A Pleasant Surprise...

[duhvoodooman***]

I was off work last Friday and planned to drive up to a local guitar shop to drop off my Strat and my son's new Squier Tele to have both set up properly. The Tele has some buzzy frets on the low E and A strings, and the Strat has needed some professional TLC for quite a while. Anyway, I thought as long as I was up there, I'd pick up a few odds & ends. Among the items I bought was a set of strings for my old Yamaha acoustic guitar that I've had since about '78 or so. I hadn't played it in years, though it had been well stored, and I figured I'd dust it off, restring it and see how it sounded. I'd bought it from a guy at work, with whom I used to play occasionally at lunchtimes, and I was always very impressed by the guitar's rich tone and playability. "Not bad for a Japanese guitar," I'd always thought. I asked him to please give me right of first refusal, if he ever wanted to sell it. Eventually, he sold it to me when he decided to upgrade to a Martin.

After I cleaned it up and restrung it, I was once again really impressed by how well it sounded. Very rich and mellow tone, and amazingly easy to play. Just out of curiosity, I decided to go into eBay and see if any of that particular model--an FG-300--had sold recently. I soon found out that these guitars have a reputation as something of a "poor man's D-28" and are sought out by collectors. In particular, early versions made in Japan and bearing a red "Nippon Gakki" label inside the sound hole fetch prices in the $500 - $800 range, depending upon condition and whether or not they are completely original or modified to some extent. I didn't know how old mine was, but a quick look inside revealed the coveted "red label"! With some help on the Yamaha website, I located the serial number and determined that it was made in 1971. The FG-300 was basically Yamaha's "knockoff" of the Gibson Hummingbird/Dove guitars (which is readily apparent from the pickguard), and was introduced as their top-of-the-line acoustic in 1969. So I did indeed have one of the early ones! Not only that, but mine is in truly excellent condition and is 100% original. The closest example I could find on eBay had sold for $775. Others that weren't in as good condition or which had been modified in some way sold in the $500 range.

Anyhow, it was a pleasant surprise to find that I had quite a valuable guitar right under my nose and didn't even realize it. I'm not looking to sell it, so it's monetary value isn't really important, other than as an indication of the quality of the instrument. I've been playing it on and off for the past several days and really enjoying "rediscovering" its beautiful tone and playability. Here's a couple of pics:

[warren0728]

very cool voodoo! nice looking guitar. I enjoy playing my acoustic....it's a nice change from the electric's (and the wifey likes it when i play the acoustic!)

ww

[Tone2TheBone]

Great score. Nothing like a nice deep toned dreadnought. Keep that puppy.

[Tim]

very cool voodoo! nice looking guitar. I enjoy playing my acoustic....it's a nice change from the electric's (and the wifey likes it when i play the acoustic!)

ww

Why do woman like the acoustic? Could it be becasue we men don't act so wild like when we play the electric? My wife really wants me to learn finger picking. Those fingers have a mind of there own.

[duhvoodooman***]

The FG-300 was basically Yamaha's "knockoff" of the Gibson Hummingbird/Dove guitars (which is readily apparent from the pickguard)...

You can see what I was referring to here, with side-by-side shots of my FG-300 and a vintage Hummingbird. Note one very cool feature of the FG-300 that very, very few acoustics have--a fully adjustable bridge, both for height and individual string intonation. I added a closeup photo of that, too:

[tot_Ou_tard]

She's a real beaut Vood'!

Tim, you should learn fingerpickin' it's easy to get started (proabably hard to master) & there ain't nuttin' wrong with hearing your wife say Oooooooooo, that sounds nice.