Members Bamadawg Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 My John will be 15 on 4/4 and has been involved in band at school since the 5th grade... he plays trombone. I wanted to encourage him to learn the guitar since he is musically inclined and young. After doing alot of reading, I decided on picking up a vintage Yamaha (red-label) from all the great reviews they receive here at HC. I got a 1970 FG-150 that is in very good condition. I thought the "auditorium" size would be a good size to learn on. I read that the 150 was based on the Martin 000 size, possibly the Martin 000-18. I ordered some Dean Markley LT's for it, along with a nice Dunlop maintenance kit. I cleaned and polished it earlier today, and snapped some pics. I also have a set of Waverly nickel Vintage series open-back tuners on the way. I am keeping the original tuners and storing them away. The Waverly's will be a direct replacement, since the 150 has Martin specs on the tuners. I know I splurged alot on the tuners "$150.00", but I understand that having accurate tuners makes owning a guitar extra enjoyable, esp if you are a beginner. I dont know if I am going to do anymore upgrades as of yet, but may get a set of Tusq string pins to replace the plastic that it has now. Maybe later I will invest in the nut and saddle that Graph Tech offers also. Enough rambling... here is a link to alot of pics I snapped of the lil 150. http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g244/Bamadawg63/Yamaha_FG150/ Cheers...Nate
Members VengefulTikiGod Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 As long as it intonates well and plays easy, I'm sure it'll be a fine starter guitar. Upgrading the tuners was a good idea, but $150??? Ouch. Well, if they're nice enough to justify it, more power to ya I guess. Happy birthday to your son, 15 is when I got my first guitar too
Members Hudman Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 That guitar looks like it is in excellent condition. Waverly tuners are great, but I think I would have went with Grover Sta-Tites. They are high quality, open back tuners at a great price. Congrats!
Members knockwood Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 Fantastic gift idea - although admittedly I am biased - and I think you've chosen very well. The guitar looks great. I'm inclined to agree with Hudman on the tuners - would have gone with Grover Sta-Tites (I put them on an old Harmony, and they work great). Waverly is as good as it gets, but they're also about as expensive as it gets. With the $ you'd save on Grovers, you could take the guitar to a tech and make sure it's set up to play as easy as possible (he'll be more inclined to stick with it if it plays comfortably). http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,_solid_peghead_tuners/Grover_18:1_Sta-Tite_Guitar_Machines.html
Members Bamadawg Posted March 11, 2007 Author Members Posted March 11, 2007 I almost went with a set of the Gotoh. I looked on the Martin site to see what type of tuners they used on their guitars and Waverly and Gotoh seemed to be the most upgrade tuners they used. I knew the Waverly's were an exact replacement, and looked alot like the stock Yamaha tuners is the main reason I got them. Martin used some very beautiful Waverly antique nickel open-backs on some models... Nate
Members guitarist21 Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 Dude, that is a great start. Congrats on a good find and good luck to your son! Ellen
Members Bamadawg Posted March 11, 2007 Author Members Posted March 11, 2007 Thanks Ellen! Wow, checked out your site... you are very talented... you musta been playing since you were 0 to master all those instruments!!! If my John would get into his music as much as he does his Xbox 360... ugh. I keep telling him that he needs to explore different instruments while he is young, so maybe this Yamaha will lead to other things. Nate
Members Tony Burns Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 Your a great Dad , but I think putting those tuners on that guitar are over kill - Schallers or Gotohs are also great tuners at about 1/3 of the price- in all honesty i think the Schallers are as good or better than the Waverlys .
Members KATMAN Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 If my John would get into his music as much as he does his Xbox 360... ugh.I keep telling him that he needs to explore different instruments while he is young, so maybe this Yamaha will lead to other things.Nate You've done a good job in selecting his present. Tell him that girls like guys who play guitar,he'll be asking you to teach him!
Members Cripes Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 I did this for my son. The Larrivee OO-05 I bought was for him. He showed no interest. When I was about his age, my Pop bought me a banjo hoping I'd show some interest. I sold both the Larrivee and the banjo recently - both in like-new condition. I really hope your son does show some interest but don't get your hopes real high. And, be carefull with the encouragement. I stopped short of nagging before I gave up.
Members knockwood Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 If you really want to ensure that the kid shows interest, get him something else altogether and put the guitar in a locked case... in the livingroom... and tell him he is absolutely under no circumstances ever to play a guitar... ever... and particularly not the one on the locked case in the middle of the livingroom... OR ELSE! But make sure you accidentally leave the key somewhere in plain view and that you are not around for two or three hours a day... In two years, the kid'll make Tony Rice look like a freakin' amateur. Anyway, that's what passes for inspiration in my family...
Members guitarist21 Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 Thanks Ellen! Wow, checked out your site... you are very talented... you musta been playing since you were 0 to master all those instruments!!! If my John would get into his music as much as he does his Xbox 360... ugh. I keep telling him that he needs to explore different instruments while he is young, so maybe this Yamaha will lead to other things. Nate Thanks for the compliment- much appreciated. I played guitar only for a very long time, from when I was five till about fourth grade, when I played bass in the orchestra. Then I picked up drums for some reason and my sister started piano so I messed around with that too. Then mandolin and banjo. Then my junior year in high school I started brass instruments and I bought a clarinet this Christmas... now its just an addiction, really. I guess I'd advise you to let your son get comfortable on guitar before trying more instruments. Guitar and trombone are different beasts but once he's proficient on both, he'll have enough general music knowledge to carry over to the basics of piano and a several other concert-pitch instruments. You got him a great guitar that will serve him well for many years (Freeman Keller has a picture of young Freeman with his red label Yammie and then "retro-grouch" Freeman with the same guitar). Now you just hope he enjoys it! As for the xbox, I'm terrible at it. I have an old school Nintendo NES, the one with Zelda in the gold cartridge and Mario/Duck Hunt and Paper Boy, which I love dearly and I'm quite proficient at that. Good luck to your son! Ellen
Members Hudman Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 If you really want to ensure that the kid shows interest, get him something else altogether and put the guitar in a locked case... in the livingroom... and tell him he is absolutely under no circumstances ever to play a guitar... ever... and particularly not the one on the locked case in the middle of the livingroom... OR ELSE! But make sure you accidentally leave the key somewhere in plain view and that you are not around for two or three hours a day... In two years, the kid'll make Tony Rice look like a freakin' amateur. Anyway, that's what passes for inspiration in my family... I think we may be related.
Members Hamhand Posted March 11, 2007 Members Posted March 11, 2007 KNockwood, yer a genius! Why didn't I think of that?! Bwahahaha.
Members DeepEnd Posted March 12, 2007 Members Posted March 12, 2007 Nice looking guitar. I hope the kid will appreciate it. I bought our daughter a used OM size Epi A-10 used on eBay for less than $50 and it still has the original tuners. I'm going to join the chorus and say the Waverlys were serious overkill. You could've bought a set of Grovers on eBay for under $25: http://cgi.ebay.com/3L-3R-CHROME-GROVER-ROTOMATIC-GUITAR-TUNING-MACHINES_W0QQitemZ220089663209QQcategoryZ41434QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem. And I'm still waiting for our daughter to learn to play the thing. We're planning lessons for this summer but then again we planned lesssons for last summer and they never happened.
Members Bamadawg Posted March 26, 2007 Author Members Posted March 26, 2007 Just got back from the Luthier/Techs picking up the FG-150. He installed the Waverly's, cut/installed a Elephant Ivory saddle, cut/installed West African Hard Ivory nut, fit/installed Buffalo Horn w/abalone pins, installed Markley CL PhosBronze strings, did a complete set-up including dressing the frets and adjusting the truss. Says it is about 3/16" (I think) at "some fret - maybe 7th" - cant remember where he measured, Im not a player. When I walked in to pick it up... he starting smiling and said "You gotta hear this lil guitar". He pulled it out and strummed a tune on it. He said that he was totally shocked at the volume the lil FG-150 produces. He said he had a Martin D-18 in the shop and compared the two against each other. He said he preferred the lil 150 over the D-18... said it had beautiful intonation. He said that he never really gave much thought to Yamaha guitars, but after playing the FG-150... he was gonna get one. He was very impressed with the Hard Ivory nut, so I gave him Bob Colosi's website. *Special thanks to Jason Burns in Homewood, AL for his work on the 150.*Thanks to Bob Colosi of Custom Guitar Saddles in GA for the Hard Ivory nut, Elephant Ivory saddle and Buffalo horn pins.*Thanks to Stewart-McDonald for the nice Waverly tuners (even if they were overkill - they sure are perdy). I updated the pics now that I have all the hardware installed. http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g244/Bamadawg63/Yamaha_FG150/ Cheers...Nate
Members Freeman Keller Posted March 26, 2007 Members Posted March 26, 2007 Nate, you are a petty cool dad. My old FG-150 has been a very good friend for almost 40 years now and it is still a wonderful player. I too have upgraded the tuners (to some vintage Grovers) but otherwise I just play it and smile. My daughter (who is 40) has expressed an interest in learning to play the guitar and asked if she could have it. I can't think of a better home for it. Here's the pics that Ellen alluded to - the git has aged a whole lot better than the guy behind it.
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