Yamaha GL1 Guitalele, Natural, Baritone

Five stars because it’s crazy how well made this little instrument is for the price. It’s fun to noodle around on. I play classical guitar, and my wife complains about how loud it is when I practice at night. So I use the guitalele at night to memorize songs and figure out chord patterns, but the scale length is far too short (and the strings too close together) to practice seriously. I’m glad I bought it, though. It sounds like a tenor ukulele and plays like a guitar. What else could you want? If you are a full-size person and just want a little guitar as your ONLY guitar, this might be too little for you. But if you want this as a second guitar, go for it.

69 year old guitar hack here. Played electric, and some acoustic guitar in three bands way back in the 1970's. Played acoustic at a wedding. My neighbor bought a Yamaha GL-1 "guitalele" A few years ago, and told me recently that he loves it! A GL-1 is basically a very compact 6 string classical guitar, but, instead of being tuned Eadgbe, it is tuned 5 frets up on each string, so the low and high e's become a's. This means that all the chord shapes I know on a regular guitar can be played in the same positions, but the name of the chord will be different. Example, an e major chord shape on a guitar, will really be an a major on the Yamaha. If I am just playing by myself for myself, there is no problem. If I was to play along with a regular guitar, we would have to work out what key to play in. Also, if I sing and play, then depending on what key I play in, I would have to sing in higher notes.This thing came quicky to me in Hawaii, and it is in perfect condition! Since it had nylon/classical type strings, it is going to take much longer for the strings to settle down and stop sretching. Way longer than my steel stringers. So, don't write a review after a few days complaining about this. All classical style nylon string guitars do this! Pick it up,tune it, play it, and keep tuning it. The tuners on mine seem just fine. It is a total blast for me to play. It sounds great, especially for the small body size. It has very good volume and sustain too. A bit stingy on the fret markers, both on the fingerboard and side of the neck. If you have big fingers, some chording might be a bit crowded. It doesn't have a truss rod. But, many classical guitars and many other guitaleles don't have them either. I have yet to read a review, or watch a video review, where the owner had a neck warp. In short, I should have bought one of these long ago.Update after more than a year now. I still love this little 6 stringer! I have been selling some of my amps and ukes etc. I had considered selling my Yamaha, but cannot do it! It is just such a great insrument. Mine is still perfect. Drawbacks? Few. The 17" scale is a bit tight for me. One string started unravelling after not too much playing. I was able to buy the one string and replaced it. I read a review somewhere where the writer returned his due to various flaws. Looking at mine it's hard to believe. I think Yamaha should make an option of the GL-1 that would come with an under saddle pickup with tuner and volume/tone controls. Great price, great instrument, great FUN!!2/28/2025 update:Just wanted to say my estimation of this instrument has gone up if anything. I am taking super good care of it. It us holding up great. I had one of the wound strings start to unravel early and replaced it. Zero problems. After break in it holds tune as good or better than my other string instruments. That alone is saying a lot. The climate here in the Puna District on the big island plays he'll with stringed instruments. Most go sharp sitting overnight, and flat sitting during the day. This little guy is built very well. I wish it had come with an active pickup with tuned and equalizer, but it's still a keeper!

I'm not really a guitar player. I'm a musician who plays guitar. I have been doing that for the past 44 years. That said, this is a fun little thing!I like uke mostly. But, I always feel like I "should" be playing something more serious. Well this is the answer. I can play uke and guitar at the same time. Who knew?I've been playing it in the A tuning. (Didn't sound right tuned in E.) I like it. I play alot of bar chords. The bar chord that would normally be a G in the E tuning is a C in the A tuning. This works out well as I am lazy and play alot of things in C on uke. So far so good. I'm having fun with it. PWAdd: It doesn't come with strap buttons. I put some on today and strapped it. Very good now.

I'm a 6-string (steel) acoustic fingerstyle/jazz player who was looking to goof around with something small and inexpensive. Wanted to leave a review for the like-minded, or everyone who actually wants to try digging some arpeggios and modes into one of these little things and playing some standards and fingerstyle tunes on a park bench or lawn chair. I've owned some nice instruments and play for hours a day, so the GL1 isn't my first rodeo.First of all, the build quality is great. Importantly, the tuners are rock solid. Period. Intonation was surprisingly accurate for a $100 instrument - just a tiny, tiny bit sharp at the twelfth fret harmonic, but not noticeable when chording or playing melodies. The frets are perfect - no rough edges (see pictures). The instrument sounds clear and warm and lively. The strings it came with were fine - not rusty or anything - nice and shiny and obviously brand new.The action out of the box (as pictures show) was pretty high. This is not a criticism of Yamaha or the shipper or anything - one usually has to set up one's own instruments. I'm not great at it, but I know the basics. I took the saddle out and sanded it way down and used some small files on the nut and now it's great. No problem. If you get one and want to do more than gripping open chords, plan on an easy half an hour of set up. Seriously - easy.The more serious concern (and reason this is 4/5) is the idiosyncratic nut width and neck. The string spacing on this neck will feel too choked for classical players. And the neck width will feel too wide for steel string players. One of my photos shows the GL1 (bottom, 1 7/8" nut width) with a Martin OMC (top, 1 3/4" nut width). Take a look at that picture and notice how much closer the highest and lowest strings on the Martin (top) are to the fretboard edges than the highest and lowest strings on the GL1 (bottom). The GL1's 1 7/8" nut width is neither the 2" width familiar to classical players, nor the 1 11/16" familiar to steel string players. It's a compromise. At first glance, that compromise makes sense - I mean Yamaha is trying to draw both classical and steel string players to this fun little instrument. However, if you look at my picture closely, you can see that the GL1's neck has big, fat open areas between the highest and lowest strings and the edges of the fretboard. While the internal string spacing is quite narrow, and narrower than strings on, say, a Stratocaster (thus cramped indeed for classical players), the broadness of the fingerboard is hard on us steel string players (see my picture of trying to play a wraparound FM7 chord and running into that broad open channel of wood between the lower neck edge and #6 string). Other than the unusual nut width and string spacing, though, the neck feels fine - as I said the intonation is crisp and accurate, the frets smooth, and everything works as intended.I may be more persnickety about nut width and string spacing than some, but I wish these manufacturers would just say "Guitalele with Classical Neck Spacing" or "Guitalele with Dreadnought Neck Spacing" instead of building a fingerboard that will feel unfamiliar to any guitar player, regardless of their customary instrument. But it's also fair to say that this is just a new instrument, and manufacturers should do what they want!Two other minor things. The gig bag is (predictably) pretty minimalist - it actually doesn't unzip all the way around - just at the very bottom, so you have to slide the instrument in and out like a sword in a scabbard. Anyway, it's an inexpensive gig bag, no padding nor backpack straps - no big surprises, and fine for what it is. The other is that if you're not used to playing Uke/Mando family instruments, I would order a strap button when you get this thing, screw it into the base, and play with a strap from the outset (using a shoestring up at the peghead). Reason being, instruments like this just constantly rotate counterclockwise and it's nice to be able to strap one on, lean back, and play comfortably.Anyway, it's late 2019 and Yamaha has this thing dialed, I think. Nothing intrinsic to the GL1 to stop you from ripping out sixteenth note arpeggios, thumping out some thumbstyle ragtime or laying down some jazz chords - you'll just need to set it up a bit and be ready for an unorthodox neck.

love this instrument. Tuned it in E with strings recommended by another reviewer and holding tune very well with great sound. Easy to play by a child and will eventually be a great travel guitar. Very nice sound with the other strings I purchased .. higher notes nylon and lower are steel.