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Yamaha LL16D ARE Original Jumbo - Black

Acoustic-electric Guitar with Solid Engelmann Spruce Top, Solid Rosewood Back and Sides, and Ebony Fingerboard - Black
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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, headstock, 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: Black
  • Binding: Abalone/Maple/Black
  • Neck Wood: 5-ply mahogany/rosewood
  • Radius: 15.75"
  • Fingerboard Material: Ebony
  • Fingerboard Inlay: Dots
  • 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: LL16DRBLHC

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

Better than I thought

What a great instrument. Set up from the factory was awesome. So easy to play. Was boxed well for shipping.
Music background: Self taught.... been playing for 4 years
Rated 5/5

Amazing Instrument

I ordered the Yamaha LL16D ARE guitar from Sweetwater, and had their luthiers install a black Tusq nut. Then I installed a black Tusq bridge saddle. The guitar sounds amazing! It has great tonal qualities and sustain. The neck is a great size and shape, for comfort, and applying force for those difficult fingerings on the fretboard. The passive electric pick-up, sounds close to true, and I love not having to worry about 9-volt batteries. This is one of my favorite acoustic guitars!

Kudos to Adam Chesi, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, extraordinaire.
Rated 5/5

LL16D ARE

I received this gem on Saturday 10-2. As usual the team a SWEETWATER was professional. From Bart in sales to Christopher who did the initial inspection and check, to Don P. who did the custom set up. This is without a doubt the best playing and sounding guitar i own. I have yet to plug it in but I'm sure it will sound great.thanks again to the Sweetwater crew.
Rated 5/5

Great for gigs and home play

This is the first guitar I've purchased without playing first. It doesn't disappoint. The sound is awesome. I have a Taylor (414ce) that I play at home and I can pick either the Taylor or the Yamaha and I'm equally satisfied with the sound and playability; they're different...but I'm still just as satisfied. I also do some gigs and this guitar really shines at gigs. The look is spectacular and the audience can see the reflective top from the back of the room. Not having to mess with a battery is awesome too!
Rated 5/5

Some like it loud

I raced to SW a couple years ago when the LL16 B first became available. My initial thought was to obtain a black all solid wood acoustic guitar. Not easy to find for under a thousand dollars. I have a lot of acoustics all are solid wood with many different wood combinations. My LL 16 does not take a backseat to any of them in terms of volume. It is one of the loudest acoustics I have ever played. Probably due to the aging qualities that the A.R.E. provides. You can put .011 or .010 strings on it and it will likely have plenty of volume for you. In that vein the passive pick up can be set up to sound very good. A little experimenting and you should be fine. The five ply neck is a bit baseball batish but it stays put. You would do well to play one somewhere before buying. The overall sound is exactly what you would expect from a 16" boot acoustic with East Indian Rosewood and Englemann spruce. One final note; make sure you get the arched hardshell case as pictured on Yamaha's web site (Sweetwater also pictured it at the time I bought mine). It is a much better case than the one that they sent me. Sweetwater gave me the upgrade at no extra cost but I had to ask.
Music background: Singer guitar player
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