The finish is the classic sa2200 amber sunburst.
I had a lot of guitars, but actually wanted only one i could trust on.
So i sold my very small guitar/amp "collection" to finance
the one and only guitar i thought i need to own.

We play mostly funkyish music. I like to set up my guitar with Flatwounds 11-12?s playing through actually what ever amp comes around.
But i like to sit in with my echolette m-40 and a 2X12 cabinet.
The sound is quite nice but not as mellow as i hoped. I always keep
the volume on the guitar a bit down to cut of the hights.
The pickups seem to have a very strong output. Even with the neck pickup Flatwounds and amp-treble dimmed the sound is quite bright.
The Big e string sounds dead played open.
This is probably becouse of a neckproblem i realized just a couple of days ago.

Well now to the anoing part. This is actually the second sa2200. The first one i got, when stringing stiffier strings, made the neck twist like a screw, impossible to setup. I brought it back and the salesman
checked it and said i get another. Actually they had only two in the shop. So i took it home. I realized some frets had come out but decided that i take it over the winter and get it fixed by next summer. We had also too much gigs so i could not give it out of my hands. I kept the action high and gave it thinner strings.
One of the push pot?s stoped working at one time so that the brige pickup did only work in siglecoil mode. I fixed it and actually removed one one tone and one volume and suffed the holes with switches for the pickupsplitting. I like it more thatway, to have only one volume and one tone for both pickups. So i recently brought the guitar to get the frets fixed and to my dissapointement the neck has troubles too.When the trussrod is loose the neck has an upbow too much for my eyes it really needs the rod tightened hard too keep it straight without any stringtension. When putting strings it needs further tightening wich we all know is too bad for the tone. When setting the neck the low E side is straight while the high e has some relive.
The thing ithought to be a problem with the frets actually was the neck itself. It does not seem to happen too bad with light strings but butting 12?s it gets really anoying. The repairsman did what he could.
A complete refret and some leveling of the fretboard would brig playability to where it shoud be, but hey its a new guitar no pawnshop
junky.

For a guitar in this pricerange i dont want to see this kinda trouble.
The neck ist the spine of a guitar if its %&#?%?#%?"( it?s only 3.

Gigs and no time to solve out what to do. So i just play it and think of another (not when i play).

Finaly my only guitar i dont like to play.
It seems like good build guitar and i think that i only had bad luck
to get such bad examples. But those two are the onlyones around in the shops in Finland so i cannot compare.

I have not dealt with the company. I should do it through the shop
but it will take a long time to get it solved out because there is no support in Finland.

I play guitar since a long time but studied double bass befor.
I always had an eye on the real archtops and owned a few all where
vintage German makes from the 50?s some where really nice but too
fragile for road use. And playing with a loud band feedback becomes
a nightmare. The yamaha is now the only guitar i use $@??7?. I like the Echolette M-40 (4xel84 tubes) as my main amp.I did add a feedback on/off switch but actually prefer it with the feedback. I build tubeamps so it got a complete recap but elswise no modification, its just too perfect. Recently i played through a really worn out roland jazz chorus 120 just because it was in our practise room and from there it found its way to many gigs. If time is money i will
by an other guitar and think of an H?fner New President thinline Archtop. Even twice the price of the yamaha i think i should had bought the H?fner in first place.

Made in Japan. ES335-style semi-hollowbody. Maple body, Mahogany neck, Ebony finger board. 2 humbuckers, 3 way toggle, two volume controls, and two tone controls with individual coil splitting switches (nifty!). 22 Frets. Gold hardware. Violin Sunburst finish. All the features combined are really a sweet package, very intuitive and easy to get used to.

The SA2200 fits my playing style perfectly. I play classic rock & blues, mostly Stones, Cream, Dire Straits, and some sixties standards through a Roland VGA7 2x12 amp, and a SUNN T50C combo. I occasionally use a Danelectro Daddy-O overdrive for leads. The guitar is super-quiet. The neck humbucker tone is to die for, it's jazzy and well suited for mellow blues tunes. The range of the bridge and neck pickups already covers a lot of ground; these Yamaha HB's are not DiMarzio screamers, but can sound extremely "creamy" with a "wooden" character thrown in for good measure -just what the doctor ordered, and by far the best blues tone I've ever heard. Stinging leads are also possible, especially when you use the coil-split feature on both or just one humbucker -tone variations galore, and always extremely tasteful sounding. The most outstanding feature is that the SA2200 is never muddy, each string is well defined and the sound takes on this unreal "shimmer". A rather flat (and wide) ebony fingerboard is usually not my cup of tea, but this helps to play chords with precision. A little chorus and delay added, and the whole thing is to me the ultimate guitar tone. I could do this for a living, thanks to an instrument that's truly inspiring.

The finish is almost a little too precious for my taste, but it's not overdone: precise cream-colored triple binding, the stunning tiger-striped quilt front and back, abalone inlays, elegant dimensions and moderate weight all scream "Quality". I wish I had bought htis guitar ten years ago, considered that I bought and sold a bunch of nice guitars, only to be somewhat disappointed after a while. I am sold on the simple designs of the Strat and Teles (I've got a few). The older ES335's were always out of my reach, and I've never been impressed with any new Gibson under $2000. Here comes the company that consistently puts out quality instruments (I bought Yamaha drums and their ES8 high-end keyboard) and shows US-makers how to build a phantastic guitar.

I am planning to use this guitar for gigs, but I'll treat the SA-2200 with respect. This is the first "investment" guitar for me -after 40 years of playing, and I'll hand this over to my son one day. The finish looks well done, but the gold-tone hardware will most likely not last forever. Big deal, I hope to get years of enjoyment out of this instrument because of the superior craftsmanship. I still take at least two guitars to gigs, it just makes me feel better.

I've never dealt with Yamaha, but I expect them to honor the factory warranty should anything go wrong. I really can't judge the Yamaha customer support.

I've been playing for 40 years, and have owned many guitars. None was as refined and mature as the SA-2200. I still like Washburn hollow bodies and semi-hollow guitars, own several Strats and a very nice Jap-Tele. After all these trials and tribulations, love affairs and disappointments, I found a guitar that puts an end to my GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome). I will probably never find one that's a better value and more profound sounding than this one. You might find it hard to believe, but I have finally arrived. Just don't pull the plug on me now!

Made in Japan. Maple body, Maple/Mahogany Neck with Ebony finger board. 2 humbuckers, 3 way toggle, two volume controls, and two tone controls with coil splitting switch. 22 Frets. Gold hardware. Violin Sunburst finish.

It sounds great both acousticly and electricly. It's jazzy and warm but can handle many other style of music. Coil split is very effective.

I have Gibson hollow but this one is far beyond the original and no longer replica.

Action is little off (was little too high) and had to adjust including truss rod but wasn't really a problem. It's more of personal prefernce thing. Finish is flawless.

Things I don't like:

The pick guard. They can do better there. It looks so boring and cheap.
The case. Delivered separately and was late. Not a great case, it looks and feels cheap.

So far no reliability issue and don't expect any.

Did not call.

This guitar exceeds my expectations big time. If you don't care much about the brand, go for it. It wouldn't disappoint you. It's about $1000 cheaper than Gibson ES335 but obviously the "Gibson" logo on head costs more than $1000.

I am not big fan of solid body Yamaha but highly recommend this one.

Features are all listed below. I think mine is from 2002. Loses one point for the poor quality (dealer issued) case

I play mostly jazz, funk, blues, and soul with this guitar but I've also accompanied folk and 'world music' singer-songwriters with it, and even used it in an experimental techno group. Very versatile. It has a vast array of sounds, all rich and very usable. I generally have it set up with DR 12's, which works better for me in a jazz context, but it responds well with lighter strings, esp. with the humbuckers split. I use it with a Fender DeVille 2-12, an Acoustic Image Clarus (with RE stealth 12) and a Rivera 30-12. Basically, with different strings and amps, you can cover most sonic territory. It has a beautiful, even response across the neck, great clarity and inspiring, rich tones.

I asked the dealer set it up with 12's so I could really try it out. I had been using a Gibson ES-175 for jazz, but I wasn't satisfied with that guitar for a variety of reasons; poor tuning stability, it was awkward to play (especially standing), it just felt dead and not very resonant. I had always wanted a 335-style guitar, and when I tried the SA 2200, I knew it was a vastly superior instrument in every way. The neck is amazingly comfortable and rock solid. The fit and finish was nearly perfect (except for a very slight blemish in the binding that I didn't even see for a year). Eventually I traded the Gibson, believe it or not, in a straight swap for the Yamaha, and I've never once regretted it. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

I've had it for nearly 2 years and It's never failed me. The PUP selector started to crackle and the dealer fixed it for the price of the switch. I changed the buttons to strap locks about 6 months ago, after a close call with an old strap. The edge of the back PUP has worn from my sweaty mitt, but that's to be be expected after approx 200 gigs, numerous rehearsals and hours spent teaching. Amazing durability.

never had to deal with Yamaha. The dealer was great.

I love this guitar. I sometimes wish i could get another one to set it up differently, but I now also own an AD Tele and a CIJ Strat which I set up with 11's and they cover most of the funky, single coil stuff. However, the SA 2200 can really do most things really well, and for Jazz, it can cover traditional sounds (Wes) to modern sounds (Sco or Rosenwinkel) no problems. More importantly, with this great, reliable, inspiring tool, I'm starting to find my own sounds and my own voice.

The SA 2200 is the "Top of the Line"-Model of Yamaha`s Semiacoustics.
Mine is built 2002 in Japan - the most specifications were described
by former reviewers. The electronics are in a conventional manner;
I find the split PU-Mode very useful (which isn't always so ....)
The look of the guitar is very fine, smooth, expensive (for rock'n
rollers a little to much "salon furniture" , maybe ....)with a very
attractive flamed maple top. The colour is violin sunburst with gold
hardware.

With this guitar I try to do some stuff in the R.Ford/ L.Carlton/B.B.
King- style. It's definitely no country (rock-)guitar ! I Play this one over a Groove Tubes (Trio-Preamp/Dual 75)-combination/2x 12"Mesa
Boogie-Box or a KOCH Multitone-Combo with little effects (Rev, Delay,
Wah Wah)and I can achieve really any sound that I need. The sound is
full, rich, transparent and has a good sustain. In the overdrive-mode
you have that creamy, fat, rich overtone-thing, anybody is lookin for!
With some other guitars I thought often about other pick-ups - not with the Yamaha ! What I've not tried, is the dirty, chainsaw-rocksound, because that's not my cup of tea. With the split Pu-mode
you have a very good funky or motown rhythm sound.
The guitar sounds always sensitive, percussive - great !!!

I get the guitar out of the shipment-package, strung some Dean Markley
010-Strings on it and that it was! The factory setup for me was perfect - the overall finish of the guitar is awesome ! Very,very
proper (in the past I saw other things on Gibsons, Gretsches etc...).
The tuners and other mechanical parts work fine - only after seven
months of usage I got problems with the pick-up-selector !

I think the Yamaha SA 2200 is constructed as a professional instrument, I've used it on several live gigs and sessions without
hesitation and hadn`t any problems until now . The tuning stability
is remarkable. Fo longtime- satisfaction with the "overkill-
look" you have to handle it carefully, as I do.
(The "relic-fanatics" among us might throw it on the backyard-floor
and kick around a little, so you get the mostly searched "Rory Gallagher-Appeal" - eek-eek)

The warranty for all instruments in Germany is about 24 months.
I have never dealt with the Yamaha Customer Service.

I play guitar for nearly 30 years (with more or less intensity...)and
owned certainly more than 100 different (ac. and el.) guitars and surely about 50 amps (morbus g.a.s. - I know ...)Actually I'm foolin
around with a Yamaha AEX 1500 (good Jazzbox..),Gibson Les Paul Classic,G+L Legacy, G + L ASAT,MusicMan Silhouette, Framus Jan Akkerman 1974, Acoustics: Albert + Muller S 4,Larrivee D 05 and Lakewood A 32, Amps: Groove Tubes/ KOCH Multitone/ Yamaha G 50/
Schertler Unico-Acoustic amp.
As I mentioned above I used a geat variety of semiacoustics before:
Gibson ES 335, Gretsch Tennessean, Duesenberg, Ibanez AS 200 etc.
and I found the Yamaha SA 2200 among the best of them - great value for the money!! I think the Yamaha Guitars are often underrated cause of their
mass industry-image, but this one is purely a fine instrument that fulfills any wishes you can have in the semi-acoustic-category!
I would defintely buy it again; if it would be lost/ stolen/damaged!
Check it out , if you have the opportunity !!

This is freshly made 2004 right off the boat from Japan..split flame maple top. Do I detect a slight bit of "filler" where the two sides come together? This is a semi-hollow body, laminated top. Go to Yamaha.com to get all the details.. This one has the maple and mahogany neck, ebony and Block inlay fingerboard, gold tuners, tune-o-matic bridge, came stock with "9's" too light! will have to change these. Was in-tune right out of the shipping box! Neck is thin with great action..

Great variety of sounds.! I play this one through a Fender Blues DeVille 4x10, and a Yamaha (Soldano) T50-C You can get that classic Archtop sound with the switch set to neck pu ,,set tone on 8.. or a Les Paul sound with switch on neck and bridge pu's ,tone on 5. amp with a little extra gain. or... quazi tele/strat sound with switch on bridge, tap the tone knob up to singe pu. set to 7 Great single guitar for gigs where lots of styles required I play jazz, blues, pop, mostly beatles and 50s rock and 60s Motown
you know....( wedding gigs.)

Quality was Excellent, except as I stated earlier, I detected a tiny bit of filler where the two sides of the top come together below the bridge.. I bought this guitar new ,everything else was flawless. the stock strings were "9"s ahh too light.. will change to 11's action and set-up was great right out of the box.. The filler kept me from giving it a 10 This guitar BLOW's away the Gibson's...!!!!

Judging by the way my Yamaha SBG-1200 has been, and the other reviews on this site, I'm sure this guitar will be my work horse for years to come. hate to get the first scratch on it.!
Guess I'll have to get a new strap for it. Dont see needing a back-up for this beauty.

Yamaha is still trying to find the OHSC for mine, they seem to be back ordered????? I dont get this one.. Have to use a gig bag until mine arrives from the land of the rising sun... read others comments on customer service. I have not had any bad experiences...

I have played guitar and bass since High School, nearly 30 years now.. and played a LOT of different guitars, I own All yamaha guitars except for a Alvarez Fusion. I like Yamaha because of the quality of the product, the honesty of the build, and the lack of BS in marketing...(name brand inflation) Ooooo its a Fender!! This recent aquistion of my SA2200 is going to be the crown jewel of my studio...for the money you pay is more than reasonable. you could pay 5xs more and not get a good an axe. I have instrument insurance, and if this one should somehow vanish into the night, I would certainly replace it !! I love just looking at the violin sunburst sitting on the guitar stand.. a work of Art...

The Yamaha SA2200 is a very high quality 335 style semi-acoustic of astonishing craftsmanship. These are superb instruments built by people who must be immensely proud of what they do.
Two splittable Humbuckers. Two volume and tone controls. T-O-M bridge. Stop tailpiece. Non locking, good quality tuners. 22 frets. Made in Japan in 2003
The flame maple top, back and sides are laminated (as you would expect and even desire on a semi-solid guitar).
The neck is one piece mahogany (I read in the reviews that some are maple/mahogany). The fretboard is ebony, very nicely polished, smooth as silk with split block real MOP inlays. Elegant peghead with a pretty inlay (in the style of the celebrated Yamaha SG-2000)
The case was not included.but the guitar came in the original factory large box with plenty of padding and was well protected. Still, it seems to me that a guitar of this quality should be shipped in a fitting case. Fortunately, it is of standard semi-acoustic size so finding a good case should not be a problem.( I just ordered the Yamaha case intended for it).
It has everything I could hope for (optically and sonically) in a thinline semi-acoustic so it gets a "10".

I play mostly jazz but also a bit of other styles for fun. The rich, full sound of this guitar and the fact that it sounds good all over the fretboard suits my style. Neck pick-up with the tone control at 7 is wonderfully mellow. Also it has a nice character when played with a bit of crunch but I don?t play music styles that requires high gain, distorted sounds so I can offer no opinion on how it would sounds on those settings.
Oddly, I needed to make the same adjustment as one of the reviewers (Mal at 10/11/2003), that is: the top three strings were significantly louder than the lower ones. I, too, could fix the problem easily by adjusting the pick-up?s screws but I find it rather unusual to have to do this to get an even volume between strings.

The original pick-ups are excellent in my opinion, more than adequate for me but I can understand that some people may desire particular pick-ups that they wish this guitar had. Sure, there are certainly better pick-ups to have than the stock ones. Let me just say this : Pick-ups are easily changed but finding a guitar that looks and plays as nice as this one (for this price !) is another matter. If you don?t quite like the sound of the original pick-ups, don?t throw the baby with the bath water: Just change the pick-ups!

I play it through a Line6 flextone, not the best amp for this guitar but it?s usable. I own many effects but rarely use them.

I give it a ?9? because of this room for improvement on the PUs side. For its purely acoustic quality, it gets a ?10?.

Incredible neck! I don?t know how Yamaha does this but this is the easiest neck I have ever played. The shape, radius, impeccable frets, smooth fingerboard all combine to create an exceptional feel. Even with a very low action, the notes are alive with no buzz at all. The pick-ups and controls are very quiet.

The flame is beautiful and tight, subtle the way I love it. It is perfectly bookmatched and the top is actually matched to the back. Even the layer in the inside of the guitar is flamed! (Yamaha didn?t cut corners with this guitar!) The violin sunburst is gorgeous and you can see the flame through the dark part of the burst. What a beauty this guitar is!

This is the very first time that I buy a new guitar that is very well set up right out of the box. The neck relief, intonation and, coincidently, the action were perfect. The nut is well cut. There are no flaws whatsoever on this instrument. A 10 + !!!

I don?t gig that often but play a lot with friends, record at home and play at the occasional jam session.
This guitar feels very solid and is built so well. No question in my mind that it is fit for the real musician?s world. Some outstanding musicians have played a similar Yamaha 335 style semi acoustic (Tommy Tedesco, Frank Gambale, and others.) and if they can rely on it so can I.
I always change the strap buttons for strap-locks regardless of the original buttons.
I will offer no opinion because I have not put it through any real road test or abuse myself (and certainly won't) but as I said, I have no doubts that it is rock solid.

Never needed to contact them. Never had problems with Yamaha products. It is guaranteed for two years by Yamaha.

I have been playing for about 30 years and much of it fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Beside the SA2200, I own a hand made Beneteau acoustic, a Larrivee C-19, a Lag Louisiane (french), a Les Paul, and I have ordered a Yamaha AEX 500 N II (an affordable nylon string thin bodied piezo guitar with a smaller neck for Bossa nova and those fingerstyle jazz tunes. ). I use most often the Lag and the SA 2200 when I play electric.
If lost, I would buy it again the next day. I can not understand how they can keep the price so low. An unbeatable value.
My favourite features? The neck I would say. And the fact that this is not just a gorgeous looking guitar but also, and more importantly, a fantastic musical instrument.
Of course, Gibson originated the thinline semi acoustic but I don?t look at the SA 2200 as being a "copy" of a Gibson ES-335. The Yamaha has a character and refinement quite its own. Gibson ES-335?s are good guitars, of course, but simply don?t compare in term of quality with the Yamaha SA 2200 and the gibsons are outrageously overpriced. This reminds me of the SG2000 which was, according to many, a better guitar than the average Les Paul standard. I sometimes wonder why the high end Yamaha guitars, well recognised and appreciated by many professional musicians, fail to catch on with hobby musicians who, you would think, could use their excellent value. A lot of people love to see the name ?Gibson? on the headstock of their guitar and don?t want (or don?t need) to look at such a good alternative.
Thanks to Clapton, B.B., Page, Green, kossof and many other ?guitar heroes?, gibson has enjoyed commercial success making bad copies of their own extraordinary classic guitars, sometimes with sloppy workmanship, not bothering to set up their guitars at the factory and still demanding high prices for that name on the headstock. Gibson could learn a thing or two from Yamaha when it comes to dedication, quality control, respect for the customer and yes, why not? how to build fine musical instruments!
My hat goes to Yamaha!
In this review, "10" means "fantastic value". It says it prefectly!