RatingsPros:High quality build. Versatile voice. Super-slick playability. Cons: Austere appearance might not be for everyone. Street: $999 Yamaha Guitars usa.yamaha.com
| Tones:  Playability:  Build/Design: Value: |
Yamaha has made classical guitars since the 1940s. But the Yamahas that truly put the company on the flattop map were the FG series, a range of steel-string flattops that appeared in the mid ’60s. Affordable, and often fantastically well-built for the money, original Yamaha FGs were, for thousands of players, the first really good guitar they would own. Not surprisingly, a sizable cult of players now sings the praises of these sturdy vintage values.
Yamaha’s new FG/FS Red Label lineup visually evokes those early red-label FG Yamaha steel-strings. But the modern incarnations add up-to-date features like a new scalloped bracing pattern, Yamaha’s “Atmosfeel” pickup and preamp system, and tonewoods “aged” through the company’s pressure-, humidity-, and temperature-treating process. And while they aren’t quite as inexpensive as their FG forebears (The FSX3 reviewed here is $999, and the top-of-the-line FGX5 comes in at nearly $1,400.), they are high-quality and super-playable instruments at a fair price.
Modesty Hides Solidity
The FG/FS Red Label series includes eight all-solid-wood models in two body sizes: the “traditional Western” dreadnought and the 000/OM-sized concert. 5-level guitars in the series are made at Yamaha's Custom Shop in Japan. 3-level guitars (including the FSX3) are made in Yamaha's factory in China.
At a glance, our humble looking FSX3 could easily be mistaken for one of its Nippon Gakki, Japan-made ’60s counterparts. The Sitka spruce top has that familiar amber complexion that any longtime Yamaha player or guitar-shop-goer would recognize. It’s decorated with a simple rosette, and the vintage Yamaha logo of three interlocked tuning forks adorns the signature V-notched headstock. Other appointments are kept to a minimum: just a little black-and-white binding and small dot position markers on the fretboard. Open-geared tuners recall vintage Yamaha FG instruments.
While comparatively austere, the FSX3 is clearly not a product of cutting corners. It feels better built than the original FG guitars, which is no small compliment. The matte finish on the neck and body feels silky and is free of imperfections. Frets are smoothly crowned and polished, and free from jaggedness at the edges. Bracing and kerfing inside the body are applied with precision.
Easy Playmate
I’m well acquainted with OM-size guitars. And at 14 15/16" wide at the lower bout and 4 5/16" at its deepest point, the Yamaha has the compact, comfortable feel of an OM or 000. The mahogany neck, with its medium C-shaped profile, feels fast along its entire length and is free of buzz. I didn’t have a ’60s or ’70s Yamaha steel-string at hand for comparison, but the FSX3 definitely played better than any of the vintage examples I can recall.
The same goes for the FSX3’s sound. As with all of the guitars in the FG/FS Red Label lineup, the top is treated via Yamaha’s Acoustic Resonance Enhancement (A.R.E.) process, which subjects the wood to pressure, heat, and dehumidifying factors that effectively “age” the wood—simulating years of playing.
With mahogany back and sides—and presumably some help from the A.R.E process, the FSX3 possesses a warm overall tone signature, but with a pronounced oomph in the midrange that complements and enhances the soft and rich mahogany tones. It sounds woodier and livelier than the vintage examples I’ve tried, and in general it’s a lot more inspiring to play. With a 1.75" nut, the FSX3 is geared for fingerstyle. And the FSX3’s voice seems made for fingerstyle techniques, too. It’s balanced, full of detail, and suited to the melodic intricacies of everything from interpreting lute compositions to melodic improvisations in DADGAD. That balance between registers also means the FSX3 responds equally well to a pick. It feels responsive and sounds immediate, direct, and pleasingly dry in ways that would make it a real studio asset.
The Atmosfeel electronics, by the way, make the Yamaha a better-than-serviceable performance partner, too. The three low-profile controls on the upper bass bout, which calls to mind Taylor’s preamp control layout, make it easy to interact with mid-performance. And the ability to blend internal microphone and pickup sounds enables you to sculpt output that can be optimized for airy, detailed, solo settings, or situations where you need undersaddle snap and presence to get across in a band mix.
The Verdict
With the Red Label FSX3, Yamaha has paid cool homage to its much-loved original red-label-instruments heritage in an all-solid-wood guitar that feels great, exhibits real versatility, and is free of the old-guitar baggage that comes with vintage examples. And though the styling might be too sedate for some, the FSX3 delivers in terms of playability and, at times, its positively golden sound.
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
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