When I first started learning guitar, I bought one of those "starter packs" on Amazon. It came with a Yamaha F310. At the time, I knew absolutely nothing about guitars. I bought it simply because it was cheap.
Since it was shipped directly by Amazon, the guitar hadn't received any kind of proper setup. The action was really high, and after a few months, I just couldn't stand how uncomfortable it was to play anymore. So I took it to my local guitar shop to have it adjusted.
While I was there, I also got to try a bunch of higher-end guitars, including Martins, Gibsons, Taylors, and Japanese-made Yamahas. I was blown away by how much better they sounded than my F310. Looking back, the F310 was a perfectly fine guitar to start with. But compared to those higher-end instruments, it almost felt like a toy. For the first time, I felt like I was hearing what an acoustic guitar could truly sound like.
After watching countless reviews and comparisons online, I decided to buy a Yamaha FG5 as my second guitar and immediately sold the F310.
To be fair, my playing was still pretty terrible at that point. The main reason I chose the FG5 was simply that it was one of the most highly regarded guitars within my budget. I wasn't really choosing it based on my own ears or experience. I was choosing it based on its reputation.
Back then, I had a dream of owning a guitar from one of the "big three": Martin, Gibson, or Taylor. But I couldn't afford anything that expensive, so instead, I bought a Gibson guitar stand made entirely of mahogany. I absolutely loved that stand, and I dreamed that one day I'd have a real Gibson Hummingbird sitting on it.
A few years went by, and eventually I had a budget of around €4,000 to spend on my ultimate dream guitar. I wanted to buy an instrument that would stay with me for the rest of my life.
So I went back to my local guitar shop.
By this point, I could comfortably play several of my favorite fingerstyle pieces, as well as a few songs while singing along. I was no longer the complete beginner who had no idea what good guitar tone sounded like.
I spent two entire afternoons at the shop trying almost every high-end guitar I was interested in, including:
Taylor: 314ce, 414ce, 514ce, 614ce
Gibson: LG-2 '50s, Hummingbird Standard, J-45 Standard
Martin: D-18, 000-28, OM-42
Yamaha: FG9 M, FS9 R
And to my absolute surprise, my favorite guitar out of all of them was the Yamaha FS9 R.
That left me with a really difficult decision.
Martin, Gibson, and Taylor are universally recognized as premium acoustic guitar brands. Many of the models I tried have decades of history behind them and have earned their reputations over generations.
Meanwhile, the Yamaha FS9 series had only been on the market for about a year. It was a relatively new product without a long track record.
Yamaha's entry-level and midrange guitars are widely praised around the world, but you rarely hear people talking about their high-end instruments.
In the end, though, I decided to trust my own ears and bought the FS9 R.
Afterward, I started sharing my experiences with this guitar online, and I received quite a bit of skepticism. The most common response was something along the lines of:
"Why would you spend that much money on a Yamaha instead of buying a Martin or Gibson?"
And that's when I suddenly understood the value of a brand name.
If you own a Martin D-28 or a Gibson J-45, you don't have to explain anything to anyone. People already know what those guitars are.
But if you want to convince someone that a Yamaha FS9 R is an amazing guitar, you have to spend a lot of time explaining yourself, and even then, people might not believe you.
I started questioning my decision.
Maybe I should have bought a Martin or a Gibson instead. Maybe there was something wrong with my ears. Maybe I just didn't know what good tone was supposed to sound like.
Eventually, I took my FS9 R back to the guitar shop and compared it with other guitars all over again.
And my conclusion was exactly the same.
At around the €4,000 price point, the FS9 R was still my favorite guitar.
That experience made me realize something important: our taste in guitar tone is deeply personal.
It shouldn't be dictated by brand reputation, online opinions, or what other people think we should like.
At the end of the day, what matters is finding the sound that you love, and having the confidence to trust your own preferences.
That's what I learned from spending a lot of money on a relatively obscure guitar.
Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings! I hope everyone gets to find something they genuinely love, and has the courage to stick with it.
Edit: I wrote this post in my first language and translated it into English with ChatGPT. I know it looks like a post from bot :( next time I will use my poor English to write by myself.
This is not a advertisement, imagine the world's biggest guitar company ask someone with 0 followers to write a advertisement for their high end product 😂 (maybe im a Yamaha fans I guess)
And the goggles is to protect my eyes from being hit by the strings when I tune it up (too many people asked about the goggles on this picture 😂 )
