HNAGD - Yamaha LL6RM

Voxman

Following recommendations from the good folk here after my 'hankering' post on 1st November (https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/216520/now-sorted-have-a-hankering-for-a-good-budget-acoustic-suggestions/p1 ,

and after listening to vids (inc one of the seller playing the actual guitar on youtube) and reading reviews, I went for this lovely 2020/2021 example on EBay that arrived safely today, very well bubble wrapped in a box.  Bought from a very nice guy called Neil with great comms.  All as described, A1 condition with brand new strings, film still on the scratch plate, and a brand new hard case. 

Visually the guitar looks like it's brand new with very nice gold machine heads that hold tune well - in fact it was perfectly in tune straight out of the case.  The LL6 has attractive fret inlays and bindings and the guitar looks great. Action is very good (for an acoustic) and the guitar plays beautifully throughout the neck with no buzzing. Strings are 12's but they actually feel OK as compared to the Martin lights (10-47 PB) that I have on my Washburn EA30 Festival, and Yamaha FG140 (that my duaghter has).

My fingers (especially my right picking fingers) need to toughen up so I mustn't overdo it or I'll get blisters straight off.  But the neck is very comfortable to play and actually quite a bit slimmer than I was expecting. Acoustically, it sounds lovely - very musical with a full resonant sound that delivers a good balance between top and bottom end.  It's described as having A.R.E (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement) that is supposed to make the spruce top resonate more like an aged guitar.  i'm not sure how much impact this has, but it certainly sounds good to my ears and even my wife thought it sounded very nice.  

Obviously at this price point I appreciate it's not quite up there in Martin or Taylor territory but as I'm mainly an electric player this will more than scratch my hankering for a nice acoustic guitar to play and get back into acoustic finger picking.  The hard case is excellent too, light but strong with 6 'pull-over' catches, & it's even still got the £69 price label on it!  Only thing is that there didn't seem to be a key inside - but kind of a moot point as I don't think I've ever locked any of my guitar cases anyway!  

So, first impressions are that this is a very fine guitar that totally lives up to its very good press and reviews.  Currently I've seen that GuitarGuitar, PMT and Yamaha Music are selling these for £559 with a hard bag (not hard case). So having picked up this LL6 with a brand new £69 hard case for £329 (plus £25 insured courier) I think this was a pretty darned good buy and I knew if I didn't immediately hit the 'buy it now' button, I'd have kicked myself!  In fact, I think this has been the fastest decision & online purchase I've ever made and the speed of delivery from Neil was just exceptional (if you're looking in Neil, thank you again!).

My 'Hankering' post of just a few days back already had the EBay pics, but here's a couple of it including the case, in it's new home!

Mellish

Glad to learn you're sorted. Hope you have many happy hours of strumming/picking ahead  

breezytele

Enjoy your new baby

Whitecat

Good shout. Can’t see the pics on mobile but could just be the forum. Congrats!!

Mellish

@Whitecat I can see the pics and I'm viewing on mobile. It might depend on your email mate  

Whitecat

What would my email have to do with it?

Mellish

Some emails (Hotmail being one) can create issues  

DavidR

musicnoteslib.com a great source of free scores for acoustic. Choose the guitar pro scores and download and print the pdf's.

Have fun with LL6. Looks like beautiful guitar so good you like tone. Monels always worth a try on mid-range Yamahas. Try Martin MM12's.

  

Mellish

Try a set of Martin 140T too. They're my strings of choice. They're 80/20. I'd try a Phosphor Bronze set too to see which worked best. Have fun!  

Keefy

Can't see pics on my iMac running Chrome browser.

How is the neck width? IME Yamahas are always really well built but the necks on their acoustics are usually too narrow for hideous spatulate fingers!

Voxman

Keefy said:

Can't see pics on my iMac running Chrome browser.

How is the neck width? IME Yamahas are always really well built but the necks on their acoustics are usually too narrow for hideous spatulate fingers!

The necks very comfortable for me.  The strings on it are 12's that are a bit too heavy for me but I'll keep them on for now to toughen up my fingers a bit and I'll see how it goes but on acoustics I've previously used Martin lights 80/20 bronze.