Yamaha AE1200S
Stuart Price
I have not seen anyone else with one, nor have I seen them for sale.
Has anyone out there got a view on them.
Thanks Stuart
Cor Roelvink
Wich type do you have?
I recently bought a AE1200S3 as a replacement for a Epi Emperor Regent.
A guitar tech replaced the metal bridge by the supllied wooden and put
Thomastik 0.13 on it.
For me it gives a nice warm jazz sound wich i like much more then the
Epi (wich certainly is not a bad guitar). I also prefer the neck and
playability of the Yamaha. At this moment i'd not figured out the
usefulness of the single coil switch. Neither do i use the bridge
pickup.
Cor
Stuart Price schreef:
Peter Catlin
>
> I have one of these guitars and find it most excellent.
>
> I have not seen anyone else with one, nor have I seen them for sale.
>
> Has anyone out there got a view on them.
>
> Thanks Stuart
I recently sold my AE1200s (£850 ...basically I had too many guitars and
had to sell a few). The Yamaha was a nice guitar and very comfortable
for me to play (superb neck and very precise intonation) but the coil
taps were not much use (IMHO) on this type of guitar. Still, a lot of
guitar for the money (carved top) but I couldn't reproduce the rich warm
jazz tones of my Gibson L4 and ES175 models with it.
You may not know that Martin Taylor (top UK jazz guitarist and Stefan
Grapelli sideman for many years - now producing Spirit of Django etc.
CDs) used this model extensively for some years in his pre Django days
(listen to his 'Feel No Fret' on Linn records) before developing his
latest electro/acoustic model with Yamaha .....which he doesn't seem to
play either now!
Peter
Ben Loh
<stu...@thehag.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> I have one of these guitars and find it most excellent.
>
> I have not seen anyone else with one, nor have I seen them for sale.
>
> Has anyone out there got a view on them.
>
> Thanks Stuart
Wow, it's nice to see some other people who love this guitar.
I bought one of these used (a model 2, I believe) about a year ago, and
I'm still in love with it. I had shopped around for quite a long time,
playing anything resembling an archtop that I could get my hands on, and
by far, in the sub $1500 range, this was the best guitar. Had a great
neck, great action, very nice tone. It completely stood out from all the
rest (other Yamahas, Epis, Washburns, Ibanez, etc.). Only the way more
expensive Heritage and Gibsons outdid it, and sometimes not by much.
I picked it up for $800, the person was asking $1000. It was missing the
wooden bridge though.
When I was buying it I looked it up on deja news and there were some
people selling it for as low as $500, but mostly they were in the $800
range.
I like to use the coil switch when I want a more acoustic sound --
especially when finger picking.
The only problems I've had were minor -- some strange crud on the tuning
pegs, which I can't seem to get off, and occasionally, when the
temperature and humidity are right, the bridge will resonate annoyingly
with certain notes.
But overall, as you can tell, I think it's a great guitar.
Ben
jca...@netdirect.net
Epiphones, etc. that are available in the sub-$1000 price range.
Yamaha doesn't seem to get much good press, although the quality of
their archtops is very good, IMO. It's like they are the Guild
guitars of Japan (under-rated), and consequently available at much
lower prices than Ibanez' Japanese-made archtops.
Stuart Price
I couldn't agree with you more. I too have a mysterious crude on the machine
head. I think that it might be some form of protective coating that wears
overtime.
I purchased my guitar new about 4/5 years ago and it has been gigged
regularly ever since. I think that I am now using 13 gauge flatwound strings
which give the guitar a full tone.
Other people have said of this guitar that they dont see the point of the
coil taps. I dont agree. I often play in a big band and the coil tap is
invaluable for comping older tunes, Glenn Miller et al, and also for Samba
style music to give that acoustic sound (Great with chorus).
I have noted that a lot of people are referring to varying model numbers of
the guitar. I do not know if more that one model made its way over here to
the UK. Does anyone know what spec the other models had. Mine has all gold
hardware and pickup, cherry sunburt (As opposed to antique sunburst), Ebony
neck and a carved top.
Perhaps with all of these AE1200S players, we might give the Gibson
fraternity a run for their money!!
Stuart