Review of the Yamaha APX-500 Electro Acoustic Guitar

06 Oct 2009

Features of the Yamaha APX-500

Tuners - Sealed unbranded mini-tuners worked well.

Headstock - A nice understated three-a-side headstock with a discreet plain gable.

Nut - The white plastic nut abuts the fretboard and is tidily finished.

Neck - The nato neck is slim and comfortable in the hand, especially so around the nut end of the neck where open chords are a joy to play. 

Fretboard - The mid-brown rosewood fretboard has a fine, tight grain and dot markers are in abalone. The board is bound in white plastic. 

Frets - The 22 thin frets are highly polished and the end are perfectly finished against the binding.  

Action - Good action from the box although I might be tempted to drop it a touch.

Body - The nato back and sides support a laminated spruce top. The body is quite small in size and depth, making it easy to hold and play. It's bound front and back in white and the front binding is finished off with a single pinstripe. The cutaway allows good access to the upper frets. The elliptical soundhole has a raised plastic rosette with mother-of-pearl inlays. 

Bridge - The rosewood bridge supports a plastic saddle that is compensated at the 2nd string. Traditional bridge-pins secure the strings behind the saddle. 

Pickup - A one way piezo sits under the saddle.

Controls - The battery compartment sits on the side of the upper bout just above the neck. The control panel sits on the top of the side facing the player. The controls are quite simple, a rotary volume and a three band eq operated by sliders. The range of the Mid slider is set by a fourth slider below the eq section. This greatly enhances the tonal flexibility available from the instrument. Also included is a chromatic tuner. Beware, the tuner does not mute the output of the guitar when it is turned on.

Strap-buttons - There are two good sized strap buttons, one on the back of the heel and one on the base of the body. This one has an integral jack socket.

Output - Integral to the strap button on the base of the guitar.

Finish - Very good throughout. The Dark Red Burst on this model is particularly attractive. 

Sound of the Yamaha APX-500

The diminutive size of the body means the APX500 struggles for acoustic volume. This does not mean the voice is not good, it's simply quieter than a Dreadnought or a Jumbo. Tonally the sound is well-balanced and delicate, well suited to finger-picking and arpeggios. When amplified I found a tweak on the onboard EQ to increase the Bass and Mid, and decrease the High frequency produced a more rounded sound. Taking this basic setting into an offboard EQ enabled me to find the exact tones I needed.

Overall Impressions of the Yamaha APX-500

This is a good looking little electro-acoustic that delivers a snappy un-amplified sound for rehearsal and song-writing and a balanced amplified sound for gigging. The smaller body makes is less prone to feedback that its larger cousins and makes it more user friendly for smaller players.

Review of the Yamaha APX-500 by The Man in the Jar