N.G.D.

grayn

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.

TheMadMick

Just like I felt about my Yamaha AC3R.

Andy79

Nice one. I love a good Yamaha 

Tannin

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!