Without a doubt, the most soulful Japanese-made instrument I've ever owned. Japanese guitars and basses (new and old) have a reputation for being all "precision quality" and no soul, but not this beautiful thing. All that engineering put into making this guitar sound worn-in from the day you open the case is definitely doing something, because that's exactly how it feels: like an old soul. You might call it buyer's confirmation bias, but I absolutely love this guitar and am glad I paid extra for the Japan model.
Fit and comfort is excellent. Yes, it's on the heavier side, but because it is balanced so excellently, it just sits on you comfortably at the perfect angle, so you don't have to deal with any neck-dive or imbalance. The cut of the body and shape of the neck are all wonderfully ergonomic, and the neck I find excellent. Slightly on the beefier side, but without being too unwieldy or slow. The frets are also exceptionally dressed, and just beg to be played.
For what it's worth, out of the box from Thomann I just needed to do a quick and easy adjustment of the neck, and everything else has been perfect: action, intonation, pickup height, etc. Side note: I never understand why reviewers find the need to comment on how guitars perform directly out of the box. After having being kept in various non-temp controlled warehouses and shipping containers for months, of course it's going to need a setup, first thing. In this case though, that was just a quick neck tweak. Easy.
Anyway, what surprised me the most was the versatility of these Yamaha P90's and Yamaha's boost system. You really have the best of all worlds here, with strong humbucker style tones and glassy single-coil tones all available with various configurations of the tone and volume knobs. Take note that the volume knob is far more critical here than on most guitars... just dropping the volume knob to 80% and you'll be in a completely different arena of tone possibilities, and likewise for all volume levels. I've never played a guitar where the volume knob has this degree of influence on the tone and playability.
Beyond all this though, the overwhelming impression is that this really is a master-built guitar with true soul and character, for much less than the US counterparts. I love that Yamaha are trying hard to forge their own path here, and not just trying to carbon-copy a P90 Gibson gold-top, or a generic Strat/Tele. It's conservative enough to evoke reflections of those classic guitars, but then has enough of its own charisma and charm to really stand out on its own. Absolutely lovely instrument, and by far, worth the extra cost.
