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Yamaha AC5M ARE Concert Cutaway Acoustic-electric Guitar - Vintage Natural

6-string Acoustic-electric Guitar with Solid Sitka Spruce Top, Solid Mahogany Back and Sides, Mahogany Neck, and Ebony Fingerboard - Vintage Natural
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Yamaha AC5M ARE Concert Cutaway Acoustic-electric Guitar - Vintage Natural
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Solid-top Japanese Acoustic-electric with Vintage Vibe and a Big Voice

Handmade in Japan with select tonewoods and premium build quality, Yamaha's AC5M Concert acoustic-electric guitar 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 guitar's back. With a solid Sitka spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides, this concert-sized guitar sounds fantastic. It also benefits from Yamaha's A.R.E. wood torrefaction, a high-heat treatment that gives the guitar top greater stability and an aged, vintage hue. The Yamaha AC5M 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 AC5M 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 Yamaha AC5M into the twenty-first century — and the Sweetwater showroom!

Quality woods plus innovation equal brilliant sound

Sitka spruce is highly valued for guitar tops — and for good reason. This select grade of stiff but elastic softwood is equally suited to aggressive strumming, flatpicking, and even fingerpicking styles of play. The Yamaha AC5M features a solid Sitka top that is treated at high heat to remove moisture and volatiles, resulting in greater stability and beautiful aged color. The Yamaha AC5M's solid mahogany back and sides also produce warm, balanced tones from low to high. With its traditional western cutaway and ebony fingerboard and bridge, the Yamaha AC5M is a guitar that looks, plays, and sounds great.

Studio sound onstage

Normally you can best hear a guitar's subtle nuances in the studio while it's miked, but the Yamaha AC5M 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 AC5M Features:

  • 6-string concert-sized acoustic-electric with traditional western cutaway in vintage natural finish
  • 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
  • Handmade in Japan with unparalleled built quality and attention to detail

Why Buy Your Guitar from Sweetwater?

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Tech Specs

  • String Type: Steel
  • Number of Strings: 6
  • Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
  • Body Shape: Concert Cutaway
  • Back & Sides Wood: Solid Mahogany
  • Top Wood: Solid Sitka Spruce with A.R.E. treatment
  • Finish: Gloss
  • Color: Vintage Natural
  • Body Bracing: Scalloped Bracing
  • Binding: Mahogany
  • Neck Wood: African Mahogany
  • Neck Shape: Straight Taper
  • Radius: 15.75"
  • Fingerboard Material: Ebony, rolled edges
  • Fingerboard Inlay: Snowflakes
  • Number of Frets: 20
  • Scale Length: 25.56"
  • Nut Width: 1.6875"
  • Nut/Saddle Material: Tusq/Tusq
  • Bridge Material: Ebony
  • Tuning Machines: Gotoh chrome open gear
  • Electronics: System 71 SRT2 preamp with SRT piezo pickup
  • Strings: Elixir NANOWEB 80/20 Bronze Light
  • Case Included: Hardshell case
  • Manufacturer Part Number: AC5M VN

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

High Quality at a Great Price

This guitar accumulates all the things I wanted in a guitar and then some...
It combines top quality materials with AAAA engineering....
Sound quality is extremely satisfing...the feel of the neck and body is perfect..
The warmth of tones coming from the top are pure magic....
The electronics are wonderful.....binding, finish, ebony parts, rolled finger board..
All are superb.....and it comes with a made for it hardshell case....
I couod have Martins or Taylors and I chose this one...Not because Im saving a third
In price but because it simply is just as good or better than those guitars that are over priced..
You will not be disappointed in anyway if you purchase this guitar....
Sweetwater and their guarantees completes the deal......
Contact Jeffery Green or any other Sweetwater sales engineer for more information.....
Music background: Lifelong student
Rated 5/5

On all aspects 10 out of 10

The sound Quality is a 10
The Craft quality is a 10
The pricing is also a 10
But foremost the customer service is an 11
Sweetwater is hands down the best ......
Music background: Performet
Rated 4/5

Japanese craftsmanship

I have a lot of faith in Yamaha, especially their Japan-built instruments. I have a BBP34 bass that's amazingly well built.
This acoustic is no different. The finish is beautiful and flawless and every part of the guitar is well built and it sounds great. The sound is full and complex and plenty loud.
My one frustration is the same one I've had with almost every acoustic I've ever bought new. The action and playability out of the box is not good. The nut action is too high, and the saddle is way too high. I'm sure there's a reason, but I've bought Taylor, Martin, and Yamaha, all in the $12-1600 range, and all of them required nut and saddle work. I don't mind all that much, because I've been working on guitars for a couple decades and can do those things myself. Most people, however, cannot, and would have to take it to a tech, who are sometimes scarce, and it's an extra cost.
This one, with proper relief, measured 3mm at the 12th fret, which makes bar chords difficult. The action at the first fret was over 1mm, and should be about half that for comfortable play. Seeing their quality control and precise build quality, I know they could properly cut nuts and saddles at the factory but for some reason do not. I'm not sure why.
Anyway, with some patient work, this guitar is now something very nice. The materials, finish, aesthetics, and sound are easily worth the cost. The electronics are versatile and sound great. The neck and ebony board feel fantastic and the fretwork needs nothing. Overall the sound is balanced and even though it's new and will break in more over time, it's already responsive and dynamic. The ARE treatment to the top seems to be legit, the color is drop dead classy and it doesn't have that stiff new guitar sound. I'm sure over the years it will open up even more but I wish they'd just make the playability out of the box better. If it didn't need the extra work, 10 out of 10.
Music background: Weekender and bar gigger
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