New Guitar Day: Yamaha SA2200

Gear
#1

Hey everybody.

Back in November I was made permanent at my job. I decided to buy a Gibson ES-335 to celebrate, as it has been a dream guitar of mine since I was a teenager.

Well, to my horror the stories of Gibson’s atrocious quality control turned out to be true. The first ES-335 I received had obvious, deep scratches in the fretboard, though it played well and sounded great. I decided to return it for a replacement. Unfortunately, in addition to several cosmetic blemishes, the replacement had a terrible, sour wolf note on the open D string and a weird snare-like rattling sound which could be heard through an amplifier or a DAW. I decided to return the second ES-335 for a refund, as I have no more trust in Gibson’s quality control.

I decided to look for an alternative, and I decided upon the Yamaha SA2200.

20240117_174234
20240117_1742341920×1440 322 KB

20240117_174315
20240117_1743151920×1440 369 KB

Fit and finish are impeccable. The setup is excellent; it plays much better than either of the 335s I was sent. It sounds incredible, and it cost €1300 less than the Gibson.

My quest to buy a cherry red ES-335 with a block inlay and a stop tail bridge has failed successfully.

10 Likes
#2

All’s well that ends well. Congrats and glad you were able to get past the disappointing experience you had with Gibson.

2 Likes
#3

Thanks Joe.

I think this was probably the best possible outcome for me. Had I bought the Yamaha first, I might have regretted not getting the ES-335 that I had my heart set on.

For me, the ES-335 in cherry red with the block inlay and stop bridge is absolutely iconic. I associate the guitar with Eric Clapton in Cream and Eric Johnson on the G3 tour, both of whom were hugely influential on me.

Having gone through my disappointment with Gibson, I have no regrets.

This is the only hardtail electric guitar I own, all of my other guitars have floating vibrato bridges. It’s been really fun and interesting exploring the affordances of the hardtail bridge (double-stop bends, ease of changing tunings, etc.) and seeing how the floating vibrato systems have influenced my technique.

1 Like