Yamaha EZ-EG Tutorial Electric Guitar

by Yamaha

Product Features

• 12 lighted frets show hand position for chords
• 3 play modes, including Strumming, Chord Training, and Full Play (using both hands - shows you chord changes while you strum and play chords)
• 6 strings for strumming or finger picking
• 9 realistic guitar sounds - 8 bass guitar sounds - plus banjo, shamisen, and piano
• 3 built in songs, plus 15 songs riffs to learn

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 9 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009UVQZ
• Item model number: EZ-EG
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,656 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The perfect six-string treat for beginners, Yamaha's EZ-EG guitar is part electric guitar, part portable keyboard, and all fun. Twelve lighted frets show hand position for chords, and three convenient play modes include strumming (practice for right hand-- chords change automatically), chord training (practice for left hand--no strumming required, just make chord changes), and full play (practice for both hands--it shows you chord changes while you strum and play chords).

The guitar comes with six real strings for strumming or finger-picking, nine sampled but realistic guitar tones and eight bass-guitar sounds, as well as sampled sounds for banjo, shamisen, and even piano. You can practice on three full programmed songs and 15 choice song riffs to learn.

MIDI In and Out let you integrate the instrument with keyboard controllers or your computer, and the guitar includes flash ROM so you can download more songs to learn. Controls include volume, tempo, balance, and capo, and you have the option of standard and open tunings.

There's a built-in speaker as well as a headphone jack for private or late-night playing (as well as for connecting with an amplifier; headphones and amp not included). The EZ-EG runs off the supplied PA3C power adapter or 6 AA batteries if you want to take it on the road for a practice tour.

What's in the Box
Guitar, power adapter, pick, strap, tremolo bar, UX-16 USB MIDI cable, and Yamaha PA3C power adapter.

Product Description

YAMAHA EZ-EGC - Playing air guitar while watching your heroes on TV is great for fun and ego gratification. But it doesn't teach you much about actually playing the guitar! The YAMAHA EZ-EGC, by contrast, can get you started on the road to plucking with finesse or bashing with the best in no time at all. MIDI In and Out - USB MIDI cable included Flash ROM to download more songs Volume, tempo, balance and capo controls Standard tuning plus open tuning options Built-in speaker Includes power adapter, pick, strap and tremolo bar Mini-plug headphone jack for private practice or output to amplifier (headphone & amplifier not included) Optional power option - 6 optional AA cells

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great guitar alternative for medically challenged fingers, October 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Yamaha EZ-EG Tutorial Electric Guitar (Electronics)

I was a professional guitar player for years, 20 years ago (closer to 30 years ago) and had to give it up due to insulin dependent diabetes. The damage of 4-5 times a day of finger sticks to test blood sugars and the infections caused by the callouses of many daily hours of playing were just too great for my body to overcome. I haven't been able to play guitar since.

I found this guitar while shopping at a Sharper Image store and was instantly hooked. It doesn't create any pressure on my fingers at all, because the electronic keypads only require a very light touch. It does not have the feel of a real guitar and can't begin to pick up the nuances of play from real strings, but if you are unable to play a regular guitar for whatever reason, it's a great alternative.

The guitar does go momentarily slightly out of tune every time a new chord is played, but it only lasts 1 or 2 seconds and unless you are acutely aware of tone values, probably won't notice the difference, it self tunes immediately. It is easier to pick out songs than a regular guitar because the steel pickup doesn't vibrate the way a regular string will, hence your picking can be both truer and faster than with a regular guitar and no buzzing of strings either.

For a beginner, I can see this as having a fast learning curve, but will probably create some problems with transferring onto a regular guitar because as long as you hit the correct frets, it will give you true sound, which on a regular guitar will never happen unless the correct amount of pressure and the correct fingering is taking place.

I don't know how durable this instrument will be long term but I am currently deeply in love (again).

63 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fun toy for beginners, September 24, 2003

By 

"tabbycake" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yamaha EZ-EG Tutorial Electric Guitar (Electronics)

This is definitely one big toy. But I am having a blast with it so far (it is day 3). I tried to start with a real electric guitar but that was too overwhelming. I have some knowledge of chords but little innate talent. So a tutorial guitar is just what I need to have fun and practice the basics. This is not a substitute for lessons though. You will only learn some rhythm guitar from the midi stuff. Also, you have to let go of any feeling of not liking the midi sound. Still, if you don't have a band, it's nice to strum along to something. I figure if I can learn all of the chords changes programmed into the guitar, I will have a decent background for picking out my favorite tunes. So in sum, the drawbacks are you can't slide down the neck because of the keys, you won't learn any picking from the tutorials and while you get 10 free midi songs from the website, the rest are priced around $6 a shot. Also the tremolo attachment impedes any sort of flashy follow through action with your right hand (but the tremolo comes off easily). I almost forgot to mention that I had a lot of difficulty getting the software to work from the url given in the packaging. After many error messages, I ended up searching for a windows xp update for both the midi usb driver and "song filer" the program used by yamaha to download songs onto your guitar. Even though I can't read Japanese, I went to a Japanese site and bless 'em cuz everything worked like a charm! The strong points are the many sounds you can choose from including 12-string (even though there are only 6 strings), overdrive and distortion. You can just play your own thing or practice one of the programmed selections. The electronic capo is really cool and the tempo adjuster is helpful. I haven't tried alternate tuning yet. But I'm sure it will be fun once I get the hang of it. I will try to write more after more time has passed. All in all, I'd recommend this for someone who isn't ready for the real thing yet and likes electronic gadgets.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally an afordable midi guitar that WORKS!, May 5, 2006

By 

Charles D. Schroeder "CSBigdawg" (D'Iberville, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yamaha EZ-EG Tutorial Electric Guitar (Electronics)

Received my EZ-EG today and had a hard time putting it down - this thing is soooo sweet. Unit replaced an old CASIO DG-10, about the 1/3rd the weight of that thing.

Wish it had a full fretboard - only mark against it but since everything repeats over the 12th fret this isn't an issue. Gret thing about it is it helps you to practice finger position and makes it portible enough I can travel with it. I have carpal tunnel in my left hand and love to play - this is a whole lot easier on the hand as I don't have to push down as hard.

Won't replace my regular guitar, but will be used in conjunction with it. Some of the lower reviews miss the point - it is a training guitar and seems to do a good job. It is very intuitive right out of the box except if you need to do some fancy things with MIDI and is actually pretty fairly documented. Yamaha products are #1 in my book as I have the PSR-550 as well that replaced a unit that was 20 years old and still working at the time so if this guitar lives up to that quality I'll be extremely happy!