Overall User Ratings

"Good guitar for a small beginner on a budget."

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
It is smaller than I thought with a 21.5" scale which makes it smaller than what other manufacturers call a 3/4 scale guitar. The neck was straight and it has a truss rod to help keep it that way. The tuners are cheap but work okay and the instrument stays in tune fairly well.

Quality:
If you're used to higher end guitars with quality woods you'll be dissappointed, but if you can get over a plywood top and mass production, it seems to be a pretty good value for its purpose.

Value:
If money's not a problem and you're sure it'll get played, I'd buy the Baby Taylor; otherwise this guitar's a good value for the budding young guitarist.

Desirability:
Gimme a brake.... sex appeal? It's about giving young people an opportunity to develop musical skills and artistic expression!

Sound:
I bought this guitar for my twelve year old daughter. She's very motivated to learn right now and I wanted a real instrument suitable for her small hands, but didn't want to spend a lot of money only to see it gather dust in a couple of weeks. The JR1 seemed to fit the bill. The sound is small and lacks the richness of a solid wood dreadnought, but it's not bad. It's fairly even across the strings and up the neck and the intonation is pretty good.

Ease of Use:
The action at both the bridge and the nut were way too high. I discovered a spacer under the bridge and removing it made for an immediate reduction. I still trimmed another 1/32" off to make it more finger friendly. All but the high E string at the nut had to be brought down too.

Support:
Haven't had a problem to test support, but Yamaha's a big company and I would guess they'll honor the warranty as long as you don't back your car over it.

Overall:
Like I said before, it's a good value for the budding young guitarist.