I bought one of these for $20 out of a storage unit from an 18 yr old girl, said it belonged to her grandmother. missing 3 strings and bridge pins, the neck had a back bow. I had some bridge pins and some gently used .electric .009 strings. I backed off the truss rod 3 cranks and strung it. The neck pulled right into place perfect. It plays and sounds great, I really like this guitar. I have been playing some 40 years and owned a few guitars but this one I think is the best. It plays so easy and sounds good even with these used electric lights on it. After 5 or 20 minutes its like where have you been all my life!? This one's a keeper. The neck is just a tiny bit wider making it a bit easier to make clear chords and finger pickin. Best playing and sounding acoustic I ever owned, and at just $20, How lucky is that?

I own several of these "Yammie lammies" (laminated-top Yamaha's, it most often specifically refers to the run of cream-label Yamaha spruce-lam acoustics made in Taiwan). To a lesser extent, the later Korean and Indonesian-made Yamaha's represent similar value, from what I've seen. At the time this was made, I believe it was the bottom-of-the-line Yamaha 12-string. Build quality is good, and the finishing was very nice on the 12-string I got, and on 2 other 6-string lammies also in my collection. I buy these for a particular tone that these guitars do exceptionally well for the money. I call it the "Gilmour tone"...the deep, dark tone that's big on low-mid and low on midrange output and that you hear on tracks like "Dogs" and "Wish You Were Here". These are NOT good performing guitars precisely because of their tone. I went out and bought a new Walden D550 specifically to get something with beefier mids for performing. The Walden projects with a band far better than the Yamaha. What the Yamaha has in spades is depth and balance, and the cream-label Yammie's will be about as open and mature as they're ever likely to get. And that makes them great for recording in situations where you don't have a Martin or some other comparable rosewood-bodied tone monster that you can use. It also makes these terrific campfire guitars especially for male voices...more midrange output in my opinion flatters a female voice better. In two days I went from feeling lucky enough to own TWO of these "Gilmour-tone" Yamaha's (an FG340 with 3-piece back...definitely one to shortlist as a sleeper, and IMO a bargain at anything under US$250, and an FG770) to FOUR. A rare FG295 cherryburst Hummingbird clone popped up at a garage sale, and the very next day my 12-string FG410 appeared on a local buy/sell site. They all have that distinct "Gilmour tone", and they're all well-made budget guitars. Not all survive well beyond the first 15 years, but look around the web and you'll find literally dozens of posts from owners who claim they're their favorite players or best-value guitars, and just as many from self-proclaimed experts who claim they're junk that could never take the place of any decent solid-top dreadnought. There's a message there: find a good one, and you'll likely have a lifetime love. But even the less-perfect survivors have their charms.

i have a 410A from 1989- 1990? and i prefer it to any other guitar ive played, its just got that warm but mellow tone i rarely come across any more and matches my banjo quite well . i dislike that bright maple sound most guitars seem to have nowadays . i play American finger-style mostly. and the yamaha can really take a good percussive beating .. spruce and mahogany sounds good all ways and seems to hold its own against weather extremes, takes little maintenance and is a great no frills guitar . i would reccomend any day