Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 [2023 Review]

In this Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review, we will try to decide which one of these guitars is better for your needs by providing their features, pros, and cons. Yamaha guitars are a winner on their own, but how about two guitars from the same successful company?

Yamaha manages to create guitars that are of amazing quality and looks like high-end instruments. Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 is no exception to that, and both have their own excellent play style and sound quality.

However, it is only natural for you to feel overwhelmed if you cannot decide which one is the best for your needs. If you are interested, keep reading our Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review for more information below.

Yamaha FD01S Acoustic Guitar Review

Features: This guitar from Yamaha is designed for beginners and intermediate players in mind. Even though you cannot compare Yamaha FD01S with a high-end guitar, you can use this one to give small performances. As a plus, it comes at a really affordable price.

The top of FD01S is not laminated. This might mean that you can get rough sounds now and then. However, for the price you are paying, this guitar sounds amazing enough for music classes or small gigs. The tone of FD01S is absolutely a bright and crisp one.

Yamaha FD01S is a full-sized dreadnought guitar and weighs only 3 kgs. It is lightweight to carry around, which makes it a perfect travel guitar or a guitar you can bring to your music classes.

Apart from these, the nut and the saddle of Yamaha FD01S are made from plastic that has a cheap feeling to it. In time, when you gain experience, you might need to look for a replacement in those areas of your guitar. If you want, you can also change the strings and tuning pins.

Another issue is, you might need to tune this guitar before playing. Once it is tuned, you will be ready to go for a while because Yamaha FD01S does not go out of tune easily.

Yamaha FG800 Solid Top Acoustic Guitar Review

Features: Just like its counterpart, Yamaha FG800 also comes with a solid spruce top. Solid spruce top offers great bass and sound quality to guitars, and it looks like Yamaha FG800 does a great job in those areas.

However, the top of Yamaha FG800 is not the only aspect that makes this guitar a good one. Yamaha includes a scalloped bracing design in their guitars to improve the longevity of their instruments and provide quality of sound. These features also apply to Yamaha FG800 because it also has that design.

Just like the other guitar from Yamaha, FG800 is a full-sized guitar with a dreadnought body. However, FG800’s neck is slimmer than most of the guitars. The body of Yamaha FG800 is made from laminate and the nut and saddle are plastic.

Combining all of these, according to our Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review, Yamaha FG800 is an excellent beginner guitar. What makes this guitar ideal for beginners is actually the price.

Yamaha FG800 comes at a really low price, so you can take the risk of buying it without worrying too much about whether you will keep playing or not. Another reason is the nut being slimmer than usual. That means you will have less trouble playing complex chords.

Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 Comparison

In this part, we will look at how Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 compares to each other. Both are being great beginner guitars at an affordable price, it might be difficult to decide which one is better.

We can say that both guitars have good sound quality. When it comes to these two, they have more similarities than differences but it does not mean that they are the same.

One of their similarities is their solid spruce top. When a guitar falls to the cheap side, it is good to have at least a good quality material used on top of it. Luckily, both of these are fine in that department.

Both of the guitars have dreadnought body and they are full-sized instruments. The body and neck of both Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 are laminate. This material falls to the cheap side and probably the reason why these guitars are affordable.

A core difference comes from FG800 since it has a scalloped bracing design. This affects the sound quality a lot, and we can say that FG800 would sound better and more natural than FD01S.

When it comes to the battle of Yamaha FD01S vs FG800, FG800 has a better design and sound. If you want your guitar to sound as natural as possible, you should pick FG800. However, we can say that both of these guitars are well made and sound nice.

Both of these guitars have slightly thinner neck profiles if compared to an average guitar. This feature makes them feel fantastic in the hands and offers easy playability. Small hands would find it simple to use their fingers thanks to that.

When attempting to loop their hands around the neck to shape various chords, many beginners complain about straining too hard. We know that it is difficult to do and it needs some training. If you are a beginner, it might be a problem.

A slim neck solves that issue for you. The nut width is also very wide, at 43mm, allowing you to reach it easily.

The high action on these guitars is something that we did not like. To fix the high action, you will need to press down harder on the strings to make contact with the fretboard. This means your fingers need to strong enough to that, and many beginners simply lack that strength.

If you cannot use your guitar in that condition, you can take it somewhere to get it fixed. However, if you are paying for something, you would probably want it to arrive in its best shape.

High-action is often not a problem for intermediate to advanced players so we do not think that you would have any difficulty if you have more experience.

If you intend to use your guitar for performances in the future, FD800 is a better investment than the FD01S. However, if you are just trying to learn at home as a hobby, we recommend you to pay less and buy FD01S.

These Yamaha guitars sound better than the rest of the choices in their price range simply because of the solid spruce top. Solid spruce top makes them sound rich and warm. Thanks to that, you will get a sound that you can find in high-end guitars.

Since they are both dreadnoughts, the sound would be loud and heavy on the bass in comparison to smaller instruments. Since the FG800 is larger, it can project a slightly louder tone compared to FD01S.

We hope our Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review helped you a little. To make your final decision, you should try both of these guitars and realize how they feel in your hand.

Conclusion: Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 [2023 Review]

Yamaha has been on the market for a quite while now, so we know that they know what they are doing. That is actually one of the reasons why we prepared this Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review. Both FD01S vs FG800 are affordable and high-quality guitars for sure.

In our final words, we will try to answer which one should you pick between Yamaha FD01S vs FG800. What we like about both of the guitars are their cheap price and sound quality. There is no way you can regret your decision no matter which one you buy.

According to our Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review, FG800 seems to win this fight because of various reasons. First of all, it is more durable than FD01S even though it costs more.

Another reason is, it has a warmer sound compared to FD01S because it comes with scalloped bracing. The only problem with FD800 is its nut and saddle. If you change those, you can play your guitar and get the sound that you can get from high-end guitars.

The scalloped bracing is certainly a bonus due to structural stability and sound quality. If you want your guitar to have more bass and mid answer, the FG800 should be your decision. If not, the FD01S will save you money and we recommend paying less for just a hobby.

No matter which one you buy, you will save money anyways because you cannot find Yamaha’s quality in any other guitar in this price range. We hope you liked our Yamaha FD01S vs FG800 review and it was helpful.