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Now, on the market, there are a variety of instruments like Yamaha FG 335 and their reviews. Why a cheap product like Yamaha F335 and the Yamaha F335 review has a stabilized position for a long time? It’s impossible Yamaha f335 has had a thickness of history for 60 years for no reasons.
While some Yamaha instruments are the love of experts, others in the same brand aim to beginner players. However, Yamaha F335 is a perfect model for both these groups of players including many other objects. Please go with me to learn why. In this post, you will have almost all essential information: its dimensions and specifications to the common questions.
Dimensions and Specifications of F335
First of all, we ought to take a general look of stuff before going deeper into my Yamaha F335 review. The dreadnought shaped F335 guitar is the name for its body’s style simply, designed by C. F. Martin and Company. The design helps the sound of an acoustic guitar louder. So, it’s quick to be adopted by bluegrass and folk musicians who usually shout over the acoustic guitar while playing.
The F335 is 1029 mm in length and 412 mm in width. Moreover, this is a combination of wood that includes a laminated Spruce top, Rosewood fingerboard, and Meranti back and sides. Its look seems more visually appealing thanks to a Tortoiseshell pickguard.
If you want to know the spec in details, you can consider my list below:
- Body shape: full dreadnaught (traditional Western)
- Body length: 505 mm
- Scale length: 634 mm
- Total length: 1029 mm
- Body Depth: 96 -116 mm
- Body Width: 412 mm
- Nut Width: 43 mm
- String Spacing: 10.0 mm
- Top material: spruce
- Back and side material: tropical tonewood (meranti)
- Neck material: nato or mahogany
- Fingerboard radius: R400 mm
- Fingerboard and bridge material: rosewood
- Nut and saddle material: Urea
- Bridge Pins: black ABS
- Tuners: Die-cast gold
- Body binding: cream and black
- Soundhole inlay: decal
- Pickguard: tortoise pattern
- Neck finish: matt
- Body finish: Gloss
- Electronics, controls, and connections: none
- Accessories: hex wrench
A Complete Yamaha F335 Review: You Must Read Before Purchasing
Now, after learning all its basic information, it’s time to discover this Yamaha f335 in detail. Is it an amazing model?
The Features of Yamaha F335 Guitar
Please take a look at this video in advance because it gives you a more informative look about the product
Build
Due to a low budget guitar, you can’t expect this is the best built-guitar, but at least it’s solid. The very sturdy but not porous spruce top is because of the lowly cut of the wood, its lower quality. Although the Meranti sides come with a nice touch, some musicians don’t love it. That is because this material brings a plastic feel with cheap wood. The posture of strumming chords makes players feel Yamaha f335 is digging into their stomach.
Finish
The finish is one of its weakest parts which is not good because the laminate wood creates an unreal feeling. As I mentioned above, this model comes with a plastic feel due to the poor quality. However, the manufacturer compensates with a large amount of laminate that takes the bad cut to fill in the imperfections.
Action and Feel
Have you ever strummed a piece of sturdy Tupperware? It’s the feeling when you play with Yamaha F335 which has the atrocious action. That means new guitar players who try to fret a string, and the F335 guitar may cause your wrist pain. Any new one needs fretting easier, but the manufacturer neglected this fact.
Colors
For colors, there are many ones available on the market from tobacco brown sunburst, natural wood finish to solid black. However, all versions have the same feature that is the unaltered fretboard, head, and neck materials.
- Natural color: This color comes with a Mahogany neck. If this is your choice, you may take an extra $10 to buy it compared to the other two choices.
- Solid black: Solid black Yamaha f335 has an unaltered neck, top wood, and fretboard to its original build.
- Tobacco brown sunburst: Compared to the original meranti guitar, this color comes with Nato wood.
Sound
When playing harder, you will see the appearance of the natural overdriven sound. Another special thing is that its sound isn’t as clean as the sound of an acoustic guitar when strumming chords.
Once you finger-pick, your model shows the lack of sustain clearly. That is because the loudness balance of the low and high notes and some notes are lost in the air. Unlike other normal acoustic guitars, you can’t solve F335 with a compressor, so it doesn’t have a good balance also.
However, once you can completely control the Yamada f335 guitar, you will produce sounds like an expensive guitar. I know it seems to be a cliche, but most acoustic guitar companies advertise their products with the same sentence. Its price is low but the sound likes an expensive guitar. But, for Yamaha f335, this is true.
The sounds from this model are vibrant deep especially this guitar produces the bright spruce tone. When playing the strings, there is a great resonance in the model which is paired with a few mellow tones.
If you are a beginner who can play f335 well, these sounds are great and almost outstanding. For intermediate and experienced guitar players, you should improve its sound quality by replacing the strings with more tone depth. In this case, you need to learn what strings come on Yamaha F335, helping you have the most appropriate choice.
The Pros and Cons of Yamaha F335
You should know that any product has its pros and cons, so you need to learn these features. Whether or not you can accept their cons and their pros can provide benefits for your using demands. Here are the details:
Pros
- Reliable brand
- Affordable price
- Perfect for personal playing use
- Stays in tune for a long time of use
- A limited lifetime warranty
Cons
- Doesn't come with a case
- Play uncomfortably
- Feels cheap
- Doesn't have an electric amplifier, and nylon strings
- Doesn't have a lot of versatility
How does the Yamaha F335 Compare to other Guitars?
For professionals, perhaps Yamaha f335 is the best choice due to several outstanding features. In particular, sounds and tones which it can create with good skill. However, if this is not your option, you can consider some of the following comparisons:
The F335 vs. the FG700s
In the US, everyone considers Yamaha f335 guitar as one of the most popular instruments for player beginners. In fact, I don’t highly recommend this product to them. If you are in the beginning period, the FG700s guitar is a better choice. Both of them are a good-sounding guitar that is very low in cost but have some differences:
First of all, the appearance of FG700S is more deluxe than F335. The solid Sitka spruce contributes to producing the better sounds than the laminated Spruce on the F335. The combination of Rosewood fingerboard and Nato back and sides creates a beautiful look.
Compared to F335, the only drawback of FG700S is that a variety of color. The natural finish and “Sandburst” coloring are enough for a poetic and dark unit, but Full Black is not available.
When it comes to sound the FG700S creates more smooth, precise, and playful sounds. While the F335 requires a better skill, more effort for good sounds, FG700S allows you to create good sounds wherever.
The Yamaha F335 vs. Fender FA100
These models are the same but let you take a look at this comparison which shows there are some differences. Though both of them are heavy, Fender is cheaper including full of guitar picks, a strap, and other amenities.
First, we will talk a little bit about the drawbacks of FA100. It’s not a good sign with the laminated Spruce top, the laminated Agathis sides and back and the laminated body. Despite the dreadnought shaped guitar also, its standard Rosewood fretboard and synthetic bridge and nut make it get worn quickly. Adjusting your model is harder if you would like to alter the action of the strings or any personal improvements.
The sounds of FA100 is very short. When you finger-pick, it lacks sustain, and you are difficult to distinguish the individual notes when strumming. I don’t have the resonant feeling with its one-string riffs sound sort of flat.
The F335 vs. Epiphone DR-100
The Epiphone is both an amazing sounding guitar for beginners and a cheaper and better-constructed model than the F335. This is also a dreadnought guitar with the laminated Spruce top, Mahogany back, sides, and neck, rosewood fretboard.
However, when playing, you can recognize their difference in quality that FA100 creates the more evident sounds. When holding, you feel more solid and comfortable than F335, but it’s not nice and delicate as the expensive guitars. While playing FA100, both can provide good sound and sustain.
FAQs About Yamaha F335
I know all the information above can’t satisfy all of you. Thus, I make this part including the most common questions which I have collected from a lot of guitarists
How Wide is the Neck?
Usually, most acoustic guitars come with a standard wide neck, but the neck of Yamaha f335 is pretty narrow. So, it’s perfect for those who own smaller hands or are used to play an electric guitar.
Meranti material and narrow size of the neck creates a feeling of playing at home when moving around the fretboards. You can purchase the Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky strings to have the feel of playing an electric guitar.
How to Set up the Yamaha F335 Guitar?
Never expect a “right-out-of-the-box” acoustic guitar while paying cheap as any model with the low price needs your setup. But, before performing, you should prepare the following things:
- Make the action low: This problem is quite common for any cheap acoustic guitar. If possible, you can adjust the truss rod to lower the action. Or it’s better to ask the help from an experienced luthier.
- Tune the strings: Some sellers will help you to do this before shipping but, you should tune the strings one more time. The high opportunity is that while shipping, there are a few exterior elements cause little tweaks on the tuning peg. It leads to your Yamaha F335 guitar getting out of tune.
- Upgrade the strings: The setup of sound for your guitar’s essential to use one of these high-quality strings.
What Makes a Yamaha F335 as a Good Guitar for Campfires or Road Travels?
There are 4 elements to make this amazing thing. The price, weight, and sound will bring you a wonderful journey
- The price is low: When taking something out, the low cost is the first and important feature. You won’t want to broke a valuable thing, right? Even you buy an expensive and high-quality product for sale, F335 is still cheaper. That is a great option to make a show for your campfires and road travels without getting damaged or broken.
- The weight is light: A lightweight model is very convenient and easy to carry with. Some people compare that bringing this concert size acoustic guitar is similar to bringing a fragile cremated ashes.
- The sound is great: On your trip, there may be other members who would like to see your performances. So, how can you impress them with a cheap guitar coming with bad sounds? F335 is an ideal option which both is cheap and produce great sound if you can control your guitar well.
- The bottom line: Do you know why I said that Yamaha F335 is one for both beginners and experienced players? I don’t highly recommend this product for beginners who want to try a new instrument. But, if you have enough passion, the requirement of high action of Yamaha F335 guitar is not a big matter. In fact, any expert player appreciates an individual who played a high-action guitar, so your effort and battle scars are worthy.
To be sure you got all my information in this post, I will repeat one more time brief. Firstly, Yamaha F335 has a solid build, weak finish, and it hard for beginners to be action and feel. 3 available colors: natural color, solid black, and tobacco brown sunburst which allow you to choose depending on your preference. You can produce the valued sounds from a cheap model if your skill of playing is excellent.
Finally, if you have any questions about this guitar, please leave your comment below. Thank you for taking your precious time to read this Yamaha F335 review. See you next time!