YAMAHAFGX800C Solid Top Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Dreadnought

I am a beginner so I was hesitant to spend much money. I thought a couple hundred bucks for this was a reasonable gamble, and honestly it’s exceeded my expectations. It feels and plays like a quality piece, time will tell if I need to upgrade with more experience but this will probably do for at least a few years of casual picking. The packaging was not very robust, I live near a distribution center so had no issues but make sure there’s no damage when you receive it.

EDIT: After I have set this guitar up (which involved mostly lowering the nut height, lowering the action overall and polishing the fret surfaces and ends) this guitar won me over. It just became mine. I put Eric Clapton strings on it which are slightly warmer and less bright and this guitar sings! I’m adding not one but two stars making it a perfect five!Original review:I've read a lot about how this guitar is a great value and a surprisingly good instrument at this price so maybe my expectations were too high, but I'm somewhat disappointed.First of all, the guitar arrived poorly set up. The action was extremely high due to, both, a very high nut and very high saddle. While updating the saddle I realize the original one was too thin: it fell out of the slot right away when I removed the strings. This caused it to lean forward in the slot, which affects the sound. It also affects intonation as it shortens the scale just a few micrometers (intonation was pretty good out of the box though but not perfect). After the saddle upgrade the intonation is perfect. I don't understand how it is possible that Yamaha does not care to install a saddle of a correct thickness, it does not cost more to simply install a matching saddle. The nut had a poorly cut slots, there was a lot of strings binding. The fret ends are quite sharp and not properly finished. The middle of the frets are very poorly polished: if you try to bend a note you will feel grinding. Very sloppy! I have no idea what Yamaha is bragging about when they say that the fretboard has "rolled edges" - no such thing.When changing the strings I inserted a small webcam into the sound hole to inspect the interior of the guitar. The bridge plate has lots of splinting and rough edges around the string holes, it's as if a 4-year-old drilled those wholes with a dull drill bit from a toy set (sad thing is that maybe it was ?). Lots of glue squeeze everywhere, bracing not being of correct length - don't look inside if you want to love this guitar!After the upgrades and a basic common sense setup the guitar is very easy to play. Not the most inspiring guitar to play as it does not have what one would call a character, but very playable. The sound is quite decent actually but lacking in bass response for sure. Also, in my sample, the low E string sounds thudy, as if made of rubber. I tried several strings and now have a good quality bone nut and saddle - unfortunately it has more to do with the resonance of the guitar and/or the neck's ability to transfer vibrations. It just sounds thudy with no sustain on anything other that open string. It is not a very nuanced guitar, does not respond to dynamics in playing well.However, somehow, I still like it. It is a very honest guitar. Very sincere. Does not pretend to be anything else that it is - an entry level guitar. It is not flashy, pretentious, fake. I still think that at $200 it is a great buy. Great as an everyday instrument that will not make me too precious about it, instead I will just play it without too much reverence towards it.

Excellent guitar. This is second one that I have bought. I am just curious which strings come with this guitar ? I want to by the same ones, because these strings sound great.

Really great sounding guitar. Held up nicely.

So far looks great. Just learning. Does anybody know how you hook up a strap. I see a knob on the bottom but nothing on the top. Am i missing something?

Very happy with it. Well built. Sounds great.

Very nice

The Yamaha FS800 deserves all of its accolades. It's a great guitar. I consider myself on the low end of intermediate and I just love this guitar. I give it a five-star rating, but with the caveat that I needed to take it to my local guitar shop to have it professionally set-up and replaced the factory strings with Elixirs. It was playable, but the action was too high, and the neck needed some modest adjustments. But with those updates it sounds and plays amazing. While this is positioned as an entry-level guitar, it's a great guitar for anyone at any level. Your first guitar, a second guitar for an experienced player, etc. I love the slightly smaller size, the look. It's definitely a worthy investment. Guitar strings and guitar tone preferences are very personal. For me it took a few rounds of trying different strings to get the sound I like. I loved the guitar from the start, but my string choices led the guitar to sound a bit too twangy and boxy for my taste. Part of that is the function of a slightly smaller body. But I still wanted a bit more depth to the sound. After many experiments, I ended up using Martin Retro Monel Light guitar strings. They really make the guitar have a bit more depth to the sound but also lend a nice brightness. While my sound preference is personal and may not apply everyone, I wanted to share my string journey.