this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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They get overlooked because they're fuckin expensive
I don't think I've heard anyone say that before. Almost everything they make is industry standard setting when it comes to price. It's either so cheap you can't believe it, or it's priced right where it should be.
Yamaha Pacificas are a great first guitar in terms of value for money.
In terms of pianos and keyboards, maybe, but those also aren't overlooked, they're broadly considered among the best you can get. They own Bosendorfer now too, btw. Drums are just fuckin expensive in general, and most drummers I think you'll talk to are generally aware of them along with the likes of Pearl and DW.
You might be talking about guitars and basses, which would be fair, most people don't associate Yamaha with guitars and basses. The thing is, the most expensive non-signature Pacifica currently in production is like $750 and comes with Duncan pickups and a Wilkinson trem. And even the Revstars, which are out of my price range, come in quite a ways under comparable Gibsons.
Yamaha owns a lot of smaller companies. Line 6 has been one of their subsidiaries for a while and they recently acquired Ampeg as well, so you can buy a full rig with a bass, effects pedals, amp head and speaker cabs all from Yamaha.
Thanks for your comment, I specifically meant drums and should've clarified. Yamaha sets were always up there in cost compared to all low/mid range sets growing up through the 2000s, though I haven't compared prices in over 5 years. As far as guitars go, I'm currently learning and started with a Yamaha FG800 I picked up used for $175, though even full price wasn't bad.
I am a guitar player first and foremost, but their drums always sounded damn good, and their hardware was always super solid. Not my area of expertise, but Yamaha seemed to never made a cheap kit because their base model kit had such good hardware and quality it was punching up to way more expensive Pearl and Ludwig kits.
The only problems I've seen is that they don't have good resale value because they are China made, and most musicians don't want to be that guy playing anything made in China.
Also good choice on the FG. I've played a lot of acoustics and honestly yamaha acoustics are astounding. If I were to pick my top 5 acoustic brands, Yamaha would be solidly at #2. My next acoustic is going to be a Yamaha trans-acoustic. It's either that for $800, or buy my dream acoustic which costs $5000.
I don't know which products you're thinking of but at least for bass guitars (which is my instrument) they've got stuff ranging from less than $200 up to just under $2000. My upper-mid tier bass cost just under $900, but sounds and feels better than Fender basses that would cost $1300 or more. Not to mention better designed. Compare that to other top tier production models from Fender, Gibson, Musicman, Rickenbacker etc... They're all between $2000 and $3000. Musicman might be the only one of those that can claim to be better built consistently.