Yamaha A5R ARE Dreadnought Cutaway - Vintage Natural Reviews

I bought the Yamaha FGX5 acoustic/electric guitar. After I received it I realized it wasn't for me, reason being it did not have a cutaway and my arthritis wouldn't allow me to reach the upper register on the neck and I had it in my head "This Is The Guitar For Me". Well it wasn't.

I contacted Sweetwater's sales person Owen DesBles and explained the situation. Owen was able to provide assistance for the return. Sweetwater has a very good policy on returns, no hassle at all.
I still wanted to purchase a Acoustic/electric guitar, so Owen suggested the Yamaha A5R which has the cutaway I needed. When I received the A5R it came quickly, perfectly in tune and I like the finish even better than the FGX5 although the FGX5 is a great guitar for someone who doesn't have arthritis.

The guitar (A5R) has an articulate high end, the middle has a definite presence, while the low end is beefy and this one won't break the bank, sounds like a much more expensive guitar. The looks are beyond description, just beautiful.

Sweetwater knocked this one out of the park, I would recommend it to anyone who wants a quality acoustic/electric guitar.
I've dealt with Sweetwater for some time now and have never had anything but a great experience. The website is awesome it almost puts the guitar on your hands.
Sweetwater is very committed too satisfied their customers and the staff is knowledgeable.
Special Thanks to Owen DesBles for making this customer very happy.

After rolling around a couple of ideas of guitars, it came down to this one and a Yamaha Red Label FGX5. I decided to head to a guitar store near me and see if there were either in stock and this exact model was there. This guitar easily beats a Takamine and competes extremely well with a Martin GPCPA4 (discontinued.) This guitar is super easy to play, and can enjoy a tune every time I pick it up. The price is amazing, especially for the sound and things that come along with it. The case is a very nice and sturdy leather case and has a lot of space for things like straps, picks, strings, tuners, capos, etc. The action is superb as well, you can play up and down the neck, however you'd like. If you are considering this guitar and deciding between this or a more expensive Taylor 314 or Martin GPC 16, I would suggest going for this guitar.

I have been playing guitar for over 49
years and wanted to finally get my forever guitar. I looked at Martin and I already have a low budget Taylor, and what with the money I would be able to spend, the only Martin I would be able to afford is built in Mexico. After coming to the realization of that, I decided I would look at Yamaha. Being primarily a keyboard player I have owned two Motif's and know that they are exceptional instruments. After reading lots of reviews about the Yamaha built in Japan and playing a China built one at Guitar Center I decided to take a chance and bought this A5R model...
WOW!... the thing sounds so FULL! The tone is beautiful and projects well, the action and playability is amazing... The finish and detail is impeccable... I like to put it on a guitar stand and just look at it.
In this day in age (yeah, I'm an old guy) I never thought I would buy a guitar online without playing it first, but Sweetwater is a store to place your trust and working my man Cristian Good, made the process very simple.
All in all... I will say that I am very pleased with my purchase.

Beautiful, high quality instrument!

I have owned and played a Taylor 710ce since I bought it new 25 years ago. I've always been a fan of the boomy, rich sound that Rosewood back and sides and Sitka Spruce top provides. The Taylor is a dream, but unfortunately after 25 years and only a couple setups during that time it started getting buzzy and the Fishman onboard electronics needed upgrading. So it's going back to Taylor for a refreshing.

I'm an active musician - between solo gigs, worship band and recording projects - my guitar gets lots of weekly playing time. Knowing that my main working guitar would be unavailable for a few months, I was on the lookout for a new acoustic. After a ton of research, I landed on the highly recommended Yamaha brand.

Originally, I was looking at the A1R series in the $ range which gets very good reviews. The A1 series is layered wood as opposed to the solid wood found on the A5 series. I played the A1 at a local shop and while it was a nice instrument, it just did not have the sound quality that I was looking for. It sounded "thin" and lacked richness.

After briefly looking at the A3 series, I eventually upgraded myself to the A5R because for me, the jump in price (from approx. $, to $) was worth it for a Japanese handmade vs. a Chinese made. I can't imagine being more satisfied and happy with the decision.

The guitar arrived within 48 hours of ordering. It came double-boxed with ample packing material and the A5 does (in 2023) include a nice case.

My first impressions upon opening the case and holding the guitar was Wow! This is a visually beautiful instrument!
The fit and finish are impeccable. Little details like the binding, binding paint, fretboard inlays, sound hole design and pickguard are all top notch and classy.

I elected to not have it set up prior to shipping and the A5R played beautifully out of the box. Every fret checked out, tone and tune perfect up and down the neck. The action I would say is medium to medium-low right from the manufacturer and/or Sweetwater.

The sound is rich, boomy and sustaining both plugged and unplugged with beautiful clarity and zero muddiness. The high end seems a bit more present versus the Taylor but I'm guessing that will mellow some as the guitar ages. The guitar rings out and was heard clearly cutting through the mix of electric guitars, keys, drums and bass at 2 recent live events.

I can't say enough good things about this Yamaha A5R. Several reviewers have said that it plays as well as a guitar 4X the price. I wouldn't know about that but it's not hard to imagine. Right now it sounds every bit as good as my Taylor (who unfortunately priced themselves out of the conversation) with the exception of that deep richness of sound that only comes with age. If you are on the fence about getting this guitar, do it. You won't be sorry.

simply the best and all i need in a fine guitar above all else.

Where do I start? Fit and finish is impeccable. Tone, resonance and sustain are incredible, the rosewood really sounds off and holds it, maintaining spectacular sound during chord changes. Oh, and you get a lot for your money! Consider the solid wood, the craftsmanship, the aging, the electronics, the top notch case, the frets, the ready to play action, the sound hole cover and you can't go wrong. The action was industry standard for in the middle action job, doesn't need an action job unless you want something custom. Didn't think I'd use the sound hole cover but it has come in great for two things, eliminating amp feedback and using it to practice in the house without driving the wife crazy. The sound hole cover actually helped me discover a few chords where I needed to be more precise, you only hear the strings and it really pulls out the sound of any missteps, something that is hidden with the box resonating. Can't say enough good things about this guitar. The sound is wonderful. And a big shout out to Ryan McGuire who was patient with me as I changed my mind between rosewood and mahogany and back to rosewood.

I have had this guitar for a little while it has been a joy to play,would recommend it for anyone who likes to play acoustic it plays and sounds better than my Gibson and Martin guitars at half the price.

Beautiful and tuneful guitar. From the amber ARE treated top to the rosette & binding and slick ebony fretboard, this guitar is a beauty.
Most importantly, it plays easily and really rings. The fit and finish is superior to entry level Martin's and Taylor's in the same price range and it sounds as good as many more expensive guitars.

This is an amazing guitar. It easily competes with guitars that cost twice as much. In a side by side comparison with my high end supername guitar the difference in playability is imperceptible. The high end guitar sounds slightly better unamplified, but amplified through Yamaha's SR2 system I don't notice any difference. It's a beautiful guitar as well. To me, this guitar proves that you don't have to break the bank to have quality.

Outstanding lows, powerful mids, great highs. Build quality is top notch, even the action was good from the box. Great case too. Sounds great plugged in from straight pickup to blend of mics you like. For an outstanding guitar for less than you know who American brands, this is the one. Great job on shipping prep and customer service too!!!

This is a review of my Yamaha A5R ARE Dreadnought Cutaway - Vintage Natural. I have waited two weeks and 10+ hours of playing/setup to comment on this guitar. I have been playing/collecting for decades, and based my choice for grain/weight based on Sweetwaters' excellent photos.

I arrived on the date promised. Speedy shipping. I let it sit in the shipping box for a bit over 24 hours in my 40-50% humidity/temp controlled room per Sweetwater instructions on box, opened the outer box, pulled out the inner Yamaha box, then opened the Yamaha box to extract the case. Nice SOLID double boxing for shipment. Very impressed. Nice quality case as well.

I opened the case, and found a beautiful guitar. The Sweetwater pics, while great, do not do justice. Nice tighly grained wood throughout, and a rich amber colored top. Excellent gloss. It was rather well tuned and setup. Thanks, Sweetwater! I played it for about an hour, loosened the truss rod just a tad per my judgement, let it sit for a couple of hours and went at it.

Great looking, superb sound (have not amplified), and a nice action. The SRT2 controls are very unobtrusive. At this price point, one would be challenged to find a better guitar. I cannot. It rivals guitars that cost MUCH more. Yamaha nailed it on this unit.

My Rep Kyle was extremely helpful without being overbearing. He's a good bloke! I am a customer for the foreseeable future.

I haven’t played acoustic in years, mainly because I just don’t think they are fun. I had a Taylor 110 ce and sold it because I never played it. I consider myself a pro when it comes to electric guitars. I have three $5000 hand made electric guitars and I know good sound and playability. I am a alternative/indy and worship musician. My wife has been been begging me to buy an acoustic, so I gave in and started researching several brands. I figured I’d go with a Taylor or Martin and I figured I would pay around $3000 or more for something decent. The reviews I read kept speaking of this Yamaha A5R so I took notice. I figured if I hated this guitar I could always sell it on Reverb for a little loss. I ordered this guitar on a Sunday night and had it Tuesday. Hence why I love Sweetwater, these folks do care about the customer and will aim to please. I wont do business anywhere else... I received the guitar and let acclimate for a while. I opened and noticed how beautiful this thing was, I played and thought eh, its ok. I do that with every guitar I end up loving, If I love from the first second, I usually end up being disappointed, however the guitars that don’t immediately impress me always end up being ones I cant live without. This guitar after about 3 hours playing totally made me want to play acoustic again. The sustain, the action, the look, the feel, the SOUND, my my, this thing is so worth the $... it costs. I seriously doubt any guitar under $5000 can compete with this.

This guitar is absolutely amazing! Competes with high end Taylors but sounds 10x better than any V Class since those are throw aways. Never thought I'd own a Yamaha but am thrilled by the company and want more of what they got because of this beaut!

These used to cost $100.00 more when I bought mine and I felt I got a steal. There is a reason these are out of stock a lot. For me the string spacing was to tight so I had my guitar guy make a new nut, problem solved. This thing plays fast and smooth. The fit and finish on mine was awesome. This guitar would easily cost twice the price if it was made in the USA. I got a $150.00 yamaha fg 800 or something like up at the cabin, laminate sides and probably top too, who knows but that guitar sounds amazing. So I decided to try a so called "expensive" Yamaha and man oh man what a guitar. Buy the way, the case it comes in is nicer than my Martin 000 15sm. This guitar blows away anything in it's price range. Don't really care for the design of the pick guard myself but that is just being nit-picky, he he, get it. Just buy it you will love it!

Even though I was critical of this instrument when I first received it (there was a reason for that), it is now quite apparent that this is a very nicely made guitar. It has opened up quite a bit sonically and I truly enjoy playing it. Greater volume and sustain now and the neck is a pleasure to play on. IMHO, this instrument is well worth the price of admission and then some. Sweetwater, as always, has done an outstanding job in every way. Keep up the great work, both Sweetwater and Yamaha!

This is my go to guitar. I own a Martin gpcpa1 and a Gibson J45 and this guitar is far superior. The sound both plugged and unplugged is hard to beat . Brock was great before and after the sale. If you're looking for a really good guitar that won't break the bank you need to check this one out.

Now that I have mine, it's safe to say it: This is the best kept secret in acoustic guitars. Goes head-to-head with higher end "T's" and "M's" at a much lower price point. Very responsive; it sings. A little on the bright side, but still very pleasing.

I've been playing for 30 years. Acoustic, acoustic electric, electric, bass, and mandolin.
I currently own a martin d28, martin d18 golden era, American fender telecaster, g&l bass, Weber mandolin, ect....I've traveled in bands from Indiana to Florida, New York, Oklahoma....ect...
I loved this Yamaha from the second I picked it up. The projection was superior to most of the $3,000 guitars hanging next to it. The playability is excellent, and the electronics are great.
When I brought it home I opened the case of the Yamaha and my 2 Martins. With my wife having her back turned, I played each one without her knowledge of which one I had. EVERYTIME, she picked the Yamaha tone, projection, and balance over the 2 Martins.
I know its early in my ownership, but for the price, quality, sound projection and overall value, I'm a fan of Yamaha high end guitars!
I'd recommend the Yamaha high end guitars to any seasoned player looking for great sound quality at a fair price. Sweetwater was great in the sale too.

I am a long time player and experienced in both acoustic, acoustic electric and electric. I have owned high- end Takamine and Alvarez / Alvarez Yairi, Martin etc...I very much took my time with this purchase, playing as many brands of guitars at this price point as I could.

The Yamaha A5R Dreadnought simply blows away the Martin GPCPA4 and the Taylor 214ce DLX (deluxe). The build quality is much better than both of those and the balanced sound is incredible, both unplugged and plugged in.The finish is beautiful and the neck is so very comfortable. This guitar is beefy and the low, mid, high balance of the scalloped bracing is dynamic. The mic modelling and blend control make this guitar sound like an unplugged guitar when it's plugged in! I recommend not going with the trend of Martin and Taylor...use your ears people and stop conforming. Play the Yamaha and LISTEN / FEEL it. Truly outstanding Yamaha! And shout out to my sales engineer Roq Martin who's always awesome. Buy this guitar people, you won't be disappointed.

This rating is as much about this fabulous guitar as it is about doing business with Sweetwater and their Sales Engineer concept. The guitar arrived in perfect condition both in ready to play and appearance. This is the second guitar I have purchased from Sweetwater with each arriving to me ready to go. Action, neck, set up were all perfect. The two things other than aesthetics I appreciate the most is the warm lingering sound and the neck shape. Although I only have my $700 guitars to compare it, the purchase was well worth it. Now a little about Sweetwater. At first the Sales Engineer concept didn't really appeal to me that much. I have plenty of online purchase experience and thought to myself, "Do I need this extra step?" Well, what separates Sweetwater from other online music store is their Sales Engineers. Mason Moss is my personal Sales Engineer and he has my back. Something you don't get from other online retailers. He has been there on every purchase whether I used him or not. He followed through from purchase to receiving the product either by phone or email. From this rather major purchase to the smallest less that $10 purchase. He's advised and been a real help and benefit and has gone out of his way to make me a happy Sweetwater purchaser

This is the first new guitar I've gotten in over 40 years. I have a classical guitar I bought in middle school and a 12-string I bought in high school. I played both incessantly for years, but then for whatever reason stopped playing about 15-20 years ago, only picking up them up occasionally to change strings and play the same things over and over. Neither of these guitars were very high quality and I always wanted a 6-string accoustic which I was CONVINCED was what was holding me back. But didn't want something only eh eh or one I'd become bored with if only as responsive as my two other guitars. I also didn't want to spend too much because I wasn't sure how serious I'd be about playing and would feel very guilty if my initial enthusiasm ended up as yet another big guitar case in my small living room.

I did a lot of research and for my needs and settled on the Taylor 114e and Yamaha AC3R as being about the right price. I tried them in local stores and was happy enough, but felt the Yamaha had a richer sound and was less stiff for finger picking. I also felt the Yamaha overall, was a better value and to me had a fuller, warmer sound. When I tried the A5R I made my decision. Although it was about 50% more expensive than the AC3R, the sound was much richer and string action noticeably smoother. It's also a real beauty to look at.

As for playing, I have a lot of catching up to do, but the A5R handles beautifully and lets me do things (bars, complex chord fingerings, licks, etc.) much more easily and less painfully. The action is great and I have far fewer guitar farts (that muffled "flumpfh" sound you get when trying some acrobatic fingering) than I ever had before. I'm very happy with the purchase.

Note: I'm giving this a 4.5 rather than a 5 because I don't yet feel I can play it well enough to fully judge all its qualities.

I purchased this guitar for myself as an early birthday present. I've owned or spent time with several cheaply-made overseas Rogues and Ovations, a solid-wood Seagull, and American-made Martins & Taylors, not to mention my unconventional Composite Acoustics carbon-fiber OX, so my breadth of experience on acoustic guitars is moderate. I bought this guitar because it was among the least-expensive acoustic-electrics made in a country that I felt has enough renown for building good guitars (like America, South Korea, Australia, the UK, and a few others, although in this case it was Japan). It also has a very desirable combination of woods that are increasingly hard to come by due to scarcity and CITES (ebony fingerboard, rosewood back and sides, spruce top) and a narrower nut, which I happen to prefer since I have small hands.

The guitar arrived nearly in tune, and when I strummed it I was blown away by how loud and complex the sound was. This guitar is quite simply the most resonant once I've played in recent memory, maybe ever. My other dreadnoughts sound very dark and muted in comparison. I have to believe this is the result of the torrefaction process and scalloped bracing as this is also evident when performing percussive effects; this guitar has more 'knock' to it on the upper bout than any other I've played by a wide margin. The construction and playability are both impeccable in every respect. At this price level the instrument isn't insanely appointed with gaudy inlays and rosettes but I'm not to keen on that anyhow and to expect that for this amount of money would imply sacrificing some level of QC or quality of materials.

This guitar also sounds amazing plugged in. The SRT2 system uses convolution to transform the usual honky piezo tonality into a beautiful miced-up sound. I usually use an external IR loader and some acoustic IRs I purchased to do this on other guitars when I play live so having this built into the instrument is a definite plus in the convenience department. This guitar also comes with a soundhole cover which I don't recall seeing in the sales listing, so that's a plus.

I have only two [very minor] gripes about the instrument, both of which don't amount to a half-star of deduction but I had to round down to avoid giving it a perfect score:

- There's a tiny bit of glue residue visible on the top where it meets the edge of the fretboard. This might be fixable with some melamine sponge or sandpaper/finishing paper but I simply don't care enough.
- There's no built-in tuner. A Snark or generic knockoff costs five bucks nowadays so this isn't a big deal but I find it bizarre that they can include such an exotic convenience as a DSP module on the guitar but not a simple tuner. Go figure.

All in all this guitar is a knockout. You won't be disappointed with your purchase if you buy it.

I have both the Yamaha A5R and the Breedlove performer pro I have yet to plug either in,so far I have a few hours of playing on each yet I'm finding myself going for the Breedlove more often than the Yamaha both quality guitars made very much the same Case and all. So if you're looking to save a few $$$ you just might want to compare both side by side and see what you like. Sound, playability and coast.

Loving this guitar. Such a sweet sound and easy to play.

This ia a follow-up to my initial review. I have to admit now, after playing this guitar for a week or two, while waiting for a replacement from Sweetwater, that I have found the guitar perfect in every way except for the misaligned name on the headstock. So, long story short, nice instrument EXCEPT for the crooked name on the headstock. Sweetwater and Yamaha both said they'd offer a replacement, but I will keep this one in spite of the flaw. Cannot be sure the replacement wouldn't have issues. Sweetwater is a great place to buy a guitar from, over my many years of doing so! .

I wanted an all solid guitar not made in China and chose this but after playing it for two days I just didn't love the tone and returned it.

Let's face it, this isn't a really, really expensive guitar. Be that as it may, there's no valid reason in the world why Yamaha can't put their name "Yamaha" on the headstock straight. 6 letters and they didn't get it right. I might expect that from one of their guitars made in China, but this is a Japanese "hand made" instrument they tout as supreior to the ones from China. I give up! I think the QC department must be under staffed or doesn't care and Yamaha should be ashamed. If I can see this flub, they shoud be able to see it as well. I cannot believe I have to incur an expense to return this just because Yamaha let it out the door as having passed an inspection?!