I recently purchased the Yamaha LL16D ARE Acoustic-electric guitar- Black. The guitar is absolutely beautiful! More importantly it sounds great! You can strum it hard and it rings out with complex overtone which are deep and rich. Strick it with a gentle touch and it is soft and delicate. I was surprised by the sustain. I had thought about having the bone nut and saddle installed but I find that it doesn't need it.

I played it unplugged in a small church with about 150 people there and it was plenty loud enough to be heard.

I plugged it into my Fender Blues JR. It sounded great!

It plays well, sounds great, and is beautiful to look at.

I highly recommend getting one! and I highly recommend Sweetwater!

This is the second one of these I have. I hit one cord on it and fell in love.. WOW! This thing barked like a dog!! I have a Gibson J-200 and others but this guitar is amazing.. the neck is awesome! It feels so solid and projects.. plays amazing.. I'm just saying you will have to get up in the $ ish range to find a Martin that plays and sounds this good. It's a beautiful guitar..

The one I got for a little local store the pick up was messing up in it and we put a fishman active pick up in it and it sounds awesome.

I love Sweetwater! They always go the extra mile. The shipped it to my very quick as I wanted to play it on a show I had coming up. They put a rush on it!

Patrick Weaver is my sales guy.. but I may have sold him on this particular guitar. Patrick awesome to work with!

Thanks Sweetwater!!!

I couldn't be any happier than I am with this guitar. I tried out many more expensive brands, and they were great. Martins, Taylors, etc. loved them. But they didnt actually sound better than this Yamaha, at least not to me. They dont feel better to play, they didnt look as good either. Also, Michael at Sweetwater was, as always, awesome.

Do yourself a favor and tryout this guitar. I am snobby and elitist when it comes to my things, especially guitars, and I am happy to spend too much money on them, but I am so glad I listened to my gut and went with the guitar that felt best to play and sounded every bit as good or better than the Martins and Taylor's.

I am an older couch player and was a drummer in high school rock bands in the sixties. I play mostly rhythm style with a pick.I also got this after watching the review by the fellow in Canada who raved about it. I worked with Aaron in sales and had them Plek the neck and swap in a bone nut and saddle. The result is an amazing instrument in looks, playing feel and sound and even with the extra money for the neck and bone swap this guitar is still a great bargain.

Absolutely fantastic guitar for this price. Looks Beautiful,sounds great. So glad I didn't spend $ on a Martin. Now I can afford coffee.

This guitar is well built. It sounds very good and has incredible sustain. Each note is heard clearly whether playing full chords or soloing.

This guitar is amazing. I compared it to the D-28 and this is the clear winner. This was the best decision ever. I highly recommend this guitar.

I just received my Yamaha LL16D guitar and I couldn't be happier. Purchasing it was a breeze with the help of Carson Peach who made the process smooth and fast. I've found Sweetwater's customer support to be incredible. In fact, I had a minor problem with an order a couple years ago - and I stress minor and of absolutely no fault of Sweetwater. I let Sweetwater know about the problem not expecting anything to be done but they went way out of their way to not only make things right but they made it far more than right. They went so far that I almost felt guilty as if I was taking advantage of them. I won't mention what the problem was because someone might use that information to read take advantage of Sweetwater.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the guitar. I only have one other six string acoustic guitar, an Eastman E20D, which is a very good guitar comparing well (some even say better) than a Martin D28. It is known for how loud it is and its overall quality. Comparing the two, the Yamaha is actually louder. It vibrates through the back and into my body which is very satisfying. Bass is very rich and deep and highs sparkle. The setup is fine with no buzzing on any frets. It just plain sounds great. In fact, I bought it because of very positive reviews on YouTube and it's living up to those reviews. I also chose it in black based on claims made by one YouTube reviewer who says that he's had several Yamaha LL16D guitars and, for some reason that he can't explain, the black ones simply sound better due to some differences in the finish. I don't know if that's true but he was convincing enough that I ordered guitar in black. I will miss seeing the beautiful rosewood sides and back and the Engelmann spruce top but the guitar is beautiful in black too. Very Classy looking. Build quality is exceptional with no hint of a flaw. The neck feels great. The enclosed gold tuners, although not branded, are smooth, tight and adjustable.

I'm not a guitar collector. I only have four guitars including the Yamaha. I bought the Yamaha because I often like to play in various alternate tunings and I find it frustrating to have to be re-tuning all the time. Sometimes I gave up on a song because I got tired of having to tune back and forth between an alternate tuning and standard tuning.

The only negatives are that the guitar has a plastic nut and plastic bridge. I'm going to have my luthier replace them. But the guitar sounds great as is.

I highly recommend the Yamaha LL16D and Sweetwater. And I want to thank Carson Peach for his great customer service.

What a great instrument. Set up from the factory was awesome. So easy to play. Was boxed well for shipping.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Ive played a few martins a few taylors, my first guitar was a 300 dollar yamaha that i got as a gift, I live in queens and had 3 guitars a ltd ex 50, a jackson professional RR japan import from the 90s that was my bread and butter and a alvarez black acoustic, all of them got destroyed when my basement got flooded by hurricane sandy, since then I dint own a guitar because I was devastated, I got this one as a gift to myself because I have been wanting one for a very long time, right out of the case it was amazing the way it sounds and plays just feels right, I will take care of this one for as long as I live and hopefully pass it down. To sum it up its simply an amazing instrument and worth every penny, very enjoyable as I train myself to play again.

I"m 55 years old, played in s band for 20 years, and have owned so many guitars it"s a little embarrassing. I"ve owned several Martins (still have 3) and Gibson"s (Hummingbird, Stage Deluxe Rosewood, Keb Mo Bluesmaster). I was in my local store playing a D18 I had been lusting after when I picked up this Yamaha LL16D. After strumming a few chords, it was game over. I put that D18 back on the wall and bought the Yamaha. I sold my Gibsons and have bought a few more Yamahas since. If you want to "up your game", stop paying ridiculous prices for those headstock decals and try a Yamaha. Don"t believe me? I don"t care. I"ve seen the light and that"s all that matters.

I have a line 6 G10 guitar wireless pick which now plug in to my fender accoustasonic 150. Does this yamaha LL16 works with it? Im planning to buy since i really impressed with this stuff. Thanks