old Yamaha campfire guitar?

[headsup]

A friend handed this guitar to me this morning, it needs some work, cosmetically, but structurally it's solid and sounds very good.
He's had it for many years, says it's a 1969 and is BZ rosewood.
I'm not sure, this point if it's mine or his, he just handed it to me and said "here take this will ya".
so I did.

anybody know anything about this guitars? FG300 Yamaha.

[mike in lytle]

A friend handed this guitar to me this morning, it needs some work, cosmetically, but structurally it's solid and sounds very good.
He's had it for many years, says it's a 1969 and is BZ rosewood.
I'm not sure, this point if it's mine or his, he just handed it to me and said "here take this will ya".
so I did.
anybody know anything about this guitars? FG300 Yamaha.

That was the guitar I wanted to buy when Yamaha first showed up in our local guitar store in Downers Grove Illinois when I was in high school. It was the best Yamaha they had. On one hand it was really fancy, on the other, it was less costly than a Gibson, which it resembled. Still cost a LOT more money than I had, so I got a simpler model, which still was the best acoustic I had till I got my first Martin. I "think" it was around 300 dollars. A D28 cost about 450 then.
It is a 100% laminate body if I recall. Old Japan production had red labels, the FG300 had a saddle full of screws and cool Gibson kinda pick guard. That's why I remember it. They are probably rare, as Yamaha did not sell lots of guitars early on in the US. 1969 may have been the first year.
You are lucky to get it, if your friend intended that.
Mike
L-05

[sneaky]

according to books on ole MIJ guitars I got in Japan, Yamaha among them,  the first two FGs were greenish/beige labels...the 150 and 180 in 1967 and my guess is they were domestic models.

[ducktrapper]

Nice one! My old red tag Yamaha FG -180 is my favorite guitar whenever I play it. :)  

[247hoopsfan]

The FG 300 was actually Jacaranda.  Because the wood often has figuring similar to Brazilian people often say it is  Brazilian rosewood.  Actually it isn't even a true rosewood.  Lots of Japanese made guitars in the 60's and 70's were jacaranda.   As you know Yamahas from that era were great sounding guitars.
. https://yamahaguitars.nl/acoustic-guitars/fg-300/
I still have my first guitar a 1972 FG200.  I really wanted a D28 but the Yammie was only $100 brand new.  Still sounds great.
Enjoy that FG300!

[Chasjax]

Ah yes, Yamahamers. My first guitar was was a 1966 FG-180 that I think was a red label - who knew back then? Extra high action, but I just thiught that was part of difficuly of playing guitar. Sold it to finance a weekend at the beach, then replaced it with a Taiwan FG-160 in 1973. Still have it and thinking about re-fret, bone  nut and saddle, and tuners.
Chas

[carruth]

  Back in the day, played with a player that had one of those.
Darn fine guitar, especially back in 1969.

[247hoopsfan]

Even the small body FG110 red labels have great sound, this is just a cell phone video and you can hear the tone.
https://youtu.be/v0BzTFdOfU8