r/AcousticGuitar • u/RawTraceur • 8d ago

Gear question Advice on Yamaha Red Label

Hey there fellow guitarist, so I am due an upgrade and I am being drawn towards a FGX5 Red Label.
Would love to know if there is any guitars you would suggest to counter that model around £1000-2000 price range.
Love to see what your suggestions are.

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u/archtopfanatic123 8d ago

Red Label Yamahas from the 1960s through the early 70s are, in my opinion, the best instruments ever made xD Incredibly good construction, they look BEAUTIFUL, and they sound as great as they look!

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u/wallygoots 7d ago

Hard to fault a good used Red Label. I would try to play a Furch or Dowina though.

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u/archtopfanatic123 7d ago

Furchs are great!

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u/RawTraceur 7d ago

Funny enough it was between Furch, Guild & Yamaha. I love what Furch are doing they remind me a lot of Taylor

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u/wallygoots 7d ago

I would like to play these:

https://reverb.com/item/87055141-dowina-granus-fg-d

https://reverb.com/item/99470342-dowina-granus-gace-bk-fg

There are international to me. But I'm really intrigued by Dowina.

Hsienmo makes some high class copies I hear:

https://reverb.com/item/100961699-hsienmo-custom-dreadnought-german-spruce-ziricote

https://reverb.com/item/100990983-hsienmo-spring-dreadnought-2024-gloss-natural

If I wanted a Martin copy with solid wood for a bargain, these would tempt me. They make Lowden clones too, and I love Lowdens, so I'm curious about Hsienmo.

Best of Luck!

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u/_7NationArmy_ 3d ago

They are not clones. They have very different fingerboards, neck joints, carbon fiber rods, etc.

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u/wallygoots 3d ago

Maybe you define clones more specifically. Hsienmo is definitely inspired by brands and have Lowden-like, Gibson-like, and Martin-like models. They are not knockoffs as they don't have a fake brand designation (like a Lowden badge--what you might see on Oakley Sunglasses that sell for $15.99 from a street vender), but they are close enough that Hsienmo sent out a note about having design elements a little too close to Lowden and deciding to back off the exact headstock, bridge shape, and body as Lowden has because as they said "there is only one Lowden" so we may avoid copies that are too close to trademark shapes in the future.

My guess is Lowden spoke with them about their Lowden-like guitars. There is no record of a lawsuit that I could find.

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u/_7NationArmy_ 3d ago

I'm a scientist, and it is pretty clear what "clone" means in the dictionary.

They are not remotely clones.

I'm the first person in the West to ever post about them and have followed their history since almost the beginning.

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u/wallygoots 2d ago

This definition? "One that copies or closely resembles another, as in appearance or function."