Gearank High Notes
The FS3 appeared on our recommended list for Acoustic Guitars Under $1000 from March 2020 until August 2021 when it was out-ranked by other guitars.
Overview
The FS3 harkens back to 1960’s era folk guitars and its woods are ‘pre-aged’ with Yamaha’s Acoustic Resonance Enhancement (A.R.E.) treatment so it already sounds ‘opened up’ straight out of the box.
Yamaha’s FG/FS Red Label range has been getting rave reviews from regular users as well as professional reviewers like Dylan Mitrovich from Mixdown Mag.
This is the smallest guitar in the range which is getting ratings as good or better than the larger models.
Yamaha kept the price down by having the FS3 made in China instead of Japan where the more expensive models are made, however many guitarists buying this know it’s from China (some say so in reviews) and are still very impressed with the guitar.
Some owners have said that it is loud for a concert sized guitar – thanks to its updated scalloped bracing (compared to the original Nippon Gakki Red Label guitars it’s based on) which was designed precisely for this purpose.
Specifications
- Body Shape: Concert
- Top: Solid Sitka Spruce
- Back and Sides: Solid Mahogany
- Finish: Semi-Gloss
- Bridge: Ebony
- Neck: African Mahogany
- Neck Profile: Not Specified
- Fingerboard: Ebony
- Fingerboard Radius: 15.75″
- Number of Frets: 20
- Frets to Body: 14
- Scale Length: 25″
- Nut Width: 1.75″
| Website | Source | *Rating Value |
| Mixdown | Editor | 95/100 |
Demo
About the Author
Jason Horton
In addition to being a singer / guitarist I have worked on the business side of music as an artist manager, event manager, producer, and a music publisher talent scout.
