The Delta Snake Review: Musical Gear Review and Music Article Archive: Review: 2013 Yamaha AEX520

Note: Podcast version coming soon!

Review: 2013 Yamaha AEX520

The Yamaha AEX520 is a Taiwan-made semi-hollow body guitar that is one of the many underrated electrics that this company produces. In its heyday, that is to say when it was released in the early 2000s, it was a pretty good guitar but in a tough, competitive price range.

A semi-hollow in the 450.00 with alder wood sides, maple top, and bolt-on neck would have fared badly against the Epiphone Joe Pass (particularly at the used price) and other offerings.

That could be due to the premium placed on cosmetics. This model has some attractive aspects, in particular, a sort of Gretsch body look, and nice gold-covered mini-humbuckers. However, I haven't heard too many good comments about the colors used, like the “Tobacco Brown” or orange (although I don't hear a lot of complaints about the orange Gretsches).

Also, let's face it, in the hollow body world, a bolt-on neck just seems funky, even if it's totally functional. It is a prejudice that won't go away.

Yamaha isn't a mediocre company, and it makes a very respected range of instruments. So, there's no reason that the 520 was some sort of ugly duckling that was put together just to create a cheap entry-level semi-solid. The company clearly made a judgment call, good electronics over cosmetics. It seemed to not pay off at the time, but how that decision fares now, I'll discuss later.

What the company excels at, is good mass-production guitars, and its electronics are top-notch. In this case, the minis are both attractive and well matched to the design. An alder and maple guitar will give you a harder sound in most cases, especially with minis. In the case of the Epi and Gibson Firebirds, it's most certainly the case.

However, mini-humbuckers do have a long history in the jazz world. Epiphones with “New York” style pickups were really just guitars with mini-humbuckers. As I've said in other reviews, “jazz” can be a subjective word, and what sounds jazzy on a guitar to one person may not to another. The Yamaha version appears to be more versatile, and more like the old Epi style pickup.

In the case of the pickups, these minis are a bit on the hot side mainly due to their output. In other words, they sound hotter but really just distort faster. The AEX-520 gets a nice jazz sound out of the pickups if you think in terms of pickup and amp matchups (like it should be), and adjust the tone accordingly. This characteristic can make getting a Wes Montgomery-type tone possible, but not a Johnny Smith. In other words, that fat, warm sound.

There's no doubt that the mini-humbuckers will make great rock and slide guitar pickups. However, if you're buying this guitar to upgrade, that will be difficult, so try before buying.

Play it right, and you can get a nice Gretsch-style tone (more on the Chet side) but with the simplified controls (one knob for each, volume and tone), you have to be more sensitive to the setting. But it was a pleasant surprise to hear that type of clean tone.

The neck is a rosewood/maple combination and is pretty playable. It's not an ideal neck for fast playing but for blues and the bluesier side of jazz, perfect. It does help make the guitar feel more solid and durable. The tuners are no-name, but good, and hold tune just fine.

These days, you can get one for around 250.00-300.00. That's actually a good resale value, but given the package, it's now a bargain. Better than some of the DeArmonds floating around at a lower price.

I personally don't need another jazz guitar, but at this price, getting a guitar that is versatile enough to sound like a Gretsch Country Gentleman at 300.00 is a no-brainer.

I found one and put it on layaway, and I'm sure a lot of good times are coming my way soon.

- Al Handa

2013

Note: This review first appeared on the ePinions.com site in 2013. This and other reviews were short takes that accompanied the link to a business that sold the guitar. As a rule, the guitar had to be at least examined and played by the reviewer (and ideally owned). In my case, a severe case of GAS made it possible to have at least owned the reviewed instrument for a short while. I'm reprinting these as having another source on a guitar never hurts, even if the reviews aren't definitive. Other than minor corrections, these short takes are unchanged from the original text. I figure that it might be helpful to keep the older perspective.

Also by Al Handa:

Podcast Episode 3 now live on Spotify and Apple.