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Maker: yamaha.com .
Yamaha LLX16 Review
Over the course of its 40-plus-years history, Yamaha has come up with many original guitar designs and even developed a version of the popular dreadnought shape that it now calls the LL body (but the company has used various designations over the years). Yamaha has used this body style on many models since the late 1960s, including the LL16, which was introduced in 2004 as part of its high-end Handcrafted Acoustics. Recently, Yamaha started offering the LL16 with its Acoustic Resonance Transducer (ART) pickup system, which was previously only available on the cutaway-equipped APX and CPX series (see Acoustic Guitar March 2007 for a review of the CPX900 ), and we received a sunburst version (it’s also available with a natural finish) of this new LLX16 for review.
GOOD-LOOKING FROM FRONT TO BACK
Although the LLX16 has fairly understated appointments—just a small abalone rosette and abalone fretboard dots—its tobacco-sunburst Engelmann spruce top is gorgeous, and the back and sides are made from a handsome set of rosewood. The LLX16’s mahogany neck is reinforced with a thin rosewood center strip. Scanning the guitar at the micro level revealed very minor blemishes, including slight wavers in the two-tone black-and-white headstock binding.
HEADROOM AND RINGING OVERTONES
The LLX16 fits comfortably in the hands, and our review model was set up well—it played fluidly and easily all the way up to the 12th fret and beyond. Acoustically, the LLX16 has a full voice, with plenty of high end, a throaty midrange, and focused bass. As a singer with a rather loud voice, I need a guitar that won’t break up with heavy strumming, and the LLX16 more than held its own on some aggressively flatpicked Beatles songs. When I brought things down to Iron and Wine–level fingerpicking (subdued and quiet), the guitar was quite responsive, with plenty of warm bass and midrange and a crisp high end with ringing overtones, while jazzy fingerpicked backup sounded even and balanced up and down the neck.
Picking up the flatpick once again, I tried playing a few single-note scalar and arpeggio runs up the neck and found that the ringing brightness of the overtones added a pleasing choral-like pad in the background. A bluegrass-style G run in first position concluded the LLX16’s flatpicking test, which it passed easily, although some players might prefer more oomph in the bass. Overall, I found this guitar a joy to play in most genres, with an especially nice voice for singer-songwriter/strummers.
ART-FUL AMPLIFICATION
At the core of the LLX16’s System 60 electronics is Yamaha’s proprietary ART pickup system, a set of four soundboard transducers mounted inside the guitar. Specifically, two of the transducers are mounted directly beneath the saddle line, while the other two are located at the bass and treble ends of the bridge plate. This configuration is designed to reproduce both the immediacy and “punch” of the strings at the saddle and the dynamic range and warmth of the top resonance. The pickups are controlled by four unobtrusive knobs that rest nearly flush with the side when not in use and pop out of the side of the guitar when pressed.
The buttons are laid out with three knobs on the upper bout facing you: the top knob controls the volume level of the set of transducers placed under the saddle location, while two more knobs dial in the volume level of the transducers in the bass and treble positions. The master volume control is located around the corner on the side, near where the neck joins the body. Even though there is no onboard EQ, dialing in a range of tonal settings is easy if you think of the top saddle knob as a general but more midrange-heavy pickup, with the bass-position pickup (on the left) controlling extra bass and the treble-position pickup (on the right) controlling extra treble.
I tried out the LLX16’s electronics through a Centaur Acoustic A1204V amplifier. I began playing with only the bridge transducers on, and while they provided a natural sounding tone, they yielded more midrange than I prefer. By opening up the bass transducer to just under half volume and adding slightly less of the treble transducer, I got a great tone that would work well for just about any style. The beauty of this system, however, is that there is enough control to dial in the right balance of bass, midrange, and high end for any situation by using the corresponding bass and treble transducers as if they were EQ controls.
ACOUSTIC AND AMPLIFIED VERSATILITY
The LLX16 will please players looking for a great value in a guitar that’s ready to go in both unamplified and plugged-in situations. With a pickup system that is among the most advanced available, the LLX16 is an instant winner.
