Yamaha EZ-AG Self-Teaching Guitar User Reviews at zZounds

"Great knock around toy. I love being able to use the capo in either direction." submitted November 13, 2007

By a customer from aol.com

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Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Hobbyist songwriter singer

Music Style: Alt rock & folk, finger picked guitar,

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Sound: Twenty sounds are built in. Six string & twelve string guitar sounds are excellent. Piano, shamisen and slap bass are good. The rest are marginal. Feature: Always in tune of course. The action on the right hand string portion is very good for finger picking. Also most useful is the ability to capo down as well as up. No need to transcribe chords to lower the key to fit your voice. Can't do that with a real guitar. Again with finger picking this flexibility allow me to stick with chord fingerings I'm most comfortable with. So if you are composing or trying to find the right key for your voice all you need to do is press a button to raise or lower the pitch till you find the right fit. The most annoying feature is the pre programmed songs. Hit the wrong button and the thing goes right into playing "Tears in Heaven", which might leave you in tears if you happened to be performing at that moment. If I could figure out how to kill that feature I surely diable it. The built in speaker is adequate for practice but probably not for performance. Also has built in modal & drop tunings available. Ease of Use: Again, no tuning needed. No strings to change. Turn it on and pick the sound and the key in seconds. Can't beat that. As far as the buttons on the neck are concerned, the action isn't bad, but if you're used to sliding your left fingers down strings while pressing down on them well, you can't do that so well with buttons. The smaller size of the unit took some time for me to get used to. Still can't find a comfortable and stable position for the thing while playing sitting while sitting. The small size though does make it possible to play in unusal positions, for example in a car or lying on your back while sunbathing. Also can be played fairly easily while lying on your back in the dark, which is also interesting since the buttons light up in red when you press them. A simple 3/4 backpack bag gets it done for travelling. Haven't tried taking it on a plane, but it might be acceptible as a carry on. Quality: It's held up fine after a good deal of use. They could have done a better job on the plastic molded neck. They molded actual frets in the neck. The frets don't do anything because there are buttons. They could have made them a bit lower. Frustrating sometimes to get my finger stuck sliding over a useless fret. Most frustrating thing though is that after you play this for awhile you thing how great it would be if they made a more expensive high quality model. I would be interested if they did. They could make the button action much smoother. I bet they could also design the neck so that you could remove it for travel. If so the thing would just about fit in a gym bag. Manufacturer Support: The manual is OK. Haven't bothered them for any support. These days one doesn't expect much TLC over a $200 item. The Wow Factor: It's so ludicrous it's sexy. Sexy like walking around with a pen holder pouch in your pocket or wearing a slide rule on your belt. If you're idea of the ideal mate is someone like Velma from Scooby Doo it might be just the babe magnet you need. Overall: I just bought another one.

60 of 64 people (93.75%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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Yamaha EZ-AG Guitar Customer Review submitted October 22, 2007

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Sound

Features

Ease of Use

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The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Gigging Musician, Singer/Songwriter

Music Style: Singer/songwriter

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

Feature: This is a wonderful musicial instrument which I have used on stage along with a midi autoharp from Suzuki (I have a collection of electronic musical toys so this was a nice addition). Many of the guitar players who have reviewed this guitar seem to have major issues with the AG-EZ, but all I can say is lighten up. Some of the guitar player have complained about the pricing and that is just plain silly (have any of you bought anything new from a guitar center in the past 5 years?). Some midi software sells for than this guitar, a small amp sells for more than this guitar, the cheesiest low end keyboard sells for more than this guitar, a good guitar cable runs about $40, etc. $200 for an "always intune" midi guitar with an awesome 12 string setting and electronic capo? That is a bargain for part-time musicians with real day jobs. Someone wrote a comment about being laughed at if they were to play this on stage. That has not been my experience. When folks hear my singing and strumming on stage, all of the guitar slingers come up to me after the show to know more about the guitar, where they can get it, how much it costs, and if they can try playing mine for a little bit. Ease of Use: I struggled with traditional guitars in the past, I didn't have the time or patience. As a singer/songwriter I just like having a reasonable sound to accompany my voice. This is easy for a novice to pickup. Quality: Caveat. Be careful carting this around and handling it in generate. The plastic firm not designed for the road and dropping it on a hard surface would probably crack the guitar in half. Download existing midi compositions into the guitar requires a few steps and special USB midi driver. If you try to create the special educational strum along version of your midi compositions (yamaha has a special version of midi for this purpose), it is a pain in the butt to figure out and after a few hours of trial and error (using their editing/conversion software) and gave up and stopped pursuing this feature altogether Value: Very good Manufacturer Support: I've had some dialog with the tech support folks and they are very responsive with regards to answering detail software issues.. Overall: I struggled with traditional guitars in the past, I didn't have the time or patience. As a singer/songwriter (and midi composer) I just like having a reasonable sound to accompany my voice. This is easy for a novice to pickup.

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"Fun, cheap way for guitarists to input midi to a sequencer." submitted January 5, 2005

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Sound: The guitar has only 20 instrument sounds, but the midi files that you load into it have the full range of instruments and it sounds good through the little speaker. Feature: I've been playing a long time and I don't need the built-in beginner tunes. If, like me, you already play and need to input midi tracks to a sequencing program, this is a nice cheap way to do it. Also, the ability to load your own midi files for practicing, is way cool. Quality: The neck is very, very flimsy. It appears to be hollow plastic with a metal bar on the back, with adds some strength. (You need to have some part of your left hand on this metal in order to mute strings.) The first time I played it, I handled it like a normal guitar and I hear the creak of plastic about to break. Even still, when I play in the first position the neck literally twists (up and down, opposite direction of the strings.) I love this guitar, but I'm a klutz and I hope I don't break it someday. The neck is quite flimsy. You can't do a pull off to an open string, but you can hammer-on from one. Even though the neck is composed of buttons rather than strings, I like playing this thing. Fingerpicking this thing using the piano sound is neat, my wife had to look in the room to see what I was doing! Value: If you price midi guitars & pickups, you'll see that this is a bargain. Manufacturer Support: N/A. The Wow Factor: I wanted to get this guitar a lot, and I'm happy with it, even if it is very fragile. Overall: I'm not sure I would replace it if broken because I would probably break the replacement too.

7 of 9 people (77.78%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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Yamaha EZ-AG Guitar Customer Review submitted February 9, 2007

By a customer from gmail.com

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Sound

Features

Ease of Use

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Value

Musical Background: Music therapist with psychiatric and hospice clients

Music Style: Classic rock, Christian, Country-Western, contemporary

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Sound: This digital guitar will never replace an acoustic or classical guitar. However, when using it in music therapy sessions, it's wonderful to change between the different guitar and banjo sounds. Feature: Most useful features are: never needs tuning; easy to hand off to patients (I'm a music therapist) "who've always wanted to play the guitar" and never had the opportunity or discipline. When they're able to strum to an already playing tune, they get instant gratification. Needs to have more updated and classic songs. Most people love "Tears in Heaven." Easy to wipe clean after patients have used it. Ease of Use: This will never sound like an true acoustic or classical guitar, but for my needs as a music therapist, it works beautifully. I mainly play chords on it, and probably would find it difficult to play any kind of technical solo. Quality: I've had this guitar for three years and it's held up fine so far. I have used it for approximately four hours daily for the last 1-1/2 years and it's done well. Uses batteries at about once a week, at above rate of playing. Value: I feel like I've gotten my money's worth from this guitar and then some. Manufacturer Support: Haven't yet had any difficulties or dealt with company. The Wow Factor: I don't use sex appeal to rate guitars. Patients of music therapy are often quickly enthusiastic about the guitar and ask about how to buy one. Overall: Unless something goes wrong with this guitar, I don't see a need to replace it. Hope Yamaha is still making it. Many patients are quickly enchanted with how it teaches you to play, but also lets you feel like you're quickly successful due to the pre-programmed/strum options.

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"It was love at first sight. More than acoustic, more than electric, it is a digital new paradigm. You should read this before b" submitted May 2, 2005

By a customer from hotmail.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: hobbyst, chorus director.

Music Style: latin music, but like rock

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Sound: I dont know others. It is important to know it is not acoustical, neither electric, it is digital, it is a new generation a different paradigm. You need to practice to get the sound you want from your hands, because it has it own tricks. It is like the acoustic guitar in the sense you can stop the strings, but sometimes fails. If you are going to play it in front several people you will need an amplifier. You have to practice because have to play the strings in the right hand very strong to make it sound, i mean you can not play it soft. Yahama should improve it making the strings more sensible. It works like an acoustic guitar when you push one "string" with your left hand because it makes sound, but when you move one finger of your left hand over one "string" doesnt help you much with the sound. Feature: Does not include accessories. The most useful features are the diferent sounds an songs that brings. All features are useful. I would like it to have: options to save your own songs, options to combine instruments played by yourselve, more space to play, samples to show you how to play with fingers (i would like to have the right words in english), more famous songs, accesories like a wireless conection to the amplifier, digital amplifier that uses a non analog cable may be like usb cables. I should come with its own bag. Quality: The product seems to be very weak, and i think it is. Anyway It fell down couple of times and it is still working. The bridge is very short and after playing, take note of this, your arm hurts because of this. I dont have support information from the vendor and they said no guarrantee is supplied with the product (I didnt like that, I hope wont need it. I have to say that strings seems to be very strong and I wont need to replace them in the mean time. I would like to be sure I could buy any replacement very soon if something fails, but better if it doesnt fails. It seems will last at list a year with no replacements, but I dont want to borrow it. I think is not to use it on the road, seems to be very weak. Value: I was going to buy an acoustic electric guitar and i prefered this one. I paid almost -US$ 300. Manufacturer Support: I have no dealt with Yamaha. But the vendors in dominican republic didnt help me much either. The Wow Factor: I like its leds. Could change their colors acording to the song. Its color is nice, yamaha should provide more color options. Overall: I expecto to ve satisfied for one year or less. I am afraid the technology would have better options, and if i have the money i would buy a next generation. I would look for another that saves the songs you play, and let you edit parts of it, with a conection with your computer with a software that lets you interact between your computer and your guitar, so you can edit songs in the computer or guitar to get new sounds, and save them; I would look for a guitar that lets you combine several instruments played and saved by yourselve, Wireless interfaces to digital or analog amplifiers, with a bigger bridge.

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Yamaha EZ-AG Guitar Customer Review submitted March 9, 2005

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Sound: It sounds ok not great but it is still fun. Feature: Some sounds are more usable than others Quality: It is build like a toy with nice electronic innards Value: If you need it to enter MIDI into a computer it looks like a decent way to do it for the money. I really think this product could get much better in the coming years if they keep developing it. It isn't quite a toy or a real instrument. That probably make it just perfect for some people. As long as someone understands that, they will probably be satisfied with it The Wow Factor: If the price could stay where it is and the quality improved it would be more worth having down the road. Overall: You could get a decent real guitar for the price. If you need it for the midi then go with it.

5 of 7 people (71.43%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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"not worth the money" submitted January 20, 2006

By a customer from sbcglobal.net

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The Wow Factor

Musical Background: active musician

Music Style: rock / jazz/blues/ crossover country

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Sound: mattel or hasbro could make this for 29.99 except for midi connection save your money. buttons are weird neck is flimsy im a experienced player and im afraid of snapping neck from just aggressive fingering cant bend hammer on or vibrato sound quality really cheap . might have its ecclectic following of people who could learn this way but for most people who love the sound of an electric guitar this isnt the way to learn . would be better if it was 99.00. Feature: cheap , definatly not sexy want people to laugh at you , pullthis out and start playing. had accesory pack power adapter very sexy Quality: cheap flimsy neck Value: bad value worth 99.00 Manufacturer Support: i wont return it but i should no idea about support save the trouble dont buy it in the first place Overall: waste of money

5 of 22 people (22.73%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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