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Yamaha LL16D ARE Original Jumbo Acoustic-electric Guitar - Natural

Acoustic-electric Guitar with Solid Engelmann Spruce Top, Solid Rosewood Back and Sides, and Ebony Fingerboard - Natural
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Item ID: LL16RDHC
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Yamaha LL16D ARE Original Jumbo Acoustic-electric Guitar - Natural
Price:$1,249 and 99 cents
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Yamaha LL16D ARE Original Jumbo Acoustic-electric Guitar - Natural
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Price:$1,249 and 99 cents
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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

Why Buy Your Guitar from Sweetwater?

See how Sweetwater goes to great lengths to give you the very best online guitar buying experience. From our online Guitar Gallery that allows you to see and select the exact instrument you want to our 55-point Inspection process and our in-house guitar techs, we take the guesswork out of buying your next guitar online.

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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 Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze Light, .012-.053
  • Case/Gig Bag: Hardshell Case
  • Manufacturer Part Number: LL16RDHC

What Makes Our Sales Engineers Great?

Sweetwater Sales Engineers are a world-class team of experts dedicated to you. Hand selected from across the globe, each brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the world of music gear to provide you with unparalleled service completely free of charge. Friendly relationships, real trust, and the right gear are only a call or a click away!

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Reviews

Great Guitar, Great Value
I bought this guitar for three reasons. 1. I've heard the twelve-string version and we used it in a recording session. What a great sound! 2. I wanted a guitar with a passive pickup and there are very few of them. I have the FGX5 Japanese-made Yamaha and it is fantastic!

I am a singer-songwriter and I have been playing guitar for over five decades. I have recently been recording every song I've written from 1980 to the present. This guitar is now included with those recordings and I am thrilled with the results.

I added a review I uploaded to YouTube.
Music background: singer-songwriter, Member of ASCAP
Joe was the perfect sales Engineer!
I've been in sales my entire life! Joe let me look around the store without bothering me in my goal of finding my perfect guitar in my price range. The last thing any customer wants is to be followed and told what they need to buy! Joe was there when I needed him and was not when I didn't. A trait of all great salespeople. I reduced my choice to three different guitars. Joe basically shared his knowledge and I purchased the Yamaha LL 16. It was the richest sounding guitar for the money. Thanks Joe! And thanks Sweetwater for this wonderful experience.
Music background: 62 years of playing!
Yamaha LL16D
I've had Gibson, Gretsch, taylor, fender, some inexpensive and some not, but I always liked Yamaha. I've owned a few over the years and consider them as undervalued. The quality of build and the woods used are excellent. This guitar has great volume and beautiful playability. The case is also surprisingly good and holds the guitar snug. If the guitar had any other name on it, it would sell for much more. I am very pleased with it and feel it could be used at home or played on stage with no problems.
Music background: Upper Intermediate level
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 .
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