Yamaha C40

im not a beginner - but wanted a C40 for traveling performance, and teaching,
i bought a C40 had to return it next day, fretbuzz was a crazy even with very high action. provided thomann with a video of a B chord sounding very bad.
after the fourth return for exactly the same same issue, i got refunded - one of the four started off ok for a few weeks, then developed buzzing, and a loud resonance that killed the note on all G# frets.

thomann customer service told me their guitar expert says that all C40s will perform to the same standard and refunded me,

so i then bought 4 from amazon, 2 at a time, because i was determined to get one that didnt have fretbuzz on A and D strings between frets 2- 7.
all buzzed the same , and were returned to amazon next day.

the overall sound of the guitar when not buzzing is more than acceptable, if this guitar was manufactured to a decent finish including set up, it would be fine.

C40s have a low-midrange sound, not much definition on high frets on the nylon strings, as expected.

feel of the neck is playable, tuners are acceptable

ive been in touch with yamaha musics tech support about it, no reply.

i even bought 2 yamaha CG104A's yesterday from yamaha london and gear4music,
theyre similar with a more high-mid sound overall.
Both CG104A's to my dismay display exactly the same fretbuzz on A and D, as the C40s im reviewing here - and are being returned.

thats my budget yamaha experience. if you decide to get one good luck .
i hope to own a functional budget yamaha classical one day just to get some closure !
im grateful to thomann for at least being understanding with my endless returns,

edit- have now had response with yamaha support. they state they take my report seriously and are investigating, and have offfered me a replacement

I bought this guitar so I could have an inexpensive little guitar to practice some classical music pieces. After reading all of the good reviews, I was ready to be amazed by a new little guitar friend. Unfortunately, Yamaha is clearly expecting customers to do their own quality control. How a company could have so little pride as to send out a product like this is beyond me.

I will say that this thing was packaged very carefully, and when opening up the box I was ready to be amazed. I was thinking, wow, this thing is the real deal!!! And then when I took the wrapping off, I was slapped in the face by the cold, dead fish of reality.

Playability- it could stay in tune for about 3 seconds. Maybe chalk it up to new strings or whatever, but it went out of tune as soon as it was played. Tried for a little while to make it work, but it just couldn´t stay in tune.

Sound- it sounds like you´d expect, to be honest. I can´t fault it here, but I didn´t have high expectations. It sounded like a plywood guitar. If the finish had been suitable, I wouldn´t have been bothered by the sound.

The finish simply exists. Where the neck joins the body, the finish is a gravelly orange peel texture. There is dry glue squeezed out at the neck and body joint. Small gaps between the body and neck The binding was dented, and it didn´t completely bind to the body- there are a couple points where there is a gap like it broke or something. The finish on the headstock was sprayed or painted or something, some of it got into the cutouts, it looks really sloppy. Dry glue was squeezed out from the bridge onto the body.

The best part though is the fret board. There was glue on the fretboard, there was literally dry glue that somebody dripped on the fretboard between some frets. The binding along the fretboard is wrinkled and warped where the neck meets the body, on both sides of the neck. But the really best part is that someone sanded off a good 2 cm off the side of the fretboard trying to bevel the fret wire and fretboard, so the back of the fretboard was asymmetrical. Also, they didn´t bother to reapply stain to where they ground the fretboard off, so the wood was a nice light color back there.

The product description says that the bridge is made of wood, but the one on this guitar really appears and feels like shiny black plastic with a simulated wood grain. Frankly, it was the only thing that seemed uniform and well manufactured on this guitar, so yeah, probably plastic.

The pictures on the website only bear a passing resemblance to the guitar I received. The one in the Thomann photos was made in Indonesia and the one I received was made in India. The finish on the website guitar was great, the one on mine was embarrassing. I guess the guitar I received did at least have a Yamaha logo on it.

I can´t really blame Thomann, as they just send out what they get. But, if quietly lowering product quality and cutting quality control is how Yamaha intends to maintain profits, then Thomann needs to update the C40 product description to reflect the new reality.

It breaks my heart that there are kids out there who are all excited about learning guitar, and they´re going to receive something like this. Or some parent is busting their rear trying to make ends meet, wanting to give their kids something special, and are in effect being told that 120 euros of hard earned money will only buy garbage. This is so wrong on so many levels.

Obviously, I have returned this guitar to Thomann.

For the price, it's great.
It sounds like a classical guitar and plays like one.
It's a great choice for first time acoustic guitar owners, although if you are serious about classical guitar you will want a more expensive model.

Sound:
The sound is of course not perfect and will not hold up against more expensive guitars, but it still sounds good.
Fretbuzz as stated in other reviews is not present for me. The action is reasonably high and the strings do not buzz even when slammed with a pick.

Quality:
It smells like a nail salon for the first few weeks...

Features:
It's a classical guitar...