C40II

I am absolutely thrilled with my Yamaha C40//02! The build quality is excellent, and the thin gloss finish gives it a sleek, natural look. The combination of nylon and metal strings provides a great balance between warmth and brightness, making it perfect for both beginners and experienced players. The playability is smooth, and the tone is rich and well-balanced. It stays in tune well, and the craftsmanship is impressive for the price. Whether you’re just starting out or looking for a reliable classical guitar, this is a fantastic choice. Highly recommended

I have already done my ABRSM gradings to grade 8 and have played professionally in restaurants. I gave up six years ago owing to family commitments. I decided to dip my toe back into classical playing with a budget guitar and WOW ! Straight out of the box this is grrrrreat ! Lovely tone, volume, balance and looks. Despite what others say here I have found that the strings and the set up are absolutely fine (a classical guitar is meant to have a high action.) Of course, back and sides are laminate but several guitars have caused me to notice that tone woods aren't what count - correct dimensions, fan bracing and scalloping are and the internals of this guitar are way beyond its budget with those things included. The intonation is spot on all the way up the neck, the back of which has a satin feel to it. The frets are well aligned and there are no sharp edges that you would expect to find on a cheap guitar. I've even read someone complain that it has no truss rod but classical guitars never do have them. This is an accurate feature. I LOVE this Indonesian guitar and it is a good guitar at ANY price and is a joy to play. Don't hesitate to get one.

I've played guitar, mostly electric for over 50 years. This C40 is good value, but obviously for the money not perfect- what would you expect? The finish is acceptable looking at the top, but the neck and heel shaping is a bit rough, but this doesn't impair playability. A large area of cost on all guitars is in the finishing so you get what you pay for and undoubtedly if you had purchased a similar model a few years ago the finish would have been better, but for £100 you can barely buy a few groceries these days so... The neck and fret board are good and yes the frets could do with polishing, but you can do that yourself- google how to do it. The action is within standard settings, but for electric guitarists probably a bit high, but of course there is less tension in the strings than the average electric so not that hard to get used to. I will probably shave my bridge piece down about 1.5mm (from the bass side only) leaving the treble height as it is. I found after a day and constant tuning the strings began to settle and be more reliably in tune for longer periods- best to use a headstock mounted electronic tuner so its handy all the time. The sound when the guitar is in tune is pretty good to my ear and also quite loud. I find the lack of fret board markers a bit awkward and so I will most likely put some guides on myself with white paint. Another thing the intonation is sufficiently good and I've found playing chords all up and down the board sound right- often on cheap guitars nothing sounds right and is often the result of inaccurate fretting, misplaced bridge etc etc. All in all a good buy. I've given it five stars for value. Yamaha make very good value guitars especially at the cheap electric end, but some of their more expensive electro acoustics suffer from severe mis placement of the neck in terms of angle to the body- a fault virtually impossible to rectify.

Very pleased with this instrument - it looks and sounds good even in my beginners hands. Having owned Yamaha brass instruments in the past this is just what I expected. As others have noted once you inspect it closely it just lacks the extra attention to detail on the finish that would have earned it 5 stars. The ends of the fret wires are a little rough - and the end of the fretboard where it meets the sound hole needs some attention to get rid of the rough edge that has been left by the machine used to profile it. Both jobs will be tackled when I restring the guitar later on. Still - at this price I guess that's a job I won't mind doing. I originally ordered a used example of this guitar from Amazon which hadn't been packed properly (most likely by the original customer who returned it) and it was scuffed where it had rubbed against the cardboard box it came in. An email complaint was answered within 30 minutes but strangely offered me a partial refund so I could buy a UK plug to put on it. Pressing the button to say it hadn't solved my problem and entering my phone number got me a call from customer services almost immediately and on hearing my tale of woe the guy (David) was amazing. I had an immediate refund and was told to order a brand new guitar (no more used ones in stock) and had a partial refund to bring the price down to the same as I paid for the used one. It arrived a day early and was in pristine condition. I can't praise them enough for the way they sorted this out for me - I'm a happy customer

I have owned acoustic guitars for many years including some top range steel stringed stuff. After my last mid- range solid top Spanish guitar was broken I just needed something to fill in for a while. I didn't expect too much, but the reviews were very positive and the Youtube reviews very promising (especially the ones where the guitar was tuned properly!). I got the Amazon Warehouse deal, almost 27% cheaper than full price. I have just received the guitar and tuned it up. I am really impressed - it looks great - not the sickly yellow colour of some very cheap guitars. This is important to me - I don't want cheap looking stuff around the house. It is also unmarked, perfect in every way! It plays well and doesn't sound quiet at all when fingerpicked. The bass notes sound particularly sweet. It is a bit subdued for finger strumming, but that isn't what it is really designed for. I can't really praise this guitar highly enough, and for the price it's a must have. It also has the advantage of having the Yamaha logo and name- easier to sell on later. I think I will keep this one though. Update January 2015: I have just replaced the original strings with "D'Addario Pro-Arte Ej45 normal tension" The guitar sounds much better, they feel brighter and less muddy than the original ones. I play this guitar every day and I like it even more than when I bought it. It gets bashed around the house and whacked by a toddler quite a lot, and there are no ill effects on the guitar. I use it mostly for strumming with a pick, and for fingerstyle blues - it is quite convincing at that. If this guitar gets broken I will buy another one, no worries at all.

I got this with an Amazon limited offer - at £100 off the price from the Yamaha store in the UK. I was worried that this was a dud batch being sold off - but it turned out fine; no sign of distorted fretbard or delaminating wood. Instead it was whar we expect from Yamaha - uniformity in construction and qulity. This has a good design, excellent neck and is made to deliver the classic "mellow" C40 sound. I'm delighted and would ge it again !

This is the second time I use a C40, the first one I borrowed for half a year and was my first experience with guitars. I loved it so much, beautiful sound, easy handling. After that I played a lot of other guitars, cheap and expensive ones as well. Now I decided to by C40 because I remember how much I loved. It is the best quality that I could imagine for the price. But if I compare to other guitars I have used, the sound could be better, the wood could be heavier (all of the other guitars are 2 or 3 times more expensive). The fingerboard is very comfortable, the bass strings are very well made, strong sound, good for classical and spanish songs. If strumming however, then the sound is a bit of mess, not clear at all, especially when strumming a bit harder. A great guitar for starters, but you will need a better one later on for sure. I still love this guitar!

Bought my son a guitar for Xmas from a music shop, so decided to purchase this Yamaha C40 on Amazon. To learn classical guitar with him. The guitar itself seemed nice although not as well finished as my sons £65 guitar from the shop. But I was well pleased being a good brand such as Yamaha I thought I couldn't go wrong. however after a week i noticed some wear marks on the 3 wound strings after a couple of weeks it had worn through one of the strings, which considering I only play 20 minutes a day and I'm not aggressive with it was a bit strange I ordered some replacement strings and complained to Amazon who gratefully paid for the new strings, the D string finally snapped so I changed the strings. Upon inspection I noticed 3 or 4 of the frets at the end of the guitar were really badly scratched and burred ,mainly where the 3 metal wound strings were which suggests to me the fret metal is very soft, I would or still may send it back but have since discarded the packaging, overall very disappointed