Yamaha SLG200S NT Steel String Silent Guitar with Hard Gig Bag, Natural

The instrument was ordered from Amazon and arrived in its soft case in a Yamaha cardboard box which was packed in an Amazon box with what appeared to be insufficient packing materials. Happily, all packaging was in good condition when it arrived, but my experience with UPS suggests that I was lucky this time. I have had the instrument for about two weeks.I purchased the slg200nw without having played any model of Yamaha silent guitar. Buying a guitar without playing it is usually a bad idea, but I couldn't find an slg200nw in my area to play and I can imagine that there are some readers of this review who find themselves in the same position. I did do some research on line and viewed a number of videos featuring the instrument before I made my purchase. You can see by the rating I gave it that it pleased me a great deal, so I'll outline the concerns I had before I received it and how the guitar resolved them.MY CONCERNS BEFORE BUYING, AND HOW THE SLG200NW RESOLVED THEMINTONATION AND SETUPI was concerned that the intonation might be unsatisfactory even though I heard that these guitars have a reputation for accurate intonation. The intonation on the guitar I received is five star. The slg200nw arrived set up with 12th fret string heights of 3.75mm for the sixth and 3.25 for the first (as measured by a Baroque string action ruler), very close to the setup on my other classical guitars. There is an adjustable truss rod should you prefer a different setup. The strings that came on the slg200nw were exceptionally low tension, which you may or may not prefer.BUILD QUALITYI was concerned that the build quality, fit and finish of the guitar would disappoint me. It certainly didn't. I had a big smile on my face after a few moments examining it.NECKI was concerned that the neck of the guitar, which was presented by Yamaha as thinner than conventional classical guitars, might be sufficiently different from my other classical guitars to present a significantly different playing experience. It was not and did not. In fact, I'm finding no important subjective difference.CONFIGURATION, BALANCE, WEIGHTI was concerned that the playing position would be much less than ideal given that the body of the slg200nw is shallower than that of a traditional classical guitar. I also worried that the particular weight and balance of the slg200nw would be a distraction. These concerns turned out to be non-issues, at least in my case. When played the slg200nw does not feel thin like a Fender Strat feels thin. Putting one of my other classical guitars next to the slg200nw on a bed with the heads hung over the side and flattening the bodies of the guitars against the bed, the height of the strings above the bed (where the strings are touched by the right hand of a right handed player) was about four and one half inches for the conventional classical guitar and two and three quarters inches for the slg200nw. The only issue this one and three quarters inches of depth has presented is that I find myself wondering whether or not the slg200nw isn't actually more comfortable to play than my other classical guitars.SOUNDI was concerned that I would be disappointed with the sound of the guitar. First let me say that this is an electric instrument and it isn't going to sound like a Ramirez 1A. But the way it sounds is very much dependent on what you use to listen to it, and if you use high quality audio equipment it sounds very good indeed. It also comes with the added bonus of interesting variability controlled by the player. I am using Audio-Technica ATH M50 earphones with satisfying results, and I suspect that the way players respond to this guitar has everything to do with the quality of the audio equipment they use with it. If you have the opportunity to play an slg200nw make certain to bring a good set of earphones or borrow a set for the occasion. There is no other way you will be able to hear what the slg200nw can sound like.LOGOI must say that I'm not a fan of logos on the headstocks of classical guitars, and I initially solved the problem by covering the logo with my favorite tuner until discovering that the tuner built in to the slg200nw was more accurate. As happy as I am with the instrument and the price I paid for it I should be more tolerant of the logo.TUNERSThe tuners on the slg200nw are excellent. Part of my impression of the tuners may have to do with the low-tension strings that came with the instrument, but the tuners certainly feel smooth.SOME SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONSI find it interesting that I'm paying more attention to dynamics now that I can play at a volume that won't disturb others. And there is something about the sustain, or perhaps the earphone isolation, that has me paying more attention to note values. Both of these at least potentially lead to more accurate and expressive playing.If you are unable to find an slg200nw to play be sure to do some research and check out the videos that are available. If you buy one I hope you'll be as satisfied with it as I have been.

I got the Yamaha SLG200N (nylon string) Silent Guitar primarily as a travel guitar after reading and watching several reviews of the other options out there. I only considered those travel guitars that have a full 650-654 mm scale length. I was initially put off by the slightly larger size of the SLG200N guitar relative to some really compact travel guitars but the reviews both from customers and from professional reviewers (e.g. Classical Guitar Magazine [...]) convinced me that the larger size was worth the risk considering the poor reviews of my other options and the excellent reviews of the SLG.I am very glad I went with this guitar. The feel is great and the string dimensions almost exactly match my primary nylon guitar which is a custom Juan Miguel Carmona flamenco/classical (mixta) guitar I got in Granada, Spain. Scale length is slightly shorter in the SLG (650 mm) compared to the mixta (654 mm) and the nut width of the SLG (50 mm) is off by only a mm compared to my mixta (51 mm). I know that a full traditional classical has a nut width typically around 52-53 mm but for me, the 1 mm difference is really not an issue. Frankly, it forces me to really think about proper left hand finger placement which is good for my practicing anyway. I would think a full classical player would feel the same.OK. On to the sound. The sound is amazing. However, the sound of the stock guitar as shipped was quite poor. It was WAY too strong on the bass end. I had to turn the bass knob of the guitar down to its minimum setting and max out the treble and that was barely workable. I was going to return it (thinking the piezo pickup was messed up) when I called up GearTree and they were very helpful. The key is to get the saddle piece to have uniform contact with the piezo right underneath. Also, getting high tension strings to add brightness to the sound and to get the treble strings to have a good vibration signal to transfer to the piezo completely changed the sound. Bottom line: replace the strings when you first get the guitar and make sure the piezo and the saddle make uniform contact.The real benefit comes when you are playing and you can adjust the pure piezo signal with the Yamaha advanced classical guitar modeling signal for a tone surprisingly nice for a solid body “travel” guitar. For practicing (using the headphone output), you can also feed in an input from your iPhone/MP3 player via the AUX jack. For performance (yes, performance), you can plug into an amp via the “Strat-like” jack and you also have a wickedly cool looking guitar. Add in an on-board chromatic tuner and you have one amazing and surprisingly versatile guitar for practice AND (amazingly enough) for performance as well. Note: a proper recital still demands your best classical guitar but for a gig at a club or wine bar, etc., this could work out quite nicely.And finally, as I mentioned above, BIG callout to the folks at GearTree - absolutely fantastic customer service. They emailed me directly about my shipment (in addition to the auto emails) AND added in a guitar stand and headphones even though the package I bought didn’t include them. They did that since other competitor Amazon sellers were making these fancy bundles. I just had to ask. Wow…Bottom line: 5 stars (with the right strings) and get the Tobacco Sunburst version - it's beautiful.