The Best Travel Guitar I've Tried - Yamaha CSF3M

Use the code JNC40 for a 40% discount.

So I grabbed one of these before Elodie was born - the joke idea was that I'd take this into the delivery room. That didn't happen. Anyway, I've been enjoying it as it doesn't have some of the negatives that I've felt with other "travel" guitars, and most importantly, sounds really decent. Please leave your own suggestions in the comments?

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

[seamasadkins]

Gorgeous guitar that has a sweet, crisp sound that I love. Thanks for the great review and for playing it so beautifully.

[frederickklinge]

Agree that Yamaha offers some outstanding, consistent acoustic guitars. The only drawback for me on this one is the narrow nut width. I come from a classical guitar background and I'm used to much wider string spacing.

[telecasterluva]

I have one of these CSF3M's in this colour also. It's a fantastic 4/5th size acoustic. Yamaha make great product.

[rivatoot]

I’ve owned this and a GS Mini Koa Plus. This is hundreds less AND all solid. Sounds so much better to my ears.

[Wobbz]

I played one today at my favourite guitar shop. It impressed me a lot! Such a big sound from such a little guitar. And good price too.thinking of selling my Sigma parlour and adding this beauty to the stable.

[davidgood]

I have this very model. Every time I consider selling, I realize how much I like it.

[shaneball]

Sound and feel is subjective, for me the Yamaha is such good value for money, solid wood, well built and sounds wonderful. I ordered a GS Mini and sent it back, it just didn't look, feel or sound near to the new selling price, nice guitar and all that, and of course the brand is renowned for quality. For me the Yamaha CSF3M oozes all you want and need in a small guitar at this price level. If you want a Taylor mini (like I did) then fine, but go and play and compare both and I'd put money on it which you will choose. Both great guitars though, comes down to your wants & needs...and of course your wallet 🙂

[markdoolan]

Will dry out over time (20 years) and then the top will 'open up' as they say and you will get alot more warmth. Will be classed as vintage lol!

[KimchiSpringRoll]

I just got this and somehow the video got recommended to me, from Yamaha's site description the stock strings are elixir. Just a day in playing it feeling like it's kinda a bit more bright than I'm used to. I know elixir strings last an extrodinary amount of time but I'm gonna try and go through this one and see whether my old faithful diddario phospher bronze work better with this. I have the classic colorway and I have to say the build quality especially that beautiful paint and the wood grain below all screams higher quality compared to it's competitors. Also a all solid which is a huge pro too. The guitar is so resonant it vibrates so much compared to my old faithful cutaway OM that's got a bit of fret buzz from wear and this is a much smaller guitar I'm truly impressed. One thing for whoever on the fence is the scale length and width all felt much more compact than a regular sized guitar, the width to me is almost like an electric or even a bit less than some of the well known electric models from various brands.

[MoimoiaPachuau]

Im looking forward to buy this as my backup guitar...nice review Sir

[Anshul]

I have a small burswood kids electric guitar with an inbuilt amp and jack and headphone jack even. Sometimes use that when traveling because it is REALLY small and my hands are big. But I work around it. I don’t use it for technique practice but more for other trainings.

[PipeOPhile]

Yamahas all have a specific 'yamaha' tone, nicely balanced but since I had one for many years I found myself looking for something different. When I was looking for smaller guitar I decided to give Alvarez AP66SHB a try and both me and my guitar tutor are pleasantly surprised. Solid mahogany top, 12th fret and smaller (wouldn't call it a parlor but this yamaha doesn't qualify as one either in my book), very playable and nice change from a dreadnought

[jeffreyparker]

Love that you're playing such a small acoustic yet using such a large knife to open the box. Also i just bought one of these after watching this

[Alex_Martz]

For traveling electric guitars: Have you tried the brand "Traveler guitars"?, I used to have their Speedster model and was really light and compact and still was a full scale neck, their only drawback was it only has 1 humbucker pickup, I also tried the Steinberger Spirit GT Pro and in my experience was horrible, too heavy, bad neck and weak sound, the tremolo was useless too as it goes out of tune quick, now my travel electric guitar is a Chinese copy of a Strandberg (NK guitars), same body and neck shape for less than 500 dollars and I just upgraded it with Seymour Duncan pickups, it sounds and plays amazing and I'm not worried about traveling with an expensive guitar

[imwoody]

It’s a really beautiful guitar! Sounds sweet too. Your playing may be selling quite a few of those. I had one of the nylon Silent guitars and really enjoyed it. I sold it after a couple years and moved on to another guitar.

[bigmac]

8:19 It sounded like you almost played "All I Want for Christmas is You" then ended it in a killer run to save face lmao

[christopheryack]

The Kala parlor guitar is surprisingly nice

[timworley]

This is probably the best review I've seen of this guitar. I have one too and love it. Out of curiosity, it looks like you have 80/20s on the low E, A, and D strings, and phosphor bronze on the G. Is there a tonal reason for that (or just what you had on hand)? So far I've enjoyed phosphor bronze the most on mine, but always interested in the effect of string choices.

[sonusaurelius]

Thanks for helping me decide! This is exactly what I’m looking for thanks! Also what was the effect you were using during the beginning track?

[jesper]

can you make a video on how you record these guitars ?
i'd love to know how you manage to sound so clean and crisp.