Yamaha C40 Review – Classical Guitar for Beginners

The Yamaha C40 is a classical, full-sized guitar for beginners. It’s certainly one among the more respected, well-known, and highly loved guitars for newbies.

In fact, more than a handful of the professional or acclaimed guitarists you come across today would have started their journey with a C40.

Build quality of the Yamaha C40

The Yamaha C40’s top is made of spruce wood, which is a commonly used material for guitars. The sides and back are made from meranti wood – all polished to offer a glossy finish.

The nut width is the conventional 2.06 inches, which is roomy enough to play various kinds of fingerstyle playing.

The C40 is a Yamaha offering, which means you will not come across issues or defects affecting playability.

The neck is fairly wide and is made from Nato wood. The fretboard is rosewood, which is again quite standard.

The smooth neck and appropriate overall size help with the general feeling when you hold the guitar.

Though not the most flawless beginner guitar in terms of finish and fit, the entire thing is put together quite well. It feels quite robust and can put up with all the scrutiny.

As aforementioned, the guitar is a full-sized instrument. However, it’s still not the size of a dreadnought classic. If you are considering buying the guitar for your teenager, the C40 would be a much better option than traditional dreadnoughts.

Having said that, some young and budding guitarists may still find the C40 a bit on the bigger side. The wide neck, for instance, would take a bit of extending to navigate across. For such people, the Yamaha C40 comes in a 7/8th scale version and would be a better choice. It’s basically the same guitar but has a thinner body and shorter scale length.

The C40 comes with a glossy finish, but if you prefer a natural look and feel, you can get a natural satin finish version, which is called the C40MII.

Sound and tone of the Yamaha C40

For beginners, the sound of the Yamaha C40 would be more than adequate for practice, laying a solid foundation for enhanced play in the future. Professional guitarists or people who have a sharp ear for guitar sounds will find the sound slightly on the muted side.

Thanks to the laminate wood, the guitar’s projection may not be on par with solid wood guitars. However, since most beginner guitars in this price range come with laminate wood finish, you cannot count this one against the C40.

But then when you look at the guitar’s price, the sonic capabilities of this guitar feel much better. For the untrained ears (target buyers), the tone would sound pretty warm. Moreover, there’s a fairly decent level of definition across the various strings when you finger-pluck them.

For the best sound performance though, you should consider altering the guitar’s factory settings and taking the guitar for a setup. The action is quite high out of the box, a guitar tech can lower it for you.

Video review of the Yamaha C40

Yamaha C40 Gigmaker guitar bundle

The C40 comes packaged into a guiter bundle as well: the Yamaha Gigmaker Classical.

This guitar package contains a few extra accessories you’ll need to start out right:

• Yamaha clip-on tuner
• Gig-bag (padded)
• DVD guitar lesson

Is the bundle worth it? Well, the gig bag is a bit flimsy. If you know you’ll be on the road with the guitar a lot, I would recommend a padded gig bag instead, like these.

About Yamaha Guitars

Most people don’t know it, but Yamaha has been making instruments for a very long time. Yamaha was established back in 1887, making organs and pianos. They applied for the famous tuning for logo trademark in 1916, over 100 years ago.

Yamaha is actually a big name in the music industry, though not a high-end name like Martin or Taylor. They build quality instruments at an affordable price point.

Opinion of the Yamaha C40 classical guitar

There is no dearth of quality, beginner-friendly guitars in the market. The Yamaha C40 is certainly one among them.

In fact, it’s up there at the top in our recommendations for beginner-friendly classical guitars.

Besides being on the inexpensive side, the Yamaha name adds value to the guitar, which an affordable, no-brand guitar cannot boast of.

The Yamaha C40 is a good choice for beginners looking to learn to play on a nylon-stringed classical guitar.