After spending the last weekend at the local music shop district; I finally decided and bought a Yamaha APX-4a Electro-Acoustic guitar in Translucent Blue (2nd lowest in the APX line). It has a Spruce top (not solid unfortunately), nato (what kind of wood is that?) back sides and neck, indian rosewood fingerboard and bridge. It has a piezo pickup with a 3-band EQ with an adjustable mid-range freq.
I looked around at various models (Ovation, Epiphone, no-name, Fender). Most of the Ovations and Epiphones I liked were way out of my range so I was only able to drool over them. I didn't particulary like the Applause series by Ovation, they seemed poorly manufactured and they didn't sound that good either. That was the same case with some of the no-name Ovation copies I played. I was able to play all the guitars through the same Yamaha bass amp, so that gave me a good chance to compare the guitars at an equal level.
The Yamaha sounds half-decent acoustically (although the low and high E strings sound a bit funny). Once plugged in, with a little work on the onboard EQ (boosting the bass, cutting the mid and slightly boosting the highs) it doesn't sound bad at all. I'll try to post some sound bytes if anyone is interested.
I do miss my Martin but I'm much happier with my Yamaha right now. It's a very comfortable guitar and sounds quite good compared to it's price and what it's made out of. The store counted my Martin for $200 (normally $360) and by adding another $200 on top of it, I was able to get the Yamaha.
So, no regrets for me
PS: If you think that the prices are funny or think that I was screwed; please take into consideration that I live in Turkey and things are quite a bit more expensive here.
http://www.yamahaguitars.com/acoustic/apx4a_frame.html
I looked around at various models (Ovation, Epiphone, no-name, Fender). Most of the Ovations and Epiphones I liked were way out of my range so I was only able to drool over them. I didn't particulary like the Applause series by Ovation, they seemed poorly manufactured and they didn't sound that good either. That was the same case with some of the no-name Ovation copies I played. I was able to play all the guitars through the same Yamaha bass amp, so that gave me a good chance to compare the guitars at an equal level.
The Yamaha sounds half-decent acoustically (although the low and high E strings sound a bit funny). Once plugged in, with a little work on the onboard EQ (boosting the bass, cutting the mid and slightly boosting the highs) it doesn't sound bad at all. I'll try to post some sound bytes if anyone is interested.
I do miss my Martin but I'm much happier with my Yamaha right now. It's a very comfortable guitar and sounds quite good compared to it's price and what it's made out of. The store counted my Martin for $200 (normally $360) and by adding another $200 on top of it, I was able to get the Yamaha.
So, no regrets for me
PS: If you think that the prices are funny or think that I was screwed; please take into consideration that I live in Turkey and things are quite a bit more expensive here.
http://www.yamahaguitars.com/acoustic/apx4a_frame.html
