What’s different about these guitars?
Can you find the differences between these two Yamaha Weddington guitars? Here’s a hint—one is a Custom and the other is a Classic.
After receiving my new used Yamaha Weddington Classic yesterday, I was eager to see just what the differences are between the Classic and Custom. They’re both red and have a tuning fork logo on the headstock, right? So what differentiates the more expensive Custom from the Classic in the Weddington lineup? Let’s take a closer look (the Classic is on the left in the pictures below).
Starting with the headstock, there are couple of differences. While both have the Yamaha tuning fork logo and rosewood veneer on the front of the headstock, they sport different flourish inlays. (Note that neither says “Yamaha” aside from the truss rod cover. Personally, I like the fact that they don’t have the brand name on the headstock.) Also, notice that the Weddington Classic headstock (left) in unbound, while the Custom headstock has white-black-white triple binding; this is a difference we’ll see throughout. You may not be able to tell from the photos, but the hardware is also slightly different. The Classic uses chrome hardware, while the Custom sports nickle plated. The tuners are different, too.
Moving down the fretboard, there are more differences. The Weddington Custom has a position marker in the first position, while the Classic does not. The Classic uses smaller mother-of-pearl inlays that are bisected with something that looks like black plastic, while the Custom has more ornate mother-of-pearl inlays that are bisected with abalone or pau. More significantly for tone, the Classic has a rosewood fretboard, while the Custom is ebony. And, damn does the ebony fretboard look good with the contrasting position markers. It also feels great. Like polished glass. As with the headstock, the neck on the Custom has white-black-white triple binding; the Classic’s neck is bound with single-ply cream.
The fretboard was very dry in these pictures which is why it looks so light. I applied several coats of Fret Doctor oil when I changed the strings. The oil soaked into the wood very quickly and now the fretboard is considerably darker, and feels better to the touch. Good stuff!
I will also pause and mention that I never paid much attention to the frets on the Custom before. They seemed kind of wide and flat, but not abnormally so. Once I started comparing the two, I realized that the frets on the Classic were the original shape, but the Custom had a fret leveling at some point in its previous life. Hence they felt wider, flatter and lower. No big deal, they both feel fine.
The bodies are identical on the two guitars, at least as far as I can tell. The tops were most likely “carved” (routed or milled, actually) using CNC machinery, which explains why there is little or no variance between the two. You can see the maple cap on both guitars if you look below the binding near the neck joint. I haven’t tried to measure the maple cap, but I would guess it is around 3/4” thick underneath the bridge. All Customs had transparent or semi-transparent finishes like red, amber, or burst. The Classics had either semi-transparent burst finishes or opaque red or black.
These photos show the difference in the color fairly well. The Classic has single-ply cream binding while the Custom has the same white-black-white three-ply binding as seen on the neck and headstock. There is clearly a difference in color, with the Custom being much lighter than the Classic.
Flip the guitar over and look at the back of the headstock and there are a few more differences to be found. You can see more clearly that the tuning machines are different. Aside from the difference in finish—chrome on the Classic and nickle on the Custom—the tuning machines themselves are different. They feel different in operation, too, and I’ll have to investigate this further. The neck construction is also different. The Classic has a three-piece mahogany laminated neck while the Custom has is five-piece construction. Although you can’t tell through the red finish, I think the two strips flanking the center are maple. At least they looked like maple on my amber Weddington. The other strips are mahogany. I should also mention that the neck on the Classic is slightly thicker front-to-back than the Custom; I suspect the Custom is more representative of Weddingtons in general.
Back to the back. Here again you can see the difference in neck construction—3-ply laminate on the Classic and 5-ply laminate on the Custom. The neck joint and back carve is the same on both. Both guitars have two piece backs, though you have to look carefully at the end grain on the lower bout to see this. Interestingly, my first Weddington Custom had a one-piece back. I didn’t notice that it improved the guitar in a meaningful way.
That should help anyone who wants to know more about the differences between the Weddington Custom and Classic. There may be other differences that I didn’t pick up on, but I think that covers almost everything. Everything except how they feel and sound, that is. First and foremost, the Classic has a larger neck which I much prefer. It still isn’t up in the baseball-bat girth like some Gibson reissues, but it is noticeably meatier. Rich Lasner has said that all the necks were specified the same, but Yamaha may have done some “shop floor engineering” on some of them. I suspect that’s what happened here since the other Weddington Custom I owned was also very thin. Another difference I noticed immediately is that the Classic feels lighter by a fair bit. I don’t have a scale, but I would guess that it might be four ounces lighter.
And finally, how does it sound? That’s a good question and one that was ultimately decided by the pickups more that any minor differences between the two guitars. Whereas the Custom has the original DiMarzio pickups in place, I think the pickups in the Classic have been replaced at some point. I haven’t pulled them out yet, but I did open up the electronics cavity cover in the back and noticed what looked like a little reworking and new solder joints. More importantly, the DiMarzios in the Custom are much hotter and more aggressive. Whatever pickups are in the Classic are much more “vintage” sounding. They sound good, just not as aggressive. I’m guessing they’re DiMarzio PAF-style but will need to pull them out to verify. Stay tuned for more!
Comments
By the way,according to the owners manual the Custom has a lacquer finish and the classic is polyurethane.
nice comparison between your Custom and Classic Weddingtons. I one one of each,both from 1988 and they have identical tuning machines. Both have chrome hardware stock. The Classic neck is 3-piece—maple in the center and 2 outside strips of mahogany. My classic has a 2-piece mahogany body,and my custom is one piece. However,I did once own a classic with one-piece body. Rich Lasner told me the spec could go either way. As you mentioned,the classic has a thicker neck. My classic weighs 8.9lbs,the Custom is 8.6lbs. Thanks again for the cool Weddington info.