The Yamaha CS40 classical guitar is a slightly downsized version of their traditional nylon strings, great for beginning players or people who just need something smaller to play on. It features the following:
Top Spruce
Back & Sides Meranti
Neck Nato
Fretboard Rosewood
Bridge Rosewood
Hardware Chrome
Scale Length 22-15/16" (580mm)
Its got a 7/8 scale so its not as drastic a leap as a 3/4 or 1/2 sized guitar compared to a full sized model. Otherwise its pretty standard overall.
UTILIZATION
The design is pretty ergonomic. Its nice and light like most of Yamahas guitars in this general range. I bought mine when I was younger and would compare it to my Junior acoustic from the company... just a nice light weight but downsized version of their full sized guitars. It doesnt have great upper fret access but theres no cutaway so its not really a surprise there. The guitar has a decent sound right out of the box which is nice. It has a pleasant nylon string sound that I find works well and sounds close enough to a full sized one.
SOUNDS
The tones are actually fairly surprising in this guitar. I was thinking it would be kind of weak sounding, but when I tried it in the store I knew it had a good sound and figured a proper nylon would work in my collection. It had a good tone for being a cheaper, smaller instrument. Sure it didnt have the low end or the silky highs of a really nice nylon, but for noodling around on it had a nice enough tone that works for chords or some classical passages. Theres a nice low end and some good strong highs that, though they arent perfectly flowing, they do sit will in the aural mix.