Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Review

by

Adam Harkus
, , ,
Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Review. The Blogging Musician @ adamharkus.com
Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Review. The Blogging Musician @ adamharkus.com
Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Review. The Blogging Musician @ adamharkus.com

In-depth video review of the Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Guitar.

Please check out my Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Review, live from the Garden Shed!

I’ve finally taken the plunge of adding a little more interaction to The Blogging Musician, in the form of our new YouTube Channel.

After a few ‘practice runs’ in the shape of an intro vid and a quick unboxing piece, here we are with my first full-fat gear video review of the fantastic Yamaha FG850 Acoustic guitar.

Written reviews are great, but I feel video not only ads more of a personal touch, it’s also a much more direct (and natural) method to see and hear the instrument. Plus, when I’ve loosened up a bit, we can have a lot more fun doing them!

Our ethos at the Blogging Musician from day one has been continuous improvement, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback/advice on what I hope will be an improving and evolving channel.

So, here it is. I hope you like it!

Please like, subscribe and share, get involved and drop me a comment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=156V4NgcCqo

Specs:

Body Shape Traditional Western (Dreadnought).
Scale Length 650mm (25 9/16″)
Body Length 505mm (19 7/8″)
Total Length 1038mm (40 7/8″)
Body Width 412mm (16 1/4″)
Body Depth 100-118mm (3 15/16″- 4 5/8″)
Nut Width 43mm (1 11/16″)
String Spacing 11.0mm
Top Material Solid Mahogany
Back Material Mahogany
Side Material Mahogany
Neck Material Nato
Fingerboard Material Rosewood
Fingerboard Radius R400mm (23 5/8″)
Bridge Material Rosewood
Nut Material Urea
Saddle Material Urea
Bridge Pins Black ABS with White Dot
Tuners Die-cast Chrome(TM29T)
Body Binding Mahogany + Cream
Soundhole Inlay Abalone w/ Black + White
Pickguard Tortoise Pattern
Body Finish Gloss
Neck Finish Matt
Electronics None
Controls None
Connections None
Strings .012/.016/.025(or.024)/.032/.042/.052(or.053)
Colour Natural
Accessories Hex Wrench
Case None

Get details on the full Yamaha FG Range here

Here’s to the next one!

Comments

3 responses to “Yamaha FG850 Acoustic Review”

  1. Fin avatar
    Fin

    Hi mate. Found you while looking around for reviews on the FG850 and really enjoyed yours. I have one now and I think it was a good choice. It’s definitely the rarer of the range but I like that. However, I found the action ridiculously high (was hurting my fingertips and leaving grooves in the skin) and had to sandpaper down the saddle twice. It’s about as low as I want to try and it has improved but still feel I can get it better. You mentioned you had to adjust the truss-rod and shave a little of the saddle also – so is it playing like ‘butter’ now? Any tips on strings, new saddle perhaps, new pins for this or should I just hand it over for a pro setup? It’s my first solid top so wondering if a hard mahogany top makes any difference in playability against spruce? Also, what’s your thoughts on it also after owning it for a while now, is it a keeper? Thanks in advance

    Reply
    1. Adam Harkus avatar
      Adam Harkus

      Hi Fin. Thanks for reading/watching. To be honest with you, tightening the truss rod helped but it’s still not perfect action wise. I would always recommend adjusting the truss rod first before going anywhere near the bridge.

      I’ve only ever shaved a saddle on my old Simon and Pattrick SP6 which produced a near perfect action, so maybe I’ll try it again. It does no harm provided you don’t overdo it or have a replacement bridge to hand.

      For now, it’s fine.

      The top makes no difference to playability, purely tone.

      A month in I have to say it’s not the best built guitar in the world. Sure its put together accurately and its nicely ornamented, but the build is VERY light so you need to be especially careful with it.

      As mentioned playability is not optimal, but neither has any guitar (more expensive than this) I’ve owned.

      Most importantly, I love the tone. Its deep and rich, not your usual treble response a spruce top gives. Tone wise this beats both my Taylor 110e (spruce) by a large margin and S&P SP6 (cedar) by a smaller one.

      At the end of the day its justifying my purchase.

      One final point. If the bright response of spruce suits you better, the 800, at almost half the price of the 850 is a no-brainer. I would have went for that one had my voice been lower!

      Reply
  2. Adam Harkus avatar
    Adam Harkus

    Don’t forget I’ve got loads more examples of the FG850 on the YouTube channel. Especially this… https://youtu.be/xkfc5i_YOK0

    Strings? Bronze 12s for me.

    Reply

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