Yamaha C40 BL

Yamaha have done it again! An incredibly budget-priced guitar with an outstanding build quality and tone.

The black gloss design is very elegant and makes the guitar look quite expensive. The fingerboard is wide which makes playing individual strings much easier - the only issue is that smaller hands might find it slightly difficult to work their way around the fretboard and a standard acoustic capo is unlikely to be large enough to fit here (even the G7 series).

The sound is a delight, as evidenced from Thomann's excellent sound samples. As with all of my new instruments, I intend to quickly restring with some premium strings (as you never know how long the strings were on the instrument in the factory or warehouse!) I have purchased D'Addario Pro Arte strings to try out and may update this review once any effects of this change have been observed.


If you are looking for a classical guitar <£200, you'd be hard pressed to beat this. A wonderful sounding instrument and a joy to play. Very highly recommended!

I bought this as my first classical guitar...I usually play a headless, 7 strings multi-scale...so quite a distance from this. But I fancy some finger work and some jazzy thing so...good practice from the galloping! The guitar is cool, feels like a toy really, but it is, of course, comfy to have on your lap. You must aim at quiet play 'cos it is really quite and requires a delicate approach. I suggest a new set of strings as you get the guitar...because the stock, to say they are crap its a compliment! After a few sessions they started to unwind!! on me - the D string - There is a first for everything I guess - and yes no plectrum so...and why is it that stock strings always suck!?!
So, overall for the price I think its a nice little guitar...I got the bundle with the soft case - but I am sure if you are serious about this kind of stuff, this will not last very long, I would aim higher.
I gave it a fairly good rating because of what is there...all its ok. Apart from the strings.