Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE #1 (includes new info on changing the tuning pegs) Note: I will soon be doing an update on how to make this little guitar completely wireless. I bought this guitar for my 7 year old. What I like: 1) 3/4 size is the perfect size for a kid 10 years or younger. For kids 10-13 you may want to try a 7/8 parlor size guitar. However, a 3/4 size guitar is also the perfect travel guitar for adults so don't hesitate buying a 3/4 because you will keep it around for life because of convenience. 2) Sound when plugged in to an amp rivals guitars costing much, much more even thousands more. Yamaha uses proprietary technology in their pickups to achieve this amazing result and no other guitar manufacture comes close in this price range. 3) Sound when not plugged in is surprisingly good for a little guitar. Of course, if you're expecting acoustic sound like a jumbo or parlor you will be disappointed because that's impossible for a 3/4 size guitar to match the acoustic sound of larger guitars. However, for a 3/4 size guitar in this price range, it's as good as it gets and I will put this little guitar up against any 3/4 for acoustic sound in this price range. 3) Comes with a built in tuner. Until you've had one you don't know what you're missing. I'll never buy another guitar without one especially for a beginner. 4) Cutaway design is a much more modern design than the non-cutaway traditional boxes and allows much easier access to the lower frets. 5) Comes in black which my daughter loves. 6) Comes set up from the factory with extra low action resulting in easy playability which is very important especially for beginners. You may even want to throw some extra light (it comes with light gauge) strings on to make it even easier to play. 7) Yamaha quality can't be beat. I just returned from my friend's house and noticed his $1,000 Martin box splitting because of the dry Las Vegas climate. And, no I'm not a believer in guitar humidifiers because I believe a guitar should be made for the real world and not so delicate that it needs a humidifier. My friend and fellow old-time musician who has been working at Guitar Center here in Vegas for many years has seen them all come back over time because of splitting or warping except one brand that is... You guessed it, Yamaha! The reason you find them back ordered from time to time is because Yamaha actually gives their wood time to cure properly unlike other manufacturers who tend to rush their products out the door. And, this guitar is for my kid and for travel which means it needs to be exceptionally tough and well-made:) As always with the good comes the bad. In order for Yamaha to squeeze so much bang for the buck into this tiny package they had to skimp somewhere. What I don't like: 1) The tuning keys (machine heads) are as bad as it gets and if you're planning on keeping this guitar for a while and making it really workable plan on changing them ASAP and throwing the others away as far as you can throw them - Shame on you Yamaha, you could have at least used some half decent tuners!! These are an insult to your good name. So I replaced mine with Grover Sta-Tite V97-18NA (with brass colored gear) which are the best tuners "for the money" ($40) for any guitar especially for this one. However, be aware that you will also need to replace the Yamaha bushings because the I.D. is too small for the Grover post and, unfortunately,the Grover bushing O.D. is too small for the holes in the Yamaha headstock. The correct bushing that will allow an easy proper fit of the Grover tuning pegs to the Yamaha APXT2 is Kluson MBG65N or B bushings (Google it). If you elect to do this instead of letting your friendly Luthier do it, be advised that when you knock out the stock Yamaha bushings, since they're press fit it may have a tendency to split the wood on the top of the headstock. This one modification will bring this guitar from the level of a toy trying to be a serious contender to the best little guitar that money can buy. 2) The neck edges at the fret board are not rounded and tend to be rather sharp which can really start to hurt your hands if you play for awhile . Typically this is where guitar companies skimp on their budget models and Yamaha didn't disappoint. But it's an easy fix for a Luthier who will just take some sand paper and sand down the sharp edges and dress the end of the frets if needed. Also, its an easy fix for someone with a steady hand, good eye, and a women's fingernail file. It took me about 10 minutes to round the neck edges with a fingernail file and it didn't even require touch up paint thereafter as the fret board is solid wood and the same color all the way through. She feels like a dream now and I can play all day long without the sharp neck edge digging into my hand, and my hand just glides ever so smoothly up and down the neck as it should. 3) Had a little fret buzz on the high E but that was probably more my fault than anything else because I changed the light gauge strings to extra lights which sometimes requires the neck adjustment to be loosened. This guitar is set up from the factory with light gauge strings which means if you put on extra lights, the neck will have a tendency to straighten out too much which brings your strings closer to the frets and sometimes results in fret buzz. An easy fix though...just take a straight edge, like an aluminum yardstick, and lay on the neck, or hold down the string on the first and last fret and you should have just a slight space (approx. 1/64" - 1/32") between the frets and strings in the middle of your fret board. In other words, contrary to popular belief the neck is supposed to have an ever-so-slight dip in the middle and IS NOT supposed to be perfectly straight. My guitar required about a 3/4 turn (loosened) on the neck adjustment to fix the fret buzz. And, remember when adjusting the neck don't expect immediate results. Give the neck time to settle-in adjusting a little at a time and then waiting a couple hours or so before checking it again. If you still have fret buzz after adjusting the neck then it most likely will be at the nut because Yamaha keeps their action really low at the nut. If so, just take a piece of paper and put it under the string at the nut which should be an easy fix. Bottom line: Get a Luthier (or do it yourself if you have the knowledge) to change the tuners to the ones I specified, take the sharp edges off the neck, throw some extra light strings on, and do a set up and this guitar becomes a dream guitar for kids or adults for a lifetime. So while the Yamaha APXT2 may not be the best guitar for your purpose, in this price range you WILL NOT find the perfect guitar, period. At least Yamaha gave us a foundation off which to build (which you can't say for other brands) and with a little modification here and there, you will have the perfect little guitar. I bought this for my child and I find myself picking it up and playing it more than my more expensive full size guitars. It's just a pleasure having it around the house, but not so much so before I modified it. There's nothing worse than having a guitar that's just about not a toy as compared to a professional guitar. You want to make your guitar easy to tune and enjoyable to play so spend the extra bucks to make it perfect and you will have no regrets.