Yamaha CSF3M Compact Folk - Vintage Natural Reviews

Everything about this guitar is fantastic. I've had mine for a few weeks and its by far the best sounding acoustic guitar I have owned.

professional acoustic git player so may wanna listen. I don't write a lot of reviews but this is a really nice parlor for 5 bills. If you want an acoustic that projects and sounds bright and comes with a nice set up, this is your baby. Passive pick up so buy a Fishman amp or some pre amp. Been playing it for about 2 yrs and I'm keeping it. I would say its best for folk and blues cause of its brightness and ability to project. Brings to mind Bob Dylan in the 60's playing protest music in the street. That's its sound but also great for old school Mississippi acoustic blues. It does have a nice jingly jangly sound feel but not overly so. Its making me look at other Yamaha gits and basses with an open mind. At least play one before you decide on an acoustic. You may be pleasantly surprised!

After months of playing gigs on a superb Sigma GJA-SG200+ (also recommended) I felt the need to let my fingers rest on a smaller guitar. Enter the yamaha csf3m. I tried the guitar in-store and was hooked. Both acousticly and plugged in this guitar will make you want to play more, and be suprised how good a guitar of this size can sound. Went back to try it 3 times, and couldn't torget it. An excellent addition to any collection and an absolute joy to play.

I bought the CSF3M for a travel/beach guitar and an extra acoustic I can leave in an alternate tuning. Sweetwater did a perfect job on the set up for me and shipping was fast. This guitar stays in tune as well if not longer than my $1700 Taylor. The guitar absolutely works for my purposes. It is small but very nice looking and fairly balanced in tone. I don't really get much of the "jingly" vibe that some other reviewer mentioned. Mostly, I use it disconnected but I have connected the CSF3M to my Fender 100 Acoustic amp and the new Fender Smoulder pedal. COOL! After a month with the CSF3M, I'm still glad I chose this over the GS mini or the little martin or jr, etc. I chose this one primarily due to the solid spruce top, solid mahogany back/sides and rosewood fingerboard. I couldn't be happier with the purchase and look forward to hearing it as it ages!

I had previously tried a Tobacco Brown CSF3M in a guitar store, and was not pleased with the high action. So I called Sweetwater to ask about a Vintage Natural CSF3M which was my first choice but not available in my city. I was transferred to sales engineer Spencer, who answered my questions with knowledge and patience. I ordered the guitar, with their set up service to lower the action, and a change to lighter strings.

The set up was done and the guitar shipped out just 24 hours later. Spencer emailed me the receipt, and a set of high resolution photos including the serial number. Sweetwater's FedEx tracker showed the shipment's progress. The guitar arrived the second business day after shipping. It was packed in a large cardboard box which will be useful for shipping any guitar and case in the future. The shipping box had a Sweetwater sticker warning not to open it for 24 hours to allow the guitar to come to room temperature (it was winter). Very thoughtful.

Inside the shipping box was a Yamaha cardboard box enclosing a Yamaha gig bag with the guitar inside that. The guitar is everything I expected. It is a jewel of workmanship, with a perfect low action that is easy to play, and a surprisingly loud sound with pleasing and true notes. My other guitars are dreadnought size, so I wanted a small guitar that was easier to hold, more portable and less valuable, but still sounded good. The parlor size Yamaha CSF3M fills the bill.

I had the opportunity to demo this guitar the other day. Seems really well made. It is quite light. It was beautifully set up. I loved the smaller neck width. There is nothing wrong with this guitar. However, its not my cup of tea. The sound was bright and "jingly". No doubt some of this is related to new strings. I much prefer my Eastman E 20P for sound. I have another parlor with similar characteristics-an old cedar topped Seagull parlor otherwise I would consider purchasing the Yamaha. It is a beautiful guitar

I'm an electric player but wanted to start dabbling in acoustic. I wanted something that was small and comfortable for a couch guitar but still sounded good. This little guitar is perfect for that. Very comfortable with very full, rich sound. The finish and workmanship are very good. Fret board and playability are excellent. The only negative is the electronics. It is a passive system so you need a pre-amp. I didn't want to use an external pre-amp so I installed a Fishman Matrix system which sounds great.

Just received the guitar the other day and I have to say I love it. I’m a picky buyer and inspect with intensity. Could not find a flaw anywhere.
The action came low with no buzzing. The volume is unbelievable for this size guitar and it will sustain into next week. Dan, my sales engineer,
was very helpful and handled the transaction with absolute professionalism. This will not be my last guitar from Sweetwater, great products, people and
service. Highly recommend.

A proper parlor guitar has a 12 fret neck

Sounds somewhere near the prjce point but tone suffers from the short scale. Spaced more as a strummer for small handsrather what this size body us best for -- fingerstyle.