1976 Yamaha FG-160-1 Acoustic Guitar

Vintage folk guitar, Black Label era, made in Taiwan 

Looks like I've settled on a few brands on my quest for affordable vintage acoustic tone: Carlos, Takamine and Yamaha. This is the 2nd FG-160 that I've had in the last year and this one is a better player by a mile.

Like that other 160, this one is not in museum-quality condition, with a fair amount of nicks scattered along the face, back and sides of the body. But, all of the flaws are cosmetic, the guitar is still rock-solid, no breaks or cracks and all of the tuners are in good working order.

Whoever had this before set the action pretty low, but that suits me just fine. I set it up with Martin SP Custom Light strings last night and cleaned it up a little bit. Even with the smaller gauge strings, the low-end is still nice and warm. All of these FGs have been players, the next Japanese model that comes my way will be staying...

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1970s Yamaha F-160-1 Acoustic Guitar

Beautiful vintage instrument has aged very well, just needs a little love

Mid-70's Yamaha acoustic guitar in great playing shape and still rock solid. The first number in the S/N is tough to read, but these black label Yamahas were only made from 1974-1976 and the only thing missing is one of the original covers for the tuning gears.

A new nut would be advised, as the B string sits down too low in the slot and buzzes out hard. I stuck a piece of masking tape in there as a temporary fix and it works just fine.

It still sounds great though, especially the low end. If you can find one of these in playing shape, I highly recommend it. I've seen them pop up every now and again from $100-$300.

Thank you for looking. More high-resolution pictures here.