1970s Yamaha FG-331 FSOT - OM sized with a great sound

rexter

Selling my much-loved Yamaha FG-331 - in rough cosmetic condition but I love the way it plays and sounds. It's been my only acoustic for a while. It's a Taiwan model, same body shape and size as the Red label MIJ FG-110 and FG-130 i believe... Interestingly the heel stamp seems to read 130? Does anyone know if they shipped unused MIJ bodies to Taiwan for the beige labels in the '70s?

Anyways... it's a nice guitar, I like it, but my Dad just handed me down his old acoustic and I haven't got space for two and am past my gear hoarding days.

Neck is set pretty much flat, truss works great. I added a bone nut, intonated bone saddle and some really great Grover Sta-Tite tuners. The original tuners are long gone sorry. They were really terrible but I sold them for a silly amount on ebay last year 

Has a huge mahogaany neck, like a fat V-C shape. Frets are in generally good condition and present no playability issues.

Does it need a neck reset? I don't think so, but maybe one day. The action is great for me, super low in the lower frets. A bit higher up at the 12th of course. The saddle could be taken lower still I think.

Intonation and sound are great. I'd take an old Yamaha over many expensive new acoustic guitars. I tried a lot of high end stuff and tbh I found them all boring. This one is covered in dings and scratches with some pretty severe knocks as you can see, so not for anybody who likes case queens. Big ding by the headstock especially.

Clearly the lacquer on the headstock is milky, guessing this is a case of some moisture under it at some point historically. I always thought I might strip and relaquer this one, but same old story - was too busy doing this for a job to do my own guitars! Couple more milky spots around the heel joint too.

I'm really unsure about pricing for this. It's battered, but also a really great guitar. Online searches bring up pretty crazy prices (optimistic I think) approaching red label money, but it's NOT a red label!

I'm going to say £150 ono. I would also trade for a set of boutique Jazzmaster pickups or a Jazzmaster neck (allparts or similar) or large headstock strat neck maybe.

Collection would be good, I'm in Norwich - can meet in Cambridge if that helps. Could possibly find a box if that's a dealbreaker.

Here's the full album of photos detailing all the wear and dings etc close up:

https://imgur.com/a/NtsuVbL

Gandalph

What is the nut width and string spacing at the saddle on this please? 

rexter

Gandalph said:

What is the nut width and string spacing at the saddle on this please? 

Just measured up the nut width for another user and it’s 1 3/4”. Scale length is 25”.

saddle spacing looks to be 51mm, using a tape measure not calipers 

rexter

Thank you 

Gandalph

rexter said:

Thank you 

Thanks for that. 51mm across the saddle is too narrow for me. Interesting guitar though. 

guitarjack66

I hate relics but like really original wear and tear on a guitar like this one. You can really go afar with a Yamaha. 
Good luck with the sale.