Seriously Awesome Yamaha FG180 Red Label Nippon Gakki! - Weighs ~3 lbs 15oz

Highlights from October 2025 Service Below:

Neck Reset

Bone Nut and Saddle

New Frets for Frets 1, 2, 3 and All Frets/Fretboard Leveled Appropriately

Extra Bone Saddle for Low Action Medium Gauge Strings (Especially nice for that Elliott Smith Sound)

Structural Check - Braces / Cracks Etc - All good to go!

Tuners relubricated (Tuners surprisingly work well still)

Currently set up with light gauge strings @ just under 6/64th's action at the 12th fret low E string

Super pretty patina and wear on this old relic. It looks to be a 1970, a time when everyone was trying to compete with Gibson and Martin. The best part about this guitar, is that it came back from a big service around October 2025 that I personally paid for with the guitar. I grew up watching my uncle play his Yamaha so over the last 20 years I've owned about 6 different FG180 guitars to relive the magic and nostalgia. Every single one of them was in dire need of a neck reset but I never really bothered to get it done. Last year, I had an opportunity to get one fully overhauled to experience what I viewed as the peak of FG180 lore and history, and boy does it deliver. The guitar has a nice tall visible saddle now, even at its current setup. This guitar has all of that dry, charming Yamaha FG180 sound that I loved but so much more of it with responsiveness and volume that the neck reset has afforded it. Combine this with the age of the guitar, it really is a sweet guitar. Seriously fantastic volume and sound comes out of this guitar. I'm a guy that collects a lot of relic patina vintage guitars that are properly repaired because i subscribe to the idea that the more a guitar is played, the better it sounds.

Cosmetic wise the guitar has dings and signs of wear throughout as seen on the pictures. I tried using a strong flashlight to see if any daylight peaked through the inside of the guitar to check for cracks and I did not seem to find any. Feel free to ask me any questions!

A cool tidbit about the wood and a big reason as to why they have such great tone is that for this model, Yamaha employed a "laminate wood" but it was a bit different to what the USA thinks of laminate wood, likely due to translation. The woods on the FG180 are actually stacks of the actual sitka and mahogany wood layers, laminated. This was due to the tropical weather climate in Asia that had tons of humidity. The goal was to keep the guitars as stable as possible, and in doing so, that is a big reason why these guitars are so durable even it their vintage states. In my experiences, big dings on these guitars almost never break through and crack the wood. In my work travels I've seen tons of examples in the USA and in Japan and they usually all look structurally great in relic condition.

Comes with an older, decent condition, sturdy archtop case that fits the guitar really great (finding cases that fit these guitars well is a bit of a challenge). No weird funky rotten smells in the case either.

I uploaded a short clip of the guitar on Youtube, unfortunately Youtube downgrades the audio quality but hopefully this gives you a good idea of how great it sounds.

I want to provide a great buying experience and I do ask that you buy the guitar As-is, so please if you have any questions - just ask! Just a disclaimer here, I'm not a store, just a passionate guitar collector and player, so setup preferences are subjective and the responsibility of the buyer. Sometimes setups can change slightly during transit but I do pack and ship all my guitars with love and care.