Artist Guitar CL44AM entry-level classical guitar: a worthy alternative to the Yamaha C40

The Artist CL44AM has one of the best blends of price-to-quality among budget guitars aimed at beginners.

Artist Guitars online-only business model means they don’t have the reputation of some manufacturers but their CL44AM classical guitar offers one of the strongest combinations of price-to-quality in the beginner nylon string range.

I bought a new CL44AM classical guitar in 2021 after initially borrowing a model to test – like any low-cost guitar it has its limitations. But when compared to its competitors, such as the Yamaha C40, it stands out for a few key reasons.

Its dimensions and design look similar to any standard classical guitar but they’ve added a few innovations to make it easier for beginners to learn the instrument.

Price

The Artist CL44AM is one of the cheapest nylon string guitars on the market. It’s about 25 per cent cheaper than the popular Yamaha C40.

A key reason is Artist Guitars’ business model – they sell directly online rather than through retailers. This cuts out a significant retail markup but, on the downside, means its difficult to give the guitar a test run before buying (you can try before you buy at some of Artist Guitars’ small shopfronts, which are combined with their warehouses).

I’d always recommend playing high-end guitars as every guitar is different, particularly for acoustic guitars. Differences between even the same species of wood in the top can change the sound (although a good luthier can also compensate for this when building an instrument). But this isn’t really a drawback when it comes to low-cost guitars for beginners, who buy the instrument to learn.

I compared my CL44AM to the one I borrowed – they were nearly identical barring a slightly lower action on mine after adjusting the truss rod (see below). This suggests to me that Artists Guitars’ quality control is up to standard.

Construction

The construction of the Artist CL44AM is subtly less traditional than other classical guitars. The biggest difference is the truss rod in the neck – something you won’t find in the traditional Yamaha C40 (although truss rods are standard in the slightly more expensive Cordoba nylon-string guitars, such as the C5). Truss rods are necessary to keep the neck straight on steel-string acoustic and electric guitars, where the string tension on the neck is far higher, but a rising number of manufacturers are also now building them into nylon-string guitars.

This is a genuine benefit for beginners and intermediate level guitarists because entry-level guitars typically take a lot of punishment. New guitarists often don’t know how to care for their instrument. I’ve seen many second-hand guitars where humidity or even water damage has twisted or bent the neck, making the instrument unplayable. This is something far less likely to occur with a truss rod built into the neck.

The other benefit of a truss rod is it allows the action to be fine-tuned. Entry-level guitars are factory-built with high tolerances. It’s easier to leave the action high, which makes the guitar unnecessarily hard to play. The truss rod can be adjusted to adjust the action as low as needed. Artist Guitars make a point of building their guitars with a lower action although I would describe the action on the CL44AM as about average.

My action is slightly lower than the 4mm at the 12th fret shown in the photo below. This is the CL44AM without the truss rod adjustment – still lower than the Yamaha C40 I owned, whose neck had become slightly bowed.

The action on the Artist CL44AM is still relatively high but can be slightly lowered by adjusting the truss rod.

The CL44AM also comes with two strap pins to attach to a guitar strap, which makes it more versatile than a typical classical guitar, which is played sitting down.

Another well-thought out innovation is the built-in tuner. Beginners will often forget to tune their instrument before playing – there’s no excuses with this built-in tuner.

However, as with all cheap tuners, it can take a few seconds to respond, not unlike this Joyo model. It requires a CR2032 battery, which comes with the guitar. The tuner automatically switches off after about one minute if not used.

The Artist CL44AM guitar comes with a built-in tuner.

The guitar is fractionally smaller than the Yamaha C40, but not to any noticeable degree (for example, the scale length is 25.5 inches (648mm) compared to the Yamaha C40’s 25 9/16 inches (650 mm)).

Both the Artist CL44AM and Yamaha C40 have laminated spruce tops but use different tonewoods for the back and sides. The Artist Guitar uses laminated catalpa while the C40 uses meranti (and sometimes other local tonewoods), but neither choice will differentiate each instrument’s sound quality. The back of the Artist CL44AM guitar is also made from laminated catalpa, which is prone to scratching. I’d even go so far to say that it’s inevitable.

The back of the Artist CL44AM guitar with scratches. — The back of the Artist CL44AM guitar scratches quite easily.

Artist also uses “eco-rosewood” (99.98 per cent basswood and 0.02 per cent glue) to build its fingerboard as opposed to Yamaha which uses rosewood. Rosewood is an endangered species and guitar manufacturers are increasingly finding alternative tonewoods. I found no particular difference between the two choices.

The sound quality of the CL44AM is about standard for a beginner guitar. The sound tends to be woolly and not well defined, but no more so than any of its rivals. This is no drawback when learning, as a guitarist’s ear takes time to learn pitch, as well as tone.

Artist CL44 Guitar Pack versus Yamaha GigmakerC40 pack

Artist Guitars sells the CL44AM as a pack including Artist branded “working player standard” strings, two picks, a guitar strap and guitar bag. The item that will always be useful is the guitar bag, and possibly strap if playing music beyond the classical repertoire.

The strings are good for beginners – it’s better to keep playing with average strings than to stop. But it won’t take long to realise how much the sound improves by using strings produced by a specialised manufacturer.

There’s more here than in the Yamaha C40 Gigmaker pack, which typically comes with a (clip-on) digital tuner and (occasionally) a guitar bag.

Artist Guitars is also now selling the CL44AM as part of an “Ultimate Pack”, but I don’t think it’s worth the extra expense. It includes five packs of the same strings, as well as a capo, string winder, and guitar stand. None of these are essential (although a guitar stand is nice to stop the instrument from being damaged). I’d suggest buying a bulk pack of higher quality strings, which will also keep costs down.

100-day free returns

I initially bought the slim neck version of the Artist guitar directly from Artist (the CL44SPKAM model) but, after a couple of months, found the thin neck (about the width of a steel-string acoustic rather than a traditional classical guitar) not too my liking.

I emailed Artist and asked if I could exchange it for the CL44AM as it was just within the 100-day free exchange period. I was able to swap the guitar without any issues (although I drove to the shop to do so).

This is a strong mitigating factor that should also gives some comfort around the online-only sales model. However, their overall warranty is three years compared to Yamaha’s five years. Personally, I prefer the 100-day return window as any warranty-related issues with a guitar are likely to show up in the first few months rather than years down the track (when issues are more likely associated with natural wear or a lack of care).