YAMAHA Classical Guitar, Solid Spruce Top CG122MSH

I was browsing Amazon, brain on idle, and drifted towards the guitar section. I’d been kicking around the idea of taking classical guitar instruction at a local community college, and figured my previous “rescue guitar” (Yamaha CGS103AII, see my review for details) probably wasn’t going to be adequte for the task. Really wasn’t intending to buy another instrument, and then…saw 2 returned CG122MCHs for sale in “good” condition. So, throwing caution (and money) to the wind, I ordered the cheaper of the two. Amazon responded before I could change my mind (no joke, it went from initial purchase to “Shipping Now” in about 7 hours, delivered in about 52 hours. Shoutout to the peeps at ONT6 BTW – we gotchu!) and I received a 5 foot tall box o’git Sunday morning, with no shipping damage apparent.

Opened the box, aaaaand…dug through poured foam packing to find the instrument, wrapped in heavy duty polyethylene plastic with shipping tape holding it all together. Peeled the tape and plastic back to find…a pristine guitar, no physical damage noted. Gave ‘er a strum, and…huh? Sounded a bit off, but gave ‘er the benefit of the doubt.

After getting a few more hours of sleep, got both of my classical guitars out for a head-to-head comparison. Re-strummed the CG122MCH, and noted it was way out of tune. Tuned it up, and since all the strings were out approximately equal amounts it was obvious it had been tuned at some point prior to arrival. Held tune just fine, and started running my usual checks. Intonation was dope (even the “G” string was within +-5 cents) and 2 things stood out: fretting was noticeably easier, and this thing is LOUD! Projects nicely, and tends to be a bit bass-heavy (cedar top, yo). Much greater sustain than the littler git, and not as bright. All in all, a worthy addition to the collection.

Now, for the reason for 4 stars; the CG122MCH is advertised as having a “low action”. Got my engineering ruler out, and measured the string height at the 12th fret. Low “E” was 4 mm off the top of the fret, and high “E” is 3.5 mm off the top of the fret. Folks, that’s not a “low action”, that’s industry standard for a classical guitar, and is the same as the CGS103AII. Just a WAG on my part, but I suspect this instrument has light tension strings, making it easier to fret. Since I have zero idea what was done to the instrument prior to its arrival, I can’t honestly blame Yamaha on this one.

So…-1 star for standard string height, usual 5 for pretty much everything else. If it bugs me enough, I’ll take it to a luthier for height adjustment, bone nut & saddle & a fresh set of normal tension strings. Another keeper! 🥰😁👍

Update 2/21/2021:
This guitar has been serving very well for me for a while, but started seen an issue from a few months ago. The back of the bridge has pulled the soundboard up, warping the soundboard below the bridge. When looked from bottom, both the bridge and the soundboard has a curvature.

I’ve been using high tension Savarez string for sometime now and wonder whether high tension strings are too much for this guitar. Just wanted to add this as an update.

Original review:
I’ve been learning and playing classical guitar on-and-off for sometime and owned two classical guitars before this, including Yamaha C40. I received this from Amazon today, with no damages to the packaging or guitar. Out of the box, it sounded better than both guitars I previously owned and after a little tuning, it sounded better.

When it comes to the looks, it’s not glossy, but it looks pretty good. This is a student/pactice guitar, not a concert guitar, so looks should matter that much IMO. Anyways, it looks great, in case if someone is interested in looks. It plays very well, and the lower action is very much noticeable.

Someone in one of the reviews mentioned that this has a sticker as the rosette, which is not the case. It has a plastic inlaid rosette and it looks great. If you’ve played a C40, you’d realize the quality upgrade of the sound and the playability. It’s also lightweight comapared to this Cort classical I owned.

Overall, it’s a great sounding guitar with better playability (compared to my previous guitars) and I’m sure I’d be using this for a long time.

La guitare est bonne mais les cordes dure pas longtemps

Great guitar. Love it so much. Had a hole in the box from seemingly blunt force trauma but luckily no guitar damage! Something largely hand built like this you would expect some reasonable variances and you hope to get that perfect one…or at least not a defective one! Just a couple little flaws on mine but not bad enough to return and overall I really appreciate this work of art. Nice wood, design and craftsmanship. I wish I could thank the builder personally.

This is my first classical guitar. I’ve owned a 6 and a 12 string acoustic guitar for many years but haven’t played​ much the last few years. Hit a plateau and got bored. Then every time I’d pick it up again it was short lived since my fingers weren’t used to the steel string abuse! I figured this would be easier on my fingers to get back into it. Also I’ve been really enjoying listening to finger picking style acoustic music lately. Some incredible stuff out there in this genre.

This guitar has caused me to love playing again. It has opened up my creativity and had really given me some calm and peaceful joy. I’m learning more, having more fun and improving faster thanks to this beauty. And it is a beauty. Looks good, smells good and sound good. I love that it is natural with no thick urethane type clear coat. My Ibanez 6 string acoustic has a thick clear coat on top of the wood and while it is shiny and gives more durability I hate the skin sticking feel of it! I actually like the wood with minimal treatment like this Yamaha instead of that sticky clear coat. As you can tell I’m very impressed with this guitar and glad I followed my impulse to buy it. Thanks Yamaha.