1980s Yamaha G-235 Classical Guitar
Well, I'm usually impressed by old Yamahas when they come in. They're well-thought-out instruments. This one is all-laminate but the construction is quite good. When regluing the nut I noticed that the mahogany neck actually has a big square rod of rosewood set into it quite similar to the way Martin installed ebony rods for neck reinforcement in the 1940s. The bracing is also light and the board and bridge are "real rosewood" rather than junk-wood. It's also sporting wood bindings and fancy-looking trim above its station.
Anyhow, my only real work on this one was to clean off some stickers and give it a good setup. The older GHS strings were still good to go and this now plays accurately (3/32" at the 12th fret action) and has a good, round tone. I'm guessing it's an early-80s make rather than a 70s make and it's one of the Taiwanese-made Yamahas.
There's not much body wear except for a dulled area on the top lower bout, treble side where I had to remove some funky stickers. The side bass upper bout also has a dulled area where a setlist had been taped to the side for a long time. It still looks good, though.
The scale is 25 7/8" and the nut is a standard 2" in width.
The scale is 25 7/8" and the nut is a standard 2" in width.
Rosewood headstock veneer, "gold"-plated tuners, and a synthetic nut. It's not cheesy plastic -- this handles more like Micarta or bone.
There's a bit of finger-wear to the board but the frets are in good order and the neck is straight.
The rosette is "real" and looks good.
Someone back-loaded this bridge and that's my preference, anyhow. Note the compensation for the G string. Cool.
While the top is laminate spruce (or cedar?), the back is laminate rosewood.
The neck profile is a bigger, flattened-back typical classical profile. It's not as huge as 50s/60s classicals but its pretty average in size.
The tuners are happy after a lube.
I replaced a missing strap button with a new one.
...and while the chip case "tain't much" -- it serves and is (presumably) original.
Comments
Willem Bek
The neck wide fits my huge hands and its wasy for finger picking. As you mentioned the strings are easy on the fingers so I will play it for hours. It's not super pricy so it's
always near by and I'm not nervious to bring it around to many locations to where I wouldnt bring my Taylor. Your description and words on this was fantastic. I'm looking at it right now and it gets played almost every morning and night. I'm a drummer 1st so with that being said it gets tapped time to time and the tone on it ha had several compliments at open mic nights and jams.
Great guitar.