Yamaha CG102 Classical Guitar Review

The Yamaha CG102 Classical Guitar is an affordable friendly-guitar meant towards beginner and intermediate guitar players who want to polish up their skills.

This guitar is known for its decent sound quality, performance and playability which helps beginners pick up the guitar much faster. 

Now let’s go on to describe how the Yamaha CG102 Classical Guitar is:

The Build and Construction of the Yamaha CG102 Classical Guitar

This right-handed, 6 stringed guitar is incredibly lightweight (5.5 lbs) and comes in three different classic styles: Solid Cedar Top, Solid Spruce Top, and Spruce Top.

What is the difference between the Spruce and Cedar Top?

Well, the Spruce usually has a bright tone for beginner instruments.  The solid spruce helps give it an excellent, traditional tone more focused on brighter sounding when you play a song.  The Cedar Top, on the other hand, is more focused on creating a warmer sound and does not have as “tight” of a sounding to it compared to the spruce.  

This means that beginners are usually recommended the cedar and it is incredibly more forgiving tonally when they play the guitar.

Now, this guitar is a full-size classical guitar with a full body gloss.  It is also built with a nato back and side, along with a rosewood fingerboard and a 52mm nut width which allows it to create a traditional “feel” to it.

The neck is wider than most modern acoustic guitars (making it slightly harder for people with small hands to play.)  The strings are also slightly spaced further apart making it a lot easier for beginners to play more accurately (but harder if you are looking to play faster songs).  Now despite the bigger neck, the guitar is surprisingly comfortable and easy to hold on to.

There are also markings for the octaves on the side of the neck for beginners to help orient their finger position along the neck (to nail those first songs perfectly.)

Now if you are considering getting this guitar, it usually comes ready to play straight from the box (so no tuning required) as the action comes low. That is pretty cool considering that this is a guitar under $200.

What’s the difference between the Acoustic and Acoustic-Electric?

The acoustic-electric Yamaha CG102 Classical Guitar is slightly more expensive, but comes with a system 68N pickup system as well as upgraded tuners (to hit the perfect range for that song.)

Of course, the obvious difference is that there is a different sound to it so you might want to head to your local guitar store and compare the difference.  

What We Think Of The Yamaha CG102 Classical Guitar

Overall, this guitar is recommended for beginner and intermediate players who need a classic guitar to start learning how to play.

Despite coming from China, this guitar is quite well made and at an affordable price.  With an incredibly sleek natural wood design and beautiful craftsmanship at an affordable price, it is a great deal to pick this up and start learning how to play.

However, this may be a bit harder for younger kids to play as it does have a larger neck compared to many traditional acoustic guitars and play with their smaller hands.  

Sound Sample: