Post by CTGull on Jul 4, 2023 7:17:50 GMT -5
The Story – I had been thinking about the FG5 (Dread size, Made in Japan), and then this FS5 (Folk size, Made in Japan) shows up on Shopgoodwill.com. 2.5 hours before it ends, I throw $925 at, what I considered a low bid, assuming it would go for over $1000. I woke in the morning to find I won!! I don’t NEED another guitar!! But if it works out, this will be the replacement for the Martin OM21 I never bonded with. It was shipped the same day I paid for it, and I received it 2 days later.
INITIAL OBSERVATIONS – It was packed well, with bubble wrap. The case looks mint. I open the case to find some bubble wrap holding the guitar in place. And it sure smells new!! The previous owner must have kept it in the case.
It is not “Like New”, as the ad claimed. I had noticed the rough fake woodgrain pickguard had been removed, which I would have removed myself. The first thing I notice is the pickguard area and around the bridge have some shininess, probably from cleaning off the glue after removing the pickguard. I find a few patches on the upper side of the upper bout of what looks to be finish blushing. And some grunge where the arm goes over the lower bout. The 1, 3, 5, 7 & 12 side fret markers are covered with an oversize patches of white paint!! The 15th marker does not have that. There is some fret wear in the first position, and very slight divots for the B & E. The strings look to be Elixir Nanoweb PB Light. The G string is fuzzy from strumming.
The saddle is rounded except for some B string compensation. The saddle string spacing looks to be 2.165” (55mm), and sticks out .16”/.14”. The nut string spacing is 1.46” (37mm). the nut action is maybe a little high for some strings. The action is 3/32” low E & 5/64” high E. The neck relief is good.
Quickly looking inside, the braces are small, somewhat scalloped, but not rounded or tapered on the sides. The bridge plate is nice and clean (minimal blowout), but there is a blob of something stuck to it.
The sound didn’t initially blow me away. Definitely no thuddy G!! Good clarity, note definition, and overtones. Clarity and definition are better than the FG-140. It sounds different than the FG-140, but they are different body sizes. I found my former favorite 1970 FG-110 with 5 year old TEST EXP strings, which still sounds pretty good, I will change them because I remember them sounding like the guitar lost some midrange with them vs. EJ16’s.
The bridge pins are ebony, 3 degree, .209” diameter under the head. I have exact match bone pins, with ebony or abalone dots. I’ll install the ebony dot pins. The bone pins stick up about 1/8” because the ebony pins are not straight on the taper. Had to chamfer the end of the bone pins to keep the ball ends from getting hung up on them and not seating. I can’t tell if the bone pins made much difference, but the FG-110 is definitely louder and seems a little more “alive”, but probably because it’s a little louder. I think the best thing to do is restore the FS5 back to the factory strings (Elixir Nanoweb Light 80/20, which I have), and the original ebony pins. And change the strings on the FG-110 to Elixir Nanoweb PB Light.
The nice Yamaha hard case.
Packed for no movement.
The plastic bag with instructions and truss rod adjustment Allen wrench. The original rough fake woodgrain pickguard was not included, which I would have removed anyway. It would have been nice to have it to trace from to make a new one.
It's very difficult to photograph, there are shiny areas, in the matte finish, from the pickguard glue being cleaned off. I don't like the matte finish. Do I dull the shiny parts, or shine the dull parts??
Some arm grunge.
You can see shiny areas around the bridge.
A little left over glue.
Attempting to show the shiny areas again.
The vertical shiny area to the left of the bridge, and the top of the bridge, to the left of the saddle, was dulled while cleaning off the glue from the top.
You can sort of see the dull area of the bridge. And the tiny B string compensation.
Attempting to show there is a little fret wear.
Some area of what looks to be blushing in the finish.
Another spot.
Nothing on the bottom side.
Only one small marked area on the back.
It coudl be buckle rash. Not sure I want to risk having to sand the whole back to fix this.
The back of the neck looks good.
A little bit of glue and vertical scratches on the end of the heel.
INITIAL OBSERVATIONS – It was packed well, with bubble wrap. The case looks mint. I open the case to find some bubble wrap holding the guitar in place. And it sure smells new!! The previous owner must have kept it in the case.
It is not “Like New”, as the ad claimed. I had noticed the rough fake woodgrain pickguard had been removed, which I would have removed myself. The first thing I notice is the pickguard area and around the bridge have some shininess, probably from cleaning off the glue after removing the pickguard. I find a few patches on the upper side of the upper bout of what looks to be finish blushing. And some grunge where the arm goes over the lower bout. The 1, 3, 5, 7 & 12 side fret markers are covered with an oversize patches of white paint!! The 15th marker does not have that. There is some fret wear in the first position, and very slight divots for the B & E. The strings look to be Elixir Nanoweb PB Light. The G string is fuzzy from strumming.
The saddle is rounded except for some B string compensation. The saddle string spacing looks to be 2.165” (55mm), and sticks out .16”/.14”. The nut string spacing is 1.46” (37mm). the nut action is maybe a little high for some strings. The action is 3/32” low E & 5/64” high E. The neck relief is good.
Quickly looking inside, the braces are small, somewhat scalloped, but not rounded or tapered on the sides. The bridge plate is nice and clean (minimal blowout), but there is a blob of something stuck to it.
The sound didn’t initially blow me away. Definitely no thuddy G!! Good clarity, note definition, and overtones. Clarity and definition are better than the FG-140. It sounds different than the FG-140, but they are different body sizes. I found my former favorite 1970 FG-110 with 5 year old TEST EXP strings, which still sounds pretty good, I will change them because I remember them sounding like the guitar lost some midrange with them vs. EJ16’s.
The bridge pins are ebony, 3 degree, .209” diameter under the head. I have exact match bone pins, with ebony or abalone dots. I’ll install the ebony dot pins. The bone pins stick up about 1/8” because the ebony pins are not straight on the taper. Had to chamfer the end of the bone pins to keep the ball ends from getting hung up on them and not seating. I can’t tell if the bone pins made much difference, but the FG-110 is definitely louder and seems a little more “alive”, but probably because it’s a little louder. I think the best thing to do is restore the FS5 back to the factory strings (Elixir Nanoweb Light 80/20, which I have), and the original ebony pins. And change the strings on the FG-110 to Elixir Nanoweb PB Light.
The nice Yamaha hard case.
Packed for no movement.
The plastic bag with instructions and truss rod adjustment Allen wrench. The original rough fake woodgrain pickguard was not included, which I would have removed anyway. It would have been nice to have it to trace from to make a new one.
It's very difficult to photograph, there are shiny areas, in the matte finish, from the pickguard glue being cleaned off. I don't like the matte finish. Do I dull the shiny parts, or shine the dull parts??
Some arm grunge.
You can see shiny areas around the bridge.
A little left over glue.
Attempting to show the shiny areas again.
The vertical shiny area to the left of the bridge, and the top of the bridge, to the left of the saddle, was dulled while cleaning off the glue from the top.
You can sort of see the dull area of the bridge. And the tiny B string compensation.
Attempting to show there is a little fret wear.
Some area of what looks to be blushing in the finish.
Another spot.
Nothing on the bottom side.
Only one small marked area on the back.
It coudl be buckle rash. Not sure I want to risk having to sand the whole back to fix this.
The back of the neck looks good.
A little bit of glue and vertical scratches on the end of the heel.
