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Yamaha LL16D ARE Original Jumbo - Natural

Acoustic-electric Guitar with Solid Engelmann Spruce Top, Solid Rosewood Back and Sides, and Ebony Fingerboard - Natural
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Yamaha LL16D ARE Original Jumbo - Natural
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A Premium Acoustic-electric Guitar From Yamaha

Yamaha's LL16D acoustic-electric guitar brings premium materials and craftsmanship together with intricate abalone inlays for a great-sounding and eye-catching guitar. Continuing in the legacy of Yamaha's L Series, the LL16D sports a hand-selected, solid Engelmann spruce top and solid rosewood back and sides for a rich, warm sound. An ultra-stable 5-ply mahogany/rosewood neck and ebony fretboard are smooth and sleek. The slimmer neck shape and an enhanced fingerboard edge gives the LL16D a feel and playability you'll love. A passive SRT Zero Impact Pickup uses six separate elements to detect each string and give you authentic plugged-in tones. The Yamaha LL16D gives amazing playability and killer tone in a premium acoustic-electric guitar.

Innovative construction to build a better guitar

The great tone and smooth playability of the LL16D are due to Yamaha's never-ending search for perfection. The recently developed A.R.E. (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement) process gives your guitar a broken-in and aged tone. By controlling the atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity, the molecular properties of the wood are manipulated to mirror those of a guitar that has been played for years. Each L Series guitar also sports a modified non-scalloped bracing that enhances the guitars low end. And the 5-ply mahogany/rosewood neck, after re-evaluation of string height and spacing, has a new design for improved playability. The Yamaha LL16D utilizes newly developed advances in guitar construction to bring you an amazingly playable and great-sounding instrument.

Hand-selected Spruce top for great tone

Sweetwater knows that the choice of top wood can have a strong effect the sound of an acoustic guitar. For the LL16D, Yamaha chose a premium, hand-selected solid Engelmann spruce top. Chosen as much for its look as its tone, solid spruce has a well-rounded, articulate sound with excellent projection. Its rosewood back and sides provide exceptional bass and powerful projection. And because it's a solid-wood top, the tone will age gracefully, with enhanced harmonics and greater tonal balance as the years go by.

A full-range passive pickup system

The passive SRT Zero Impact Pickup was designed by Yamaha to deliver a faithful reproduction of the LL16D's natural, dynamic sound. It was also designed to minimize the impact on the guitars looks and tone. The passive design doesn't use a bulky preamp that's routed into the body to hamper the instrument's look or resonance. Each string has its own piezoelectric element for a full-sounding and accurate sound. Because this is a passive pickup system, you'll need to use an external preamp when you want to plug in the Yamaha LL16D.

Yamaha LL16D Acoustic-electric Guitar Features:

  • Innovative guitar design gives you an amazing-playing and sounding instrument
  • Hand-selected solid Engelmann spruce top with and solid rosewood back and sides provide rich tone and projection
  • Intricate abalone inlay on the body and rosette
  • A.R.E. process molecularly "ages" the wood to match guitars that have been played for years
  • 5-ply mahogany/rosewood neck has been redesigned for today's guitar player
  • Updated non-scalloped bracing pattern delivers a fuller low-end
  • Passive SRT Zero Impact pickup uses individual piezo elements for each string
  • Hardshell case included

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Tech Specs

  • String Type: Steel
  • Number of Strings: 6
  • Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
  • Body Shape: Jumbo
  • Body Style: No Cutaway
  • Back & Sides Wood: Solid Rosewood
  • Top Wood: Solid Engelmann Spruce
  • Finish: Gloss
  • Color: Natural
  • Binding: Abalone/Maple/Black
  • Neck Wood: 5-Piece Mahogany/Rosewood
  • Radius: 15.75"
  • Fingerboard Material: Ebony
  • Fingerboard Inlay: Abalone Snowflakes
  • Number of Frets: 20
  • Scale Length: 25.5"
  • Nut Width: 1.75"
  • Nut/Saddle Material: Urea/Urea
  • Bridge Material: Ebony
  • Tuning Machines: Die-cast Gold
  • Electronics: Passive SRT Zero Impact pickup
  • Strings: Elixir, .012-.052
  • Case Included: Hardshell Case
  • Manufacturer Part Number: LL16RDHC

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

30 days later .

Having this guitar no 30 days I can tell you it improves after you have it for a while. a person can ask the question after the woods on this guitar have already been treated will their sound improve ? in my case yes ! one of the questions I had was - why buy the $ model instead of the $ one . all I can say is the tone is warm and truly sounds like real acoustic guitar .
Rated 5/5

Small Upgrades for Great Sound

I got mine with Tusq upgrades done. Better, but not ideal.

Just got bone nut and saddle installed and had previously added buffalo horn pins.

Now this guitar rings for days and has so much depth. The upgrades bring you into LL26 territory.

The workmanship is superb. No worries with the Chinese-Japanese partnership. The workmanship exceeds many vaunted US manufacturers. I did switch to Martin Tommy Emmanuel strings and the voice, the loudness and tone are all much improved over the stock 80/20s.

This is my only rosewood guitar and I have no need of another.
Music background: LR player
Rated 4.5/5

Shockingly good.

I had been on the hunt for another acoustic guitar. I had a number of pretty high-end acoustics in mind and perhaps I'll still get around grabbing one. Specifically I was looking at a Martin D41 in the guild 55 handful of others in that range. I've also always been intrigued by these LL guitars from Yamaha, I have a soft spot for Yamahas; in my personal view they make some of the best sounding guitars at any price range and because They primarily market student and starter guitars in the US the brand doesn't have the reputation that it deserves. Jack Wellington my amazing Sweetwater sales rep had been keeping his eyes peeled for any of the aforementioned acoustics. He and I were chatting and he suggested that I give the LL16 a try. I had watched all the YouTube videos I could find and read all the reviews I could find on the guitar and people typically love them with a number of complaints, mostly that they have a plastic nut and saddle, plastic bridge pins, and crappy tuners (knock off grover milk bottles). I expressed these concerns to Jack. Jack suggested that I have Sweetwater change all of those things for me. Where we got to was an LL16D With Graphtec open gear tuners a bone nut and saddle new strings and Ebony/Abalone bridge pins. Obviously it cost a bit more than the guitar alone, but the guys at Sweetwater didn't amazing job. Understanding that all of this is very subjective I will say that the guitar that arrived is the best sounding acoustic guitar I've ever owned and in the top 5 I've played. Before buying this Yamaha my primary acoustic was a 2015 Gibson SJ200 Which candidly I've never been happy with. I understand part of it is that the Gibson has a bit more of a percussive bluesy sound, but it is always felt somewhat dead to me. It's strange but it's one of the least resonant, least musical acoustic guitars I've ever played again at any price and the Yamaha puts it to shame. The LL 16 Looks beautiful plays beautifully, has wonderful sweet tone great volume. It both picks well and strums well, you play an open G and the guitar actually sings. I don't know (because I did not have the opportunity to do an before/ after test) how much the upgraded nut, saddle, pins and tuners contributed to the sound (although it looks way better) But I couldn't be happier. As I said before I may still pick up the Martin or the Guild (if they're ever available) but having played lots of them and lots of other very high-end acoustics this little Yamaha gives them all a run for their money. If you've read this far and the guitar is in stock I highly recommend you give it a try cheers
Music background: Been playing in and out of bands as a devoted amateur for 20+ years.
Rated 4.5/5

Yamaha Ll16D

This guitar is beautiful a real piece of quality craftsmanship, the tone is a little too bright straight out of the case, if you fingerpick it's great, if your a heavy strummer like me, you need to make some changes, like I did with this beauty. It comes with 80/20 Elixer strings which are bright, and plastic bridge pins and plastic nut, plastic saddle, that is my only complaint, they should have used bone when you spend this much money. However I replaced the plastic bridge pins with ebony pins with abalone inlays from Crosby, with a little sanding they fit amazingly well, order the 3 degree taper .210 diameter pins, not only are they attractive but they took some of the brightness away, giving the guitar a fuller richer tone with more sustain. I also put on phosphor bronze Elixer strings, which sound more full and rich than the 80/20 brass Elixers that add too much treble on this guitar. My next project is installing a bone nut and saddle. But I would highly recommend this guitar to anyone. For $, your getting a guitar that if it had a different brand name it would cost in the $3,000 -$4,000 range. This guitar is ready for the stage, plug it in and jam!
Music background: Intermediate
Rated 5/5

You are looking for an amazing guitar without busting your bank just buy this guitar

I am going to be quick on this review. I always rely on Sweetwater to choose between gear I can't try and all it has been said here about this guitar It's just true.
This guitar is so reach, loud but with an incredible dynamic I can't believe my ears.
Never played a guitar like this at this price point.

Don't look at the big names on the headstock just trust your ears.
Music background: I have been playing for more than 30 years
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