1960s Yamaha FG-300 Jumbo Guitar

FG-300s were the fanciest flattop the company was making in its early years of acoustic production and they're often the most valuable, too. They're basically an FG-180 body but with all the trim blinged-up. It's got fancy fretboard inlay, lots of extra binding, ply-rosewood (vs ply-mahogany) back and sides, a big old countrified pickguard (see this other FG-300 to see what an original looked like), and an ABR-style adjustable saddle/bridge unit fit into the normal acoustic bridge -- in Gibson Hummingbird/J-200 fashion from the same time period.

Despite having worked on scads of old "red label" Yamahas, I've only worked on three FG-300s. There just weren't as many made as there is demand for them these days. Every time one is in the workshop I have customers wanting to "vulture" it out of the hands of the owner. It's nice to be loved, right?

This one's all-original save replacement bridge pins and pickguard. The pickguard was missing so I traced the "pickguard shadow" and cut a new one from this almost-'70s-looking pickguard material. I think it suits the vibe of other Japanese imports at the time and it's nice and thin, too.

As I mentioned in the other FG-300 post, I really like Yamahas from this period and I like the tone from these FG-300s with their ABR-style bridges even better. Something about the heavier mass and plastic saddles suits its interaction with the lightly-braced ply top. These have more of a "Gibson J-45" tone than the normal FG series of the same body shape and general design. It's like there's a little more woody thud to the mids than on the others. Whatever it is -- it works!

I fixed this up for a local friend and post-repairs it plays like a champ.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, bridge reglue, new pickguard, and glorified setup work.


Top wood: ply spruce

Back & sides wood: ply rosewood

Bracing type: x

Bridge: rosewood

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights

Neck shape: medium-chunky C

Board radius: 12"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-lower


Condition notes: while it does show lots of minor wear and tear throughout the body and the finish has yellowed quite a bit, just like other Yamaha ply-box products, it's tough as nails and has held-up great.

















Email Post

Comments

Ultimattfrisbee said…
Hi Jake. I really enjoy all of your posts. I think this particular FG 300 is one of the earliest ones, made in Japan, but not for export. The giveaway is the greenish label and the fact that the bridge pins are in a straight line, not in the curved shape that you see on the FG 300s that were exported with the red label. The other guitar that you referenced in the post is also a beauty, and I think that one was probably made in 1972 in Taiwan. It probably hit that very small window between shifting production to Taiwan and making those guitars with tan labels. It has the red label, but not the Nippon Gakki notation that indicates that the guitar was made in Japan. As the owner of a tan label FG 340, I can tell you that I don’t think the Japanese made guitars were better as a rule. All those FG acoustics are better than they have a right to be, and I feel like my FG 300 and FG 340 or both absolute treasures.

Thanks for sharing your work on these great old guitars, and also for the fascinating post you did on the Augustino AR 38. I have one of those as well, and it, too, is something special.
July 29, 2023 at 11:02 PM
Post a Comment