Post by CTGull on Jan 23, 2021 10:38:24 GMT -5
The Story of getting it: She put it on Facebook Marketplace 7/14/20 for $55. I have no idea how I found it, since my searches normally only showed local stuff, she’s in western Ohio, 526 miles away in a very straight line. I asked for some history and she said she bought it at a garage sale about 2 years ago for $20. She had a buyer (and lots of interest) but backed out after my talking about the model convinced her it is rare and worth more. She was planning on putting it on eBay Sunday 7/26/20 starting at $100. I mentioned a couple of times I’d love to have it for historical purposes, to compare it my first version FG-45. You can read about the repair here. 1973 Yamaha FG-45 Neck Reset After reading my forum, on 7/20/20 she finally offered it to me for $175 AND to meet halfway (about 4 hour drive, she likes road trips). On 7/21/20 I agreed and offered to meet in Bloomsburg PA near Cracker Barrel. But she backed out, because of her job she didn’t really have a whole day to spend driving. I checked eBay and Reverb once in a while but never saw the guitar again.
2 months later I contacted her to see if it was still available and offered $200 shipped. She replied they just moved and once her office is set up she is going to sell it on eBay.
After watching eBay & Reverb every day for 3 months, on Christmas morning she finally listed it on eBay, starting at $75 with free shipping. 10 day auction, ending 7am Monday 1/4/21. But on 12/31/20 I find the ad saying it’s no longer available. The bids were up to $95. I sent her a message and she said she would be relisting it. I assume she had hoped it would be higher, and didn’t want to get stuck paying for the shipping. On 1/4/21 she relisted it, starting bid $100 + $16.11 shipping, ending 1/14/21. When I went to bed on 1/13/21 there was only (1) bid of $100. In the morning it was up to $201. Since it ended at 7:15am I was up at my computer for work. I threw a bid at it with 30 seconds to go, hoping it was enough. And I won!! A little more than my offer nearly 4 months ago, but I had some money in my PayPal which offset most of the difference. I realized I won it EXACTLY 6 months after she first posted it on Facebook Marketplace! I asked that the strings be slacked and it be packed with no movement, of which of course she agreed. All I have to is wait for it to ship and get to me!! The next morning she printed the USPS label, but she wasn’t able to ship it the next 2 days (Friday & Saturday) because of her work hours. And then we had a long holiday weekend (Sunday & Monday). Then on Tuesday she printed a new UPS label, packed it and shipped it. It was finally on its way!
The Story after I got it: As promised by UPS, it arrived in 2 days! It was packed in an oversize box, the guitar wrapped in bubble wrap, inside of a soft case, surrounded by loose cardboard inside the box. I opened the box, removed the guitar (still in the soft case), and let it sit on the workbench for an hour to warm up.
Unwrapping it revealed no surprises. Visibly, it looks very similar to the previous FG-45, other than this one has the standard Yamaha shape bridge (although the saddle is still .079” thick vs. .116” for normal FG’s) vs. the FG-45’s classical style bridge, the FG-45-1’s pickguard is black vs. the FG-45’s striped reddish brown, and the grain on the top of the FG-45 is much tighter and the color is darker. Actually, the overall color of the FG-45 is darker than the FG-45-1. I think the FG-45-1 looks much better. There are a couple of medium dings (1 on the top), and a few small ones, common for a guitar this age (45 years old). It has the same flat fretboard, 12 frets to the body, no truss rod, the internal X bracing laid flat, and the bridge pin holes coming thru the back edge of the bridge plate. At least this FG-45-1 doesn’t have the excessive belly bulge behind the bridge and tipped bridge my FG-45 has. Dimensionally, the 2 guitars are the same, although the body of this FG-45-1 is very slightly larger than my FG-45 (about 0.3%), but amazingly they both weigh the EXACT same 2.83 lbs!!
It has the same high action of any other guitar its age. The neck projects 3/32” below the top of the bridge. The action is a little over 1/8” low E & a little over 7/64” high E. The neck relief is good, amazing considering there’s no truss rod. The nut action is a bit high. The bridge is .28” thick, and the saddle sticks out .15” low E & .11” high E. The saddle is the same .079” thick as the FG-45 vs. .116” for the normal FG’s.
Internally, the bracing is the same, including drilling the bridge pin holes at the edge of the bridge plate.
It’s not possible to compare the sound between the 2 yet. The FG-45-1 has old light 80/20 strings, and the FG-45 new Elixir Nanoweb medium strings. The FG-45 definitely has deeper bass, due to the medium strings. I’ll know more after the neck reset and putting the same strings on the FG-45-1.
In the end, I probably paid twice what it’s worth (a rare but cheap 45 year old child’s guitar), but I satisfied my curiosity of what they changed between the 2 models. Not much!! There isn’t the big improvement like the FG-75-1’s X bracing over the FG-75’s ladder/fan bracing. We’ll see later after the neck reset if there is any difference in the sound. I doubt it.
2 months later I contacted her to see if it was still available and offered $200 shipped. She replied they just moved and once her office is set up she is going to sell it on eBay.
After watching eBay & Reverb every day for 3 months, on Christmas morning she finally listed it on eBay, starting at $75 with free shipping. 10 day auction, ending 7am Monday 1/4/21. But on 12/31/20 I find the ad saying it’s no longer available. The bids were up to $95. I sent her a message and she said she would be relisting it. I assume she had hoped it would be higher, and didn’t want to get stuck paying for the shipping. On 1/4/21 she relisted it, starting bid $100 + $16.11 shipping, ending 1/14/21. When I went to bed on 1/13/21 there was only (1) bid of $100. In the morning it was up to $201. Since it ended at 7:15am I was up at my computer for work. I threw a bid at it with 30 seconds to go, hoping it was enough. And I won!! A little more than my offer nearly 4 months ago, but I had some money in my PayPal which offset most of the difference. I realized I won it EXACTLY 6 months after she first posted it on Facebook Marketplace! I asked that the strings be slacked and it be packed with no movement, of which of course she agreed. All I have to is wait for it to ship and get to me!! The next morning she printed the USPS label, but she wasn’t able to ship it the next 2 days (Friday & Saturday) because of her work hours. And then we had a long holiday weekend (Sunday & Monday). Then on Tuesday she printed a new UPS label, packed it and shipped it. It was finally on its way!
The Story after I got it: As promised by UPS, it arrived in 2 days! It was packed in an oversize box, the guitar wrapped in bubble wrap, inside of a soft case, surrounded by loose cardboard inside the box. I opened the box, removed the guitar (still in the soft case), and let it sit on the workbench for an hour to warm up.
Unwrapping it revealed no surprises. Visibly, it looks very similar to the previous FG-45, other than this one has the standard Yamaha shape bridge (although the saddle is still .079” thick vs. .116” for normal FG’s) vs. the FG-45’s classical style bridge, the FG-45-1’s pickguard is black vs. the FG-45’s striped reddish brown, and the grain on the top of the FG-45 is much tighter and the color is darker. Actually, the overall color of the FG-45 is darker than the FG-45-1. I think the FG-45-1 looks much better. There are a couple of medium dings (1 on the top), and a few small ones, common for a guitar this age (45 years old). It has the same flat fretboard, 12 frets to the body, no truss rod, the internal X bracing laid flat, and the bridge pin holes coming thru the back edge of the bridge plate. At least this FG-45-1 doesn’t have the excessive belly bulge behind the bridge and tipped bridge my FG-45 has. Dimensionally, the 2 guitars are the same, although the body of this FG-45-1 is very slightly larger than my FG-45 (about 0.3%), but amazingly they both weigh the EXACT same 2.83 lbs!!
It has the same high action of any other guitar its age. The neck projects 3/32” below the top of the bridge. The action is a little over 1/8” low E & a little over 7/64” high E. The neck relief is good, amazing considering there’s no truss rod. The nut action is a bit high. The bridge is .28” thick, and the saddle sticks out .15” low E & .11” high E. The saddle is the same .079” thick as the FG-45 vs. .116” for the normal FG’s.
Internally, the bracing is the same, including drilling the bridge pin holes at the edge of the bridge plate.
It’s not possible to compare the sound between the 2 yet. The FG-45-1 has old light 80/20 strings, and the FG-45 new Elixir Nanoweb medium strings. The FG-45 definitely has deeper bass, due to the medium strings. I’ll know more after the neck reset and putting the same strings on the FG-45-1.
In the end, I probably paid twice what it’s worth (a rare but cheap 45 year old child’s guitar), but I satisfied my curiosity of what they changed between the 2 models. Not much!! There isn’t the big improvement like the FG-75-1’s X bracing over the FG-75’s ladder/fan bracing. We’ll see later after the neck reset if there is any difference in the sound. I doubt it.
