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UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45

N.G.D.

grayngrayn Frets: 769
in Acoustics
I went out this morning to Sound Affects, in Ormskirk.  Ostensibly to check out and compare 2 Gibson Studio 
acoustics and 2 Epiphone Masterbilt guitars.  The 2 Gibbos were a J45 Studio Rosewood and a Hummingbird
Studio Rosewood.  Now I tend to associate the "Studio" suffix, to mean no frills.  But these 2 looked very nicely
finished, particularly the J45, which had a lovely gloss finish and sunburst soundboard.  The Hummingbird does
look plain compared with the traditional version.  Anyway, both played and sounded very nicely.  The J45 having
a fuller tone, the Hummingbird having a lighter, janglier tone.  Both were very good guitars though and would
be excellent strummers and flatpickers.  Both came with quite high action, as did the 2 Epiphones, but were still
nice to play.  The 2 Epis I tried were a Masterbilt Texan and a Gibson Inspired J45.  I've heard a lot of good
things about these Masterbilt and Inspired models.  And they were well built with very decent spec.  But I have
to say, I wasn't that impressed with them.  Either for feel or tone.  They felt far less lively and vibrant than the 
Gibsons, with really cheap feeling tuners.  No, even at such reasonable price points, I didn't fancy either of these.
So I decided to try some other guitars, before I went back to the Gibsons.  I played 2 Taylors.  A 317e Round
Shouldered Dread and a preowned 510e Slot head Dread, from 2016.  The 510e had far too high action for my
taste and it was a bit too much boom and thud for me.  The 317e had a very even tone and was quite a class
act.  But overall I found it's tone a little brash and the guitar just seemed to lack character.
This left 2 more to try, a Martin DCPA4 from 2012 and a Yamaha LL-TA.  The Martin was a no nonsense,
cutaway dread, electro.  A little bland in appearance, it did have a comfy neck and a pleasing, even tone.  Nothing
to criticise here but it just didn't grab me.  The Yamaha LL-TA is basically an LL-16, with the Transacoustic
system fitted.  Now I already own the Yamaha CSF-TA, which is a small, travel/parlour type guitar, with
the Transacoustic gizmo, so I know that works rather nicely.  So what's the LL-16 like?  Bloody good actually.
Deep yet even tone, with that piano like quality, that makes strums, arpeggios and melodic flatpicking a real joy.
So, in my eyes, it was between the J45 Studio and the LL-TA.  So I went back to re-try the Gibson and A/B the
2.  Both still impressed me.  The Yamaha was a £ under 800 and the Gibson a £ under 1900.  I was prepared
to pay the extra but when it came to it, I just preferred the Yamaha LL-TA.
Call it madness if you will but the looks, sound and feel of the LL-TA, just hit all the right spots, for me.  It is
built really well, looks rather nice, with great finishing and it just does what I want.  This is a classy guitar, for not
much cash and comes with a nice Semi-Hardcase (oooooherr!!).
Oh yes.  The Transacoustic gizmo gives the rather nice, internal chorus and reverb effects.  You can set them
to very subtle and they do really sound very good, as an added bonus to this excellent guitar.

Specification:
Body:  Yamaha Original Jumbo (Dreadnought)
Top:  Solid Engelmann Spruce (A.R.E. treated)
Back & Sides:  Solid Rosewood
Binding:  Maple
Neck:  5ply Mahogany + Rosewood
Fingerboard:  Ebony
Nut:  44mm
Scale Length:  650mm
Tuners:  Die-Cast Gold (TM29G)
Bridge:  Ebony
Electronics:  System70 Transacoustic + SRT Piezo Pickup
Controls:  Reverb, Chorus, On-/Off-Switch, Line-out Volume
Colour:  Brown Sunburst
Case:  Semi-Hardcase.




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Comments

  • TheMadMickTheMadMick Frets: 213
    Just like I felt about my Yamaha AC3R.
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  • Andy79Andy79 Frets: 881
    Nice one. I love a good Yamaha 
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  • TanninTannin Frets: 4394
    That's good posting Grayn. I always enjoy reading about the ins and out of the purchase decision, and the ones you nearly, nearly bought. Best of all, there is a happy ending: very hard to go too far wrong with a Yamaha. Enjoy!

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