MusicRadar Verdict
Here's a perfect nylon-string for beginners and an ideal inexpensive guitar to have kicking about at home for more experienced players.
Pros
- +
Quality spec, build and sound. Price. Matt finish.
Cons
- -
Slightly rough topped frets.
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Earlier this year Yamaha re-jigged its line of affordable CG 'classical' guitars, but you don't need a footstool and a Spanish repertoire to appreciate them.
The Chinese-made CG122MS kicks off the new range and with its understated classical style, solid, albeit wide-grained, Englemann spruce top, laminated nato back and sides and three piece-laminate nato neck with a tidily-fretted and bound rosewood fingerboard, it's a good place to start your classical guitar journey.
But it isn't just the specification and price - not for the first time, Yamaha's obsessive attention to detail creates an instrument that plays, feels and sounds like something more expensive.
Sounds
With its full, classical-style 52mm (2.05-inch) nut width and 58mm spread at the bridge, married to a very comfortable neck profile, the CG122MS plays well straight out of the box and is only let down by slightly round-topped frets.
Sound-wise it has a nice clear, dry high end, robust mid-range and only slightly light bass. It's nicely in-tune (not least thanks to a compensated saddle) and we get position markers at the fifth and seventh frets. Great quality for the price, impressive sound and projection, and nicely in-tune with easy playability.
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