Further to my previous thread about reasonably priced sub £500 parlour guitars, I tried one of these in the Yamaha shop and had to have it on the spot, it was so good I was worried it might be a fluke.
OK it is a bit to big to be an actual parlour and it was £600. But at the risk of sounding money obsessed, it feels and sounds like a > £1000 instrument
Having tried many boutique instruments like Santa Cruz, Custom Martins etc , I think you would need to posess Claptonesque levels of discernment to be overly concerned with the tonal differences between those and the L S6.
Comments
If, strangely, I could only buy acoustics from one company it would be Yamaha. Currently have FG830 and FG5.
Not that loads of other companies don't make great guitars but Yamaha's combination of quality, tone and value would make them my winner.
it does not really seem to make sense commercially, because obviously it seems to suggest that most retailers are overpricing the guitar.
Personally I never begrudge anyone making a reasonable profit. Yamaha shows it can be done without extortionate prices.
Other, especially some US brands, should take note.
Congrats on your new LS6 btw.
:-)
I don't know if you can still get FG5's. Yamaha London would tell you. And probably try and sell you the new FG9 which is £3K'ish. FG's have not previously been that expensive.
The FG 830 is a little more delicate but, with a few simple mods is a carefree sort of an instrument.
Wish I had had all these choices when I was younger!
I know it is not tangible, but I think the perception of consistent pricing is quite important for Guitar brands.
To have one retailer selling a model much cheaper than the others devalues the perceived quality and value of money of the product itself.
I think Martin Co has twigged this, which maybe why they can charge eye watering prices for their
Guitars.
I am just as guilty, because in the end I decided the minimum price of an LS6 was just too suspiciously low to explain the quality of the tone and Bling of the instrument and traded it for the(mainly Japanese made) Yamaha LG 5 at @DavidR’s suggestion.
I am currently very happy with its tone and playability of this guitar , and delighted that the shop’s price was the lowest available worldwide. But I now have niggling feeling that there may be something amiss with an all solid wood MiJ acoustic with Waverley equivalent quality tuners, that is priced at only £1150.
All intriguing questions.