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Yamaha A3M ARE Dreadnought Cutaway Acoustic-electric Guitar - Vintage Natural

6-string Acoustic-electric Guitar with Spruce Top, Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, and Ebony Fingerboard - Vintage Natural
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Yamaha A3M ARE Dreadnought Cutaway Acoustic-electric Guitar - Vintage Natural
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Solid-top Acoustic-electric with Vintage Vibe and a Big Voice

In the A3M acoustic-electric guitar, Yamaha offers a vintage look with enhanced volume in the low-mid ranges, due to new scalloped bracing for the top and shorter bracing on the dreadnought's back. With a solid Sitka spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides, the guitar sounds fantastic. It also benefits from Yamaha's A.R.E. wood torrefaction, a high-heat treatment that imbues the guitar top with greater stability and an aged, vintage hue. The A3M takes full advantage of Yamaha's unobtrusive and versatile SRT2 pickup system for recording and stage performance. You get volume, treble, and bass controls (with auto feedback reduction), and blend control allows you to balance between the piezo and SRT2 preamp, for your own distinctive tone.

Modern audio engineering with vintage style

While the Yamaha A3M has a traditional western body cutaway, its lows and highs resonate even more fully than those generated by conventional designs, thanks to new scalloped top bracing and shorter back board bracing. These modifications allow the top and back to resonate more naturally and with greater volume in the low-mid ranges. The western cutaway gives it a classic look, but an all-new brace design definitely brings the A3M into the twenty-first century — and the Sweetwater showroom!

Quality wood plus innovation equals brilliant sound

Sitka spruce is highly valued for guitar tops — and for good reason. This select grade of stiff but elastic softwood is gorgeous and is equally suited to aggressive strumming, flatpicking, and even fingerpicking styles of play. The A3M features a solid Sitka top treated at high heat to remove moisture and volatiles (the A.R.E. process), resulting in greater stability and beautiful aged color. Its solid mahogany back and sides also produce warm, balanced tones from low to high. This guitar looks, plays, and sounds great.

Studio sound onstage

Normally you can best hear a guitar's subtle nuances in the studio while miked, but the A3M has Yamaha's SRT2 pickup system, which brings those wonderful acoustic sounds to the stage. With blend control, you can balance the output from the under-bridge piezo pickup with the modeling of either a Neumann KM 56 small-diaphragm condenser mic or a Royer R-122 active ribbon mic, creating your own unique tone with natural clarity.

Yamaha A3M Features:

  • 6-string acoustic-electric with traditional western cutaway
  • Solid Sitka spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides for bright, warm tone
  • A.R.E. wood torrefaction provides greater stability and attractive aged color
  • SRT2 system allows you to blend between piezo and SRT2 preamp signals for a personalized sound

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Tech Specs

  • String Type: Steel
  • Number of Strings: 6
  • Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
  • Body Shape: Dreadnought
  • Back & Sides Wood: Solid Mahogany
  • Top Wood: Solid Sitka Spruce
  • Finish: A.R.E. treated top
  • Color: Vintage Natural
  • Body Bracing: Scalloped bracing
  • Binding: Mahogany
  • Neck Wood: 3-piece Mahogany
  • Fingerboard Material: Ebony
  • Fingerboard Inlay: Dots
  • Number of Frets: 20
  • Scale Length: 25.5"
  • Nut Width: 1.692"
  • Bridge Material: Ebony
  • Tuning Machines: Die-cast chrome
  • Electronics: SRT2 preamp with saddle pickup
  • Case/Gig Bag: Softshell Case
  • Manufacturer Part Number: A3M VN

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 4.5/5

Better than the Affordable G writer Gibson or Martin Road series

I Tried a lot of em out in this price range.
The Gibson G Writer wasn't terrible, the Martin Road series wasn't bad either.
This A3 and the A1 sounded and played much better than both.
The smooth fretboard and sustain is very nice.
The electronics are impressive and better as well....plugged in it sounds like the actual acoustic guitar.
The soft case is ok but an upgrade to a better soft or hard case may be needed.

A few cons are the Plastic bridge pins, saddle, and nut...but they can be fixed.
The elixir strings it came with are not my preferred strings...to bright/treble jingle jangly.

Been playin it for two weeks now and i'm happy with this purchase.
Rated 5/5

Beautiful guitar!

This is a beautiful guitar in both tone and build. A real bargain for $. Solid wood spruce top with solid mahogany back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge, plus lots of electronics for acoustic amplification. The action was too high for me out of the box since I am restarting my guitar playing after many years. So I took it to my local luthier. He adjusted the action easily, and thought it was too nice a guitar to not have its own hard case. So I might spring for an inexpensive hard-shell case.
This was my first experience with Sweetwater. My "sales engineer" Joel was outstanding and very attentive to my needs. Looking forward to working with Joel and Sweetwater again for my electronics needs in the future. But first I have some work and play to do on my new Yamaha A3M!
Music background: longtime dobro player, beginner guitarist
Rated 5/5

My First Solid Wood Acoustic Guitar

I relied on Yamaha to give me what I needed, they did. I usually find finer instruments to be an acquired taste. Continue to bond with my mahogany and Sitka. No worries with Yamaha's craftsmanship. Thanks Sweetwater!
Music background: Garage bands
Rated 5/5

Stunner

I've had the instrument for three weeks now and I have (what I believe is) a good idea of what we have here.

This guitar is absolutely amazing. Especially (but not exclusively) considering it's price. For $900 you get all solid back and sides with REAL ebony (not plastic pretend wood) for your fretboard and bridge and a beautiful piece of Sitka for a top. Mine was particularly well silked! As a woodworker myself I know good wood when I see it. This is nice stuff. Lovely shimmering mahogany, nicely chosen tight grained jet black ebony. Sitka with great medullary rays indicating it was perfectly quarter sawn. The raw mahogany binding is really nice and the inlay around the tone hole is really nicely done too...I actually prefer this look to a more overstated abalone. Its wood embellished with wood. Classy.

It sounds stunning. Rich, deep with great depth and projection which after three weeks is still just beginning to improve and will continue to do so for years. My first impression was "She has a beautiful voice" I still shake my head at the sounds this guitar is producing nightly for me.

Then you plug the thing in...Holy cow. It sounds killer plugged in. I cant believe how faithfully the tone is reproduced, you "hear the wood" as they say. Every nuance comes through your amp. The tone controls are nicely placed, not obtrusive and the battery pack popping out the "Bum" is clever..

The neck is fantastic, its matte finished and so very smooth all the way. That straight profile makes upper fretwork as easy as the first five frets. Wow. I would describe it as a chunky Flat C shape. The rolled fingerboard edges make it so comfortable to play and the fretboard is actually bound here its just bound in black rather then white.

Fit and finish are first rate, I even got the mirror out and looked up at the top bracing (where lesser manufacturers skimp) and its beautiful. No stains, no sloppy glue work, just perfect. Its immaculate up there.

I would NOT trade this guitar for a D-18. I've played D-18's that didnt sound this good.

I might trade it for a D-35 but I'd steel it back from you.

If your on the fence here, act you wont regret it.
Music background: longtime musician
Rated 5/5

This guitar should cost three times what it does!!

I have no idea why the A series of Yamaha does not feature more prominently in the catalogs of Sweetwater.

I own an A5CR as well as this A3M-which I recently purchased for playing out. I tend to keep guitars that cost over $1K at home when playing for scale at bars, restaurants, and jams. Thus the impetus for the purchase.

The guitar sounds on par with my far-more expensive Martin's and Taylor's- and has electronics that absolutely crush! Especially, if you happen to use an L-1 type system!! If you play with a larger PA, it comes with a rubber plug for the sound hole, and the SRT2 system has a feedback-buster feature!

The action is similar to a Taylor, but the neck is somewhere around a mid 70's Martin D-28. Not nearly as loggy as the Yamaha FG series, but still a bit thick by modern standards.

The sound is incredible!! The torrified top and scalloped bracing make it miles above any guitar in this price-range!!!
Put an X/Y pair of small caps on fret 12 and you will hardly use any EQ to make it sit nicely in a mix. Or, you can do that and use the SRT2 system to add a direct sound using a couple of killer Mic models when recording.

It comes with a Hard-Soft case. Which, I have to say-is really clever. It's basically a really nice gig-bag with some ABS(plastic) reinforcement on the sides and top. Perfect if you're just hauling it and a small PA and not flying. I would buy this case over and again, if they were sold separately!

I own a lot of really expensive acoustics. This is not expensive by those standards, but is definitely in that class. It's the perfect guitar for gigging with! You don't need to worry about it, but is sounds and looks killer!!!! Again, the electronics CRUSH!!

If you can get over the fact that these are made overseas- there's no reason not to be an owner of one!!

As always, the standard set-up was great and "Dan the Man" did his usual awesome customer service on the deal!

Get one before they get more expensive!
Music background: Professional Engineer, Teacher, Semi-Pro Performer/Producer, and multi-instrumentalist
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