The Best Classical Guitars of the YAMAHA brand

im not a beginner – but wanted a C40 for traveling performance, and teaching,
i bought a C40 had to return it next day, fretbuzz was a crazy even with very high action. provided thomann with a video of a B chord sounding very bad.
after the fourth return for exactly the same same issue, i got refunded – one of the four started off ok for a few weeks, then developed buzzing, and a loud resonance that killed the note on all G# frets.

thomann customer service told me their guitar expert says that all C40s will perform to the same standard and refunded me,

so i then bought 4 from amazon, 2 at a time, because i was determined to get one that didnt have fretbuzz on A and D strings between frets 2- 7.
all buzzed the same , and were returned to amazon next day.

the overall sound of the guitar when not buzzing is more than acceptable, if this guitar was manufactured to a decent finish including set up, it would be fine.

C40s have a low-midrange sound, not much definition on high frets on the nylon strings, as expected.

feel of the neck is playable, tuners are acceptable

ive been in touch with yamaha musics tech support about it, no reply.

i even bought 2 yamaha CG104A’s yesterday from yamaha london and gear4music,
theyre similar with a more high-mid sound overall.
Both CG104A’s to my dismay display exactly the same fretbuzz on A and D, as the C40s im reviewing here – and are being returned.

thats my budget yamaha experience. if you decide to get one good luck .
i hope to own a functional budget yamaha classical one day just to get some closure !
im grateful to thomann for at least being understanding with my endless returns,

edit- have now had response with yamaha support. they state they take my report seriously and are investigating, and have offfered me a replacement

Bought this guitar for my daughter who started her guitar lessons. Compared the sound with other low priced guitars, I think this is the best guitar to start with and it will be for some coming years. Highly recommendable.

Yamaha have done it again! An incredibly budget-priced guitar with an outstanding build quality and tone.

The black gloss design is very elegant and makes the guitar look quite expensive. The fingerboard is wide which makes playing individual strings much easier – the only issue is that smaller hands might find it slightly difficult to work their way around the fretboard and a standard acoustic capo is unlikely to be large enough to fit here (even the G7 series).

The sound is a delight, as evidenced from Thomann’s excellent sound samples. As with all of my new instruments, I intend to quickly restring with some premium strings (as you never know how long the strings were on the instrument in the factory or warehouse!) I have purchased D’Addario Pro Arte strings to try out and may update this review once any effects of this change have been observed.

If you are looking for a classical guitar <£200, you’d be hard pressed to beat this. A wonderful sounding instrument and a joy to play. Very highly recommended!

pros – extremely handy, warm sound, easy maintenance.
cons – struggles to cope with sophisticated sounds, classical music or jazz.
Where are the dots on the fingerboard? 🙂

The Yamaha CG122MC’s sound is excellent for a guitar priced in the lower bands. I have played a variety of guitars, for decades, and was finally looking to replace a classical guitar made in Spain that I have had for 40 years. I will be using this for guitar compositions since classicals are so self-contained, but although the sound is secondary for me in this writing process I appreciate an instrument that I can use in a final recording too.

The Cedar top is similar to that on my 1992 Seagull S6, giving a warmer overall sound to the notes which, on a classical guitar already have considerable natural warmth anyway. The result is a very mellow sound that still carries well, and seems to respond well to picking position, becoming nicely "plummy", almost harp-like, when you pick closer to the neck.

The action on classical guitars is always a little higher than I’d like, simply because of the characteristics of nylon strings. Even so there’s absolutely no difficulty fretting notes cleanly. I may decide later to install a slightly lower bridge saddle to see whether that still gives me clean notes and a faster action.

I also noticed that the tuners stiffened somewhat as the strings came up to tension, although the tuning was smooth and accurate. I’d hoped that they might be easy to turn throughout the range (although my old guitar was worse).

Best of all, for me, is the 52mm nut, which at last gives me a guitar that makes clean notes possible, unlike my Ortega nylon strung guitar that has closer string spacing and is much harder for me to play well with my sausage-like fingers! Since I learned to play on my old classical guitar, the wider neck is no problem at all and it’s a joy to be able to play pieces through without any accidental string muting that I get when playing the Ortega.

It’s a lovely guitar, priced above the absolute beginner range, but if you want a guitar to grow with you, this is a great option.

I’ve been playing guitar (electric and acoustic) for over 10 years now and I have both played cheap acoustic guitars that sound thin and have a lot of fret buzz and more expensive ones. This guitar feels very smooth to play. The frets are well rounded, there is no fret buzz anywhere on the neck and tuning stability is good too. The sound is good, although it does not sound quite as full as another acoustic guitar I played that cost 3 times as much. I nonetheless enjoy playing this guitar.

Pro:
+ Overall quality
+ Good fret job
+ Playability
+ Tuners
+ Tone (for the price)
+ Price/Performance

Con:
– Sound not quite as full as for more expensive guitars

Overall I do recommand this guitar to anyone who is looking for an inexpensive classical guitar that sounds good and plays well. I doubt that one can get a better quality guitar for this amount of money

This guitar definitely gives you more than what you pay for. It is has a full & voluminous tone however on the other hand, the sound is high bass where tone differentiation suffers a bit. I found it easier to play Spanish style finger picking & manoeuvring the fret board as compared to my nicer guitar but again, there was too much bass for my liking and it would not differentiate notes as good as my other guitar. For a beginner, this is definitely more than a starter guitar & great value for money.

An excellent step up from a beginners instrument. My grandsons teacher was very impressed with the sound quality and volume of the instrument. Good finish and good quality materials.
We found the instrument sounded very good through my AER amplifier.

I bought this just to have it around for when I want to try some new harmonies or melodies without the need to plug in my electrics or just noodle around quietly or try something classical. Or if maybe my daughters grow up and want to try the guitar without the hurdle of steel strings.
The quality is excellent, I couldn’t find any manufacturing flaws. It also looks nice (much better than the pictures give it credit) with the all-matte finish on the light spruce body.
Soundwise, it has all the bass you might need, but the upper registry is a bit dry. This would by my main critcism for the whole guitar.
It stays in tune nicely and the action is okay, no fret buzz. The action is a bit high on the higher frets, but since the neck is not adjustable, you wouldn’t want it to be too low anyway.
The most important point with this guitar – it costs next to nothing, or certainly less than any other classical guitar. You couldn’t get a guitar with this level of quality with this price-tag ten years ago.

Great instrument for that price. I`m very satisfied. Delivery was very fast.