I've been looking for a 335-style guitar and I've always been very happy with Yamaha instruments so this one looked like a good choice. In my experience Yamaha deliver excellent value in every price range and their top of the range Made in Japan series are always superb so my expectations were high.
Short version: This guitar is quite simply outstanding. I honestly don't understand how Yamaha can sell such an amazing instrument at such a reasonable price. Sure, it's expensive but we're way into boutique/custom shop quality here. I work at a guitar workshop so I handle a LOT of guitars and I can honestly say that this is one of the best guitars I've ever laid my hands on. Of course we all have different taste in guitars. You obviously don't buy this guitar if you want a Strat or a Tele or if you play metal but the objective build quality of this guitar is second to none. It's easily as good as anything out there.
Ok, lets get into the details:
-First impressions:
The guitar arrived in hardshell case, packed inside a very sturdy cardboard box. Even the cardboard box was superb quality. Much thicker and sturdier than the boxes most guitar manufacturers use. The first "wow" moment came when I saw the case. Even the case looks expensive! It's a beautiful dark maroon fake leather with gold hardware. It's a bit heavy and won't offer as much protection as say a Hiscox case but it feels sturdy enough. It has a comfortable handle and looks really classy. I wouldn't send it on a plane but it should offer good protection for most other situations.
Then I opened the case... Words fail me. I actually had to take a step back and enjoy the view before I could even lift the guitar out of the case. Describing this guitar as "beautiful" would be an understatement. It's a work of art! The flamed top and the gold hardware may be a little too much for some people but it actually looks far more classy and understated in real life than in any photos I've seen. I also love the fact that the horns are slimmer than on a Gibson 335. In my opinion it looks a lot more elegant this way (but I'm sure Gibson fans will disagree).
-Fit and finish:
In a word: Flawless. I'm sure the vintage purists may turn up their noses at any guitar with a polyurethane finish but this one looks absolutely superb! I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful polyurethane finish before. I guess they must have applied the finish in extremely thin layers. It's not like the "plastic shell" we see on many polyurethane guitars or that overly glossy, brittle finish on many cheaper Asian guitars. It looks every bit as nice as any nitrocellulose guitar I've seen. Of course it won't age the same way as nitrocellulose but honestly, I don't care. It looks absolutely stunning and the burst pattern is done to perfection.
The general craftsmanship is superb. Everything is spotless, boutique class. The wood they've selected for this guitar is as good as it gets. The flamed top, back and sides looks beautiful. Yamaha's specs says it's sycamore but it looks pretty much like a flamed maple top. It has a really nice depth and glow to it. The mahogany neck has a beautiful grain. Absolutely stunning! Every joint is perfect, binding+inlays are perfect. It someone put a gun to my head and forced me to mention a flaw it would have to be that the ebony fretboard was slightly dirty in a couple of spots, making it look slightly discolored. A few drops of fretboard oil fixed this "flaw" though.
I'm really picky about fretwork but this guitar was 100% perfection out of the box, which is something I rarely see. Ideally I prefer slightly smaller frets than medium jumbo but this is just my personal preference and I knew this when I ordered the guitar so I can't really complain. The guitar plays like a dream, no buzzing anywhere. The frets are perfectly leveled and beautifully crowned. Possibly the best I've seen on a new guitar ever. The frets are also polished to an exceptionally nice shine. The work that goes into this level of perfection is something I very rarely see on new guitars. Most new guitars need an hour with a skilled luthier to have frets like this.
There was one very minor issue though. Straight out of the box there was a problem with the stings getting stuck in the nut, causing those nasty "ping" noises and a sudden jump in pitch when you tune the guitar. The problem almost disappeared after I tuned the strings a bit up/down a couple of times but I still got that "ping" whenever I operated the tuners after leaving the guitar alone for a while. Lots of new guitars behave like this but I would honestly have expected better from a MIJ Yamaha. I had to fix it. It's no big deal though. A bit of graphite dust from a soft pencil into the nut slots would probably have sorted this out, at least for the short term. I prefer a more permanent, long term solution. It's really just a matter of widening the nut slots slightly (and in some cases altering the angle). Luckily I fix guitars for a living so I have the right tools for the job. In this particular case it only took a very light touch up with the file in each nut slot to make the "ping" disappear. For most guitarists this is probably something you would want a luthier or a skilled guitar tech to look at though. It really is a very minor issue but it shouldn't have left the factory like this.
The nut slot heights were also a bit high, especially on the three highest strings. Most new guitars have nuts that are set up too high from the factory so this was more or less expected. A couple of minutes with the nut slot files sorted this out nicely but again: most guitarists will probably want to leave this to a luthier or a good guitar tech. It's very easy to go too low and ruin the nut. It only took me a couple of minutes to fix this and the guitar now feels a lot nicer. It's also nice to see a proper bone nut rather than the various synthetic materials that I personally find inferior, no matter what the marketing says.
Electronics:
The volume pots have a very nice firm feel but the push/pull tone pots have a much looser feel. In theory it could be easy to accidentally change the tone settings. I doubt this will be a problem though as the tone knobs are far below the right hand playing area. There was no crackling or any other issues whatsoever.
The pickups are Yamaha's own design and as expected they sound great (but more about the sound later). There were no problems with microphonics or any other issues.
-Setup:
The guitar arrived almost perfectly in tune which looks promising with regards to stability. The truss rod needed to be loosed just a tiny bit for perfect relief but this is to be expected after shipping halfway around the world (although I suspect it may have been opened and checked in Germany as the box was sealed with tape saying "qualitätskontrolle"). The bridge height was set at a comfortable 1,6mm (at the 12th fret) on the treble side but slightly high for my taste on the bass side (2,3mm). I lowered it to 2 mm without any issues. The guitar still plays beautifully with no buzzing anywhere. The pickup height was spot on.
The intonation was poorly set out of the box, which was a bit surprising. I'm not a big fan of D'Addario strings so one of the first things I did was to change the strings, which obviously meant I had to adjust the intonation anyway. Everything worked smoothly, which brings us to...
-The hardware:
All the hardware is from Gotoh which means top quality. Gotoh has been my favourite supplier of guitar hardware for years and they have never let me down.
The machine heads are great. Tuning the guitar is easy and it stays in tune. They're not locking tuners but I honestly don't see why anyone would need locking tuners on a guitar like this.
The bridge is also excellent quality. Adjusting the intonation can be a bit of a hassle on cheaper tune-o-matic bridges because the screws are poor quality, get stuck and are easily stripped. No such problems here. The screws work perfectly and I expect them to last a very long time.
The truss rod also works great and I don't expect any problems in the foreseeable future.
-Playability:
I've already mentioned that the guitar plays like a dream because of the excellent fretwork. The neck is also superb. It's beautifully crafted, perfectly straight and shifts into a perfect bow when adjusting the truss rod. Things like nut width and neck profile will always be down to personal preference though. The nut width on this guitar is 43mm at the nut, which is pretty standard and I think most guitarists will find it very comfortable. The neck profile isn't exactly slim but it is slightly slimmer than some other Yamaha electrics I've played (like the current Revstars or the vintage SG2000). It's definitely no "baseball bat" but perhaps slightly chunkier than average for an electric guitar. Personally I find it very comfortable but this will of course depend on personal taste. Recommending a neck profile is a bit like recommending a shoe size. We all have different hands (for what it's worth mine are probably slightly smaller than average for an adult male).
-Tone:
Of course all of the above wouldn't matter much if the guitar didn't deliver in the tone department. Well, it does! I couldn't be happier. I guess what everyone want to know is: Does it sound like a 335? I don't own one for a direct comparison but I've played more than a few over the years. I'm sure there will be subtle differences in an A/B-test but generally I'd say YES. The 335-vibe is definitely there. The pickups sound great and the guitar has an impressively even tone/response in all registers. This guitar delivers a classic, beautiful fat Gibson-style humbucker tone with excellent sustain and great clarity. The coil split function adds some very nice single coil tones with a voice of it's own. It won't sound exactly like a Strat but it can absolutely work as a substitute for one in a live situation if you need that type of tone but don't want the hassle of bringing another guitar.
This is quite simply an exceptionally good sounding and very versatile guitar. Of course the semi-hollow body will be more susceptible to feedback than a solid body guitar so it's probably not the best choice for ultra hi-gain metal. But if you're looking for a metal guitar you probably won't even consider this SA2200 anyway.
Conclusion:
This is not a cheap guitar but I still think it's exceptional value for money. I honestly don't understand how Yamaha can make money out of selling such a beautifully crafted, great sounding, Made in Japan instrument at such a (relatively) low price. A labor of love for sure. Can I recommend this guitar? Absolutely! It's one of the best guitars I've ever played. Would I choose this guitar over a Gibson? Yes, definitely. The quality and craftsmanship of this guitar is above and beyond most Gibsons I've seen in recent years and all of them were considerably more expensive than this Yamaha. The split coil function also makes this guitar a lot more versatile than it might seem.
HIGHLY recommended!
