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I’ll get a set of feeler gauges to check it properly.
"You don't know what you've got till the whole thing's gone. The days are dark and the road is long."
Tried an FG800, and they did just feel too big for my small frame (I wear a small t-shirt). They had an FS3 on demo which felt a much more comfortable size, but they also had a mahogany top FS850 which TBH felt more than its equal, and sounded better to my ears, although the woods are obviously very different. Finish wise, it felt the equal of the red label, while the FG800 had noticably sharp fret ends etc. Very easy on the eye, too.
Anyway, I might give serious thought to picking one up.
The only differences seem to be a bone nut and saddle, and the fact FG5s are at least partly made in Japan. But the guy in the shop did confirm they are assembled with significantly more care.
But TBH, if I think I can be happy with a £400 guitar rather than a £1200 one, then that’s a win in my book.
I got a bit of a Yamaha obsession a couple of years ago and wanted to try some of the higher-end models. Bought an 80's L15a from GuitarGuitar online. All solid, made in Taiwan and incredible. That made way for my current LA-8 and LL-500. The LA-8 is so close to the LL-500's greatness, that I could happily live with either.
2004 Yamaha LL-500
1995 Yamaha LA-8
:-)
44mm has a reasonable claim to being the "World Standard" nut width. All mass-produced Australian guitars (Maton, Cole Clark, and Pratley - Fenech is more a boutique maker) use 44mm. Then you've got Yamaha and assorted other Japanese brands, plus odds and ends elsewhere.
44.5mm has an even better claim, while the 42mm and 43mm sizes are less common than either these days. In Europe, 46mm is a big thing.
I would love to see a bit more standardisation - not in the sense of all brands moving to the same size! - but in the sense of it becoming standard for major makers to offer a range of nut widths. Takamine do (except that all the Takamine models I fancy come with the 43mm nut I hate and the ones I'm not so interested in offer a nice roomy 45mm!) and to some extent Martin does also. In Europe both Furch and Lakewood offer a good range - off the top of my head, 43mm, 44mm, 45,, and 46mm., and it doesn't seem to have messed up their economies of scale (Which ones any given retailer orders is a different question though.) You'd think in these days of CNC everything that different nut sizes would be an easy thing to do. Curiously, two of the most CNC-focussed of all makers, Taylor and Cole Clark, offer no choice at all! Go figure.
I was thinking more like Brian Setzer's Gretsch!
Except for bloody Takamine New Yorkers. (Or am I repeating myself?)