Yamaha SLG200S CRB Steel String Silent Guitar with Hard Gig Bag, Crimson Red Burst

I had been looking for a guitar that I could take with me on business trips so that I could use the downtime to practice. I initially settled on the Washburn Rover - size, price and the fact that it came with a great travel case all factored into it. The reality of using it however was a bit disappointing, with the size and weight (especially the ratio of the weight of the body to the neck) making it a bit unusual (uncomfortable) to hold, and the sound was tinny - all of which I anticipated. That being said - it was nice to have a small, yet full sized for practice purposes guitar to travel with. Most of my travel is via car so the size wasn't a big deal, but I did want something I could take on an airplane and the Washburn fit the bill but I was never that excited to play it - and found myself taking a old full size acoustic with me on car trips when I didn't care about size - which was what I was doing before hand anyways. So about 2 weeks after purchase I stumbled on to the Yamaha SLG series and was blown away. Not only did it appear to be the perfect travel companion, but also play beautiful tones - AND solve the secondary problem of noise which my wife and kids have often complained about (what?!! you mean not everyone wants to hear my beautiful music? - must be the hours of scales and playing songs over and over until even I'm sick of them ha ha) and "taking over the house" with my guitar and worse when play along to music. Both the guitar and music get louder and louder. AND - I often wanted to practice in the living room while watching mindless TV but that wasn't possible with the Washburn or my full size acoustic either. The Yamaha SLG seemed to fit the bill on all accounts. Plus I loved the high end look of it. So I sent back the Rover and started stalking every seller on the internet to find one - seemed supply was pretty limited and I was set on the Tobacco which by the way is just gorgeous. The pictures dont really do it justice. So - the price differential was a bit steep, but really you can't compare the two products and Amazon - LOVE AMAZON - was the first to show up with inventory AND the lowest price AND let me use some American Express Points AND had the refund in hand from the Washburn so I pulled the trigger.The Review:Arrived in 1 day - (thank you Prime) and everything was in the box as expected. What wasn't expected was that the setup was good right out of the box in terms of the action and intonation. I turned on the built in tuner and was playing in about 5 minutes. Built in tuner was accurate. So there are lots of videos on the web that are very detailed in terms of review of all the features so I wont go into those and will try to concentrate on things that I didn't see in reviews. So the sound is great. Build quality is great - the finish and fit of everything really stellar. It looks and feels like a high end device and I love the wood, makes for a cool interaction of the technology vs craftsmanship. Its heavier than I expected, listed at 4.5lbs which gives it a substantial feel without being tiring. Balance is good and the ergonomics of holding/playing it are also good. Comfortable neck. One thing I did was purchase a used ipod nano and put all the songs on there that I like to play along with. Using a small 3.5mm plug, I used double sided tape to attach the nano to the back of the guitar and plug it into the input jack on the bottom. Its invisible, but now I can easily push music, mixed in with the guitar to the headphones. I also purchased a small bluetooth adapter that I can plug in that lets me easily push the output of the guitar to a Bluetooth enabled amp and/or speaker (including the blended output of the guitar and the ipod). Would be nice to see bluetooth actually integrated in (next version Yamaha?) Its not a silent guitar - the ambient noise of playing it is exactly the same as if you were playing an electric guitar that wasn't plugged into an amplifier - but its obviously way quieter than playing any acoustic. Sound quality is amazing - AND if I push the output through a pedal I have a very useful electric with effects. I mean that's what this guitar is at its core, a nice portable electric guitar with a built in amplifier and digital acoustic modeler (SRT) to deliver a high end acoustic sound with 3 built in effects - which are done nicely by the way, and I also appreciate the ability to control both the input (ipod) mix, and the mix between the natural pickup and the SRT. I typically leave it blended more on the SRT side because I like the sound. Tone controls are nice as well. The guitar stays in tune amazingly well - I was surprised even during break in that I didn't have to re-tune much as the new strings were broken in. I have played it alot, and am still using the batteries it came with - so battery life seems strong and I appreciate that it uses standard batteries that I can get from anywhere. I bought a third party adapter for less than 10$ (thanks amazon) but I have yet to use it other than to test - threw it in my gig bag just in case - but battery life is great so far.So for me it has completely met my expectations as a travel guitar. Its really met every expectation that I would have as a "guitar" without the travel qualification. Really nice job Yamaha. Adding the ipod (I got a used one for 75$ on ebay) made it a fully self contained play along guitar setup that I can take anywhere. I think its the best 'travel' guitar out there - and by the way - its a great straight "guitar". It also solved the challenge of playing where it needs to be quiet, yet still sounds GREAT and as loud as I want it to be in my headphones which I love. And I'm practicing more because I can. I find myself picking it up just to play it, even when no one is home because it is easy to play and the sound is amazing. Its a very nice addition to my collection and worth every penny. I highly recommend it - even as a first guitar or only guitar due to its playablity, versatility and flexibility.I was trying to explain what it was when I ordered it to my guitar teacher (amazing player, music scientist and guru of all things guitar), and he was like uh...ok. When i got it and showed it to him he was blown away and within 5 minutes of playing he was like "I want one!". That more than anything told me that I had made the right choice.Now to nitpick which is going to be hard to do with this guitar:On the "cons" side, while it packs down to a nice form factor, the case is more of a gig bag - not a ton of padding. No way I'd check it on a flight. As for carry on, it will fit in overhead for sure, but you wouldn't want anyone to put a bag on top of it and too long to put under your feet (probably). I haven't taken it on a plane yet, but I will and I'll be sure to get there early so I can claim a bin. Its almost as long as a standard dreadnought, even if it is way more narrow/wide so its going to take up some space and I wish the case was more of a hard case or at least reinforced. Small complaint that, but I would have paid more (or would appreciate the option) to have a hard(er) case. Even for the back of my car just to have more protection. As stated earlier it is not silent. I think that expectation is unreasonable, strings make noise - it is what it is. I suspect the Nylon version would be better in this respect, but that being said I now am able to bring it into the living room where wife and kids are in the kitchen or even watching TV and work scales without complaint either with or without headphones for me. I also find myself playing it in my office when I really want to get loud and the only complaint I get now is that apparently my singing along to music and guitar that is only in my headphones is extremely annoying and apparently awful (hey it sounds good to me!). HA HA. On the plus side - an unexpected benefit which I don't really understand the mechanics of, is that when I'm playing with headphones and singing its a bit easier and has improved my ability to sing and play at the same time. I'm not sure if its what I'm currently playing or as a result of the winter/humidly in my house but I just recently noticed that a couple of the frets seem to be a bit sharp on the ends when I play certain notes in scales. I am going to take it to my local shop and have them polish them a bit - they aren't sticking out (which would be a typical profile of a slightly shrinking neck due to humidity), but I'm noticing them rubbing a bit on the inside of my pinky. Nothing awful - but a new development which is easily fixed but perhaps worth mentioning as a real nitpick. Like I said, I've had it for a couple months and never noticed anything - for that matter I actually find it more comfortable to play than my full sized Epi acoustic neck, but just noticed it recently and only when working on some specific scales. Everything else is smooth and elegant, great neck profile, smooth wood and fast action. No fret buzz. If the biggest complaint is a bit of a weak bag and some fret ends that could use a bit of polish in the face of all the other things this guitar does so well (especially at this price point), stop reading and add it to your cart.So no real complaints here. Its better than you will expect I think. Check YouTube for some great video reviews, unboxing and some amazing guitar players showing what they can do with this guitar.

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.

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