Yamaha CSF1M Compact Folk - Tobacco Brown Sunburst Reviews

This guitar has met all my expectations. The workmanship is excellent, it was delivered and stays in tune and the sound is decent for the price and size. I was surprised at how well the pickup works, sounds great using my Sweetwater Fishman Mini. It would be nice to have a little more punch on the low end but it is what it is.

This guitar is such a delight to play. Set up out of the box is pretty good but a little tweaking makes it great. Amazing full bright sound for a smaller guitar. Love the shorter frets and body size. A great couch guitar. And as always, Yamaha's fine craftsmanship makes the guitar beautiful to look at as well. I never paid this much for a Yamaha. They were usually under $200 and I considered them "throw away" guitars because they were such great beaters for travel etc. But this parlor guitar is not a beater. It is a fine instrument meant to take care of and enjoy.

I am a late life user and lover of Yamaha guitars. I own Martin and Taylors and love them also but man, are they expensive!
I wanted a little guitar to have out in living room to grab and play. This CSF1M is now my absolute favorite. I grab to learn and write new songs and also play the ones from many years ago. Sounds amazing. Has a great deep voice and an open sound to it. Sounds great for folk, blues or country and super great for finger picking. If you are looking for a guitar for little ones, beginners and even late pickers like me, don't look any further unless you have a 1000.00 or more to spend.

This is a substantial quality "parlor" guitar...especially at this price-point. This size is a better choice for me than the "Little or Baby" size guitars for sound & playability. It is smaller than my others, but not too small. This is my strum around the campfire, and travel guitar. I do believe, however, that it is too large to fit in the overhead compartment for airline travel. It sounds bright and is surprisingly loud with good sustain, and the under-bridge passive piezo pickup works just fine for my needs. Shoutout and thanks to Ryan Haines of Sweetwater for his guidance and assistance once again.

This is the number one acoustic. It's beautiful, it's surprisingly loud, and has a decent pickup. I love the smaller body whih makes it a great guitar to take with you when travelling. The padded gig bag is really good quality - nice and thick and cushy.

I am an avid home recorder. I find that this guitar has a very focused sound that records very evenly and is easy to mike in mono or stereo. I use it consistently for acoustic tracks.

As stated earlier, the passive pickup is surprisingly good and works well with acoustic processors and effects. I am a church musician and I run the guitar through a Katana 50 watt amp into the acoustic channel and put that direct into the board. It sounds quite full.

This guitar surprised me and is one of the best purchases I ever made, and is amazing at this price point. The video features this guitar on a very old original song I recently re-recorded. It is miked in stereo. It really shows off the full and focused sound of this guitar.

I was looking for a guitar for an adult with smaller hands. The CSF1 sounds great to my ears and made it so I can play chords easier. I've only played for a couple of years now, and I was having trouble reaching (without buzz) some of the fairly common chords, and a smaller scale really did make a significant difference for me. Did a bunch of research and considered Martin D Jr-10, Little Martin, Taylor GS Mini, Baby Taylor, and Yamaha JR1. I never had the chance to play all of these different guitars at the same time and compare thoroughly in-person; although read lots of reviews, and saw some that compared some of these and still preferred this CSF1. I also did get to play some of the others later on at a local music store and still was happy with the CSF1 purchase. At the end, I had it narrowed down between the CSF1 and Martin D Jr-10. I liked the gloss of the CSF1 and thought it had a much better case (also has neck support). The pickup was also a nice addition (haven't used it yet) and have had good luck with Yamaha (had the FS800 before). Also thought the gloss might be more durable. Plus it was still a little less expensive at the time. I wasn't sure how I felt about the D Jr-10 having the Richlite material for the fingerboard, although to be fair the back of the CSF1 neck seems to maybe be some kind of veneer I think, but couldn't tell that originally. I also have had better results with Yamaha's customer service than Martin when contacting directly with questions. I think either of these two would have been great but settled on the CSF1 and am very happen with the guitar.

After several "attempts" at learning to play guitar, my children's piano lessons finally pushed me to take learning to play an instrument seriously. This is a nice parlor sized guitar. It holds tuning and is a great size for me and my kids to learn to play. Good tone and pretty easy to play. Steel strings really build up the callouses on my fingers! Sweetwater is the best! Fast shipping and great service!

Love this guitar the best small body guitar I have played in 50 years passive pickup sounds good nice full sound easy playability with the set up from Sweetwater wish they had the solid wood model in stock when I bought this but the laminated back and sides will be better for road use anyway very comfortable to hold and play! Would highly recommend

What a great sound from a small guitar. The Sweetwater set up was spot on. Luke Basset did a very good job helping me to pick out the guitar and everything i needed.

I own approximately 100 or so guitars and related instruments. I've owned several so called "parlor" guitars. Most have fallen short in that they were either uncomfortable to hold, and / or had less than satisfactory tone. Yamaha has hit a home run with this guitar. I think it was developed to compete with the Taylor GS Mini, and I think it has done so very well. It's a bit less expensive, and has a pick up included. No pre-amp, but the sound is quite nice through a console or amplifier. The scale is shorter than a full size acoustic (23.5 inches) and this is the first guitar I've had that matches the body size to the shorter scale. Others have either too large a body, or too small. Just like Goldilocks, the Yamaha feels "just right". The tone is very robust for a smaller guitar and is very satisfying. Amazingly comfortable to hold and play. I purchased this guitar for recording in my cramped studio space, and it fits the bill perfectly. Highly recommended.

This guitar is quickly becoming one of my favorites to play. I have had it now for about a month. It is well-made, gorgeous and has a great sound! I love that the sunburst has mostly a red tint to it; exactly what I was looking for and always wanted. The neck and fingerboard are extremely easy to play. Plus it comes with a great gig bag. I enjoy showing this guitar off. It just motivates me to play more.

And you can't beat the Sweetwater experience! Whatever guitar you choose, Sweetwater is the way to go. They are the best! And then there's the candy..

Been searching a long time for a small guitar that is affordable, quality made, and with a great sound. This little baby exceeds all of my expectations. I am 69, a player since a young kid and I have owned so many guitars I can't count them all..I own other Yamaha guitars and I knew the quality would be good, but I was totally surprised at the volume and quality of sound that this beautiful instrument provides. I am proud to own this guitar. Thank you Mr. Darius Beatz, my Sweetwater ally for your assistance and great service that is second to none. I don't need to shop anywhere else. You have always made it a great experience to purchase sight unseen.

....too nice to take camping! I bought this thinking it could be an upgrade outdoor acoustic for camping and hanging out by the river, from my crazy cheap but lovable Recording King parlor. Problem is, it's in mint condition (got it slightly used) and I just can't force myself to give it the finish wear that always comes with outdoor use.

But at home? My other current "upstairs" acoustics (not to be confused with the 5 or 6 in my studio) are a Martin D-16GT which sounds so good that I passed on a great deal for a D-18 (oops) and a fine old Martin 000M but I tend to grab the Yamaha more often than the others. Yamaha doesn't shy away from the word "laminated", because they've been doing lam back & sides for so many decades and this model shows it. The lam mahogany has a much richer low end than I would ever expect from a guitar this size - not really a parlor, more like a 00 or 0 size.

I may part with it someday if I spring for a premium parlor but I doubt it. Fantastic value, with Yamaha consistency of quality. Pickup sounds fine too, although I rarely use it on gigs. The guy I bought it from raved in his CL post that it sounded as good as his Collings (or maybe it was a Santa Cruz) parlor and I was really shocked when I tried them side by side - yup, very comparable in tone.