Yamaha L Series LL16 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar with Case Natural


Description
Body top
Most manufacturers are using Sitka spruce tops for their high end models. In Yamaha's experience, Engelmann spruce (Canada) naturally suits the role for top woods better than any other. The overriding quality for body top material is an allowance for resonance and Engelmann spruce has this attribute in abundance. It is a light wood that is easy to work and enables a good tone response with a wide harmonic range. Visually Engelmann spruce is comfortable on the eye and its opaque light yellow tint is reminiscent of a mature acoustic instrument.
Back & side
Yamaha uses solid rosewood for both the back and sides on all the LL16. The rosewood blends extremely well with the Engelmann spruce top. It disperses resonance evenly and effortlessly.
Neck block
The neck block reinforces the neck joint. Yamaha has improved the conventional C block design by enlarging the surface area that is in contact with the top of the guitar. The block securely meets the underside of the top adding a real depth to the tone of the instrument.
Bracing
X-bracing maps out the vibration patterns of the guitar. Each of the eight braces has been carefully positioned in order to bring out the tone in a balanced fashion and find a natural harmony with the guitar's tone woods.
Multilayered reinforced neck
Traditionally, an acoustic guitar neck is carved from a single timber block. As the grain of the timber has to be angled at about 14 degrees to accommodate the headstock, it leaves itself vulnerable to excessive stress. To alleviate the potential of neck movement over time, Yamaha has introduced multilayered necks.
The LL16 model features a strip of padauk set into the center of the mahogany neck. Padauk has been chosen for its strength and the way it complements mahogany tonally.
Bridge
The unique larger bridge on the LL16 provides a more efficient transfer of the string vibrations to the body of the guitar, giving a tight, clear midrange and a full, balanced tone. Handcrafted with chamfered edges, the bridge design offers a perfect balance of tone, comfort, and style.
Yamaha has over thirty years experience of crafting quality steel string instruments by hand. Today's L series guitars are a testament to the decades of that extensive research and development work.
Yamaha design themes center around the following points:
A balanced tone and response. The ultimate goal. Bass and treble must complement each other, encouraging inspiration from the guitarist rather than compensation.
Dovetail neck joint. Since the '70s, Yamaha has adopted a unique dovetail neck joint. This particular joint gives the guitar the excellent surface to surface (neck to body) contact. In the joint there is nothing but timber. This enables and indeed encourages resonance flow from the neck to the body, aiding the achievement of a balanced tone and response.
Blending of woods. Yamaha's experience of blending quality woods ensures that the highs are really sustained and note texture is under maximum control at all times by the player.
Body Designs. Yamaha's original L series has shoulders that are slightly more slender than a standard dreadnought design and the body has been designed to be subtly wider. This gives the guitar a more definite tone.
Lacquer expertise. Without a doubt, one of Yamaha's most significant strengths. They work very closely with lacquer manufacturers. The focus being less is more. Specially developed finishing materials, unique to Yamaha are used on handcrafted models. Ultimately, this gives the guitar every chance to breathe and tonally shine. A good acoustic guitar must feel alive and not simply just sound good! Includes case.

Features
- Body Wood: Solid Rosewood
- Top: Solid Engelmann Spruce
- Scale Length: 650mm (25-9/16")
- Neck Joint: Dovetail
- Neck Wood: Mahogany/Padauk (3 ply)
- Fretboard: Ebony
- Frets: 20
- Nut Width: 44mm (1-3/4")
- Bridge: Ebony
- Tuners: Die-cast
- Hardware color: Gold
- Finish: Hi-Gloss
- Includes case
Reviews
4.16
186 Reviews
81%
of respondents would recommend this to a friend
Most Liked Positive Review
A very cool guitar, if you're into the 1980's shred thing!
I have been in the market for an 80's style shredder for a few years now. As a big fan of George Lynch, in particular the stuff he did from 1985 to 1990, I've been looking for a used ESP Skulls and Snakes model. That said, they are hard to find on the used market, and they command a premium price. Enter the Friedman Cali model. With its high-output humbuckers, Floyd Rose tremolo, and single volume knob, it's got similar specs as the Skulls and Snakes, and with a much lower point of entry. So, I jumped on it, and I am glad I did. I've spent the last few days getting to know my new Friedman Cali and I can say with confidence this is an excellent guitar for the price. That said, it does have some minor drawbacks that I will gladly look past given how amazing the guitar feels and sounds. My particular guitar was a scratch and dent, which in my case means pre-owned. I say this because when I took delivery of the guitar, I noticed a tremolo stop had been installed, poorly I might add. I confirmed with Friedman they did not install these at the factory; hence my opinion the guitar was previously sold to another customer. In any case, there are no other blemishes or visual imperfections to speak of other than, of course, the factory relic job. After my initial inspection, I put the guitar back in the case to chill out for 24 hours to acclimate to the environment. After that, I remove the old strings, cleaned and polished the frets, lubricated the hardware, applied contact cleaner to the pot and switch, put on fresh strings, and gave it a proper set-up. Some things I noticed during the whole process: the b-string tuner doesn't seem to work as smoothly as the other tuners. These appear to be Hipshot open gear locking tuners, similar to what I have on my Tyler, and I know they usually work very well. Next time I change strings, i will pull the tuner and take it apart for inspection. Another thing I noticed is the screw-in style tremolo bar on the Floyd Rose. This is simply an antiquated design and needs to go the way of the rest of the dinosaurs: extinction. I much prefer the convenience, feel, and adjustability of the drop-in replacement bar, so that is what I installed. Now the tremolo feels expressive and smooth, and the bar drops in quickly. Once I got the Cali set up, I was amazed how comfortable it is to play. Let's first talk materials and craftsmanship. The relic job on the maple neck and fingerboard, combined with the rolled fret edges and slick fret crowning, make this guitar feel like you've been playing it for decades. It's really quite special and something you have to play to understand. because of the compound radius and excellent fretwork, I am able to set the action very low without excessive buzzing. I use 9-gauge strings, and two tremolo springs are sufficient to ensure the tremolo sits parallel to the body while keeping low tension on the strings. Bending is super easy and very smooth, and the tremolo feels so expressive. The guitar just feels slinky and rather addicting to play. On the tone front, it's an absolute monster. The Friedman Classic pickups feature Alnico 5 magnets, which happen to be my favorite for hard rock tones. The bridge pickup sounds thick with gobs of sustain, while the neck pickup is round and fat. Both pickups are articulate and clear, and allow single notes in complex chords to shine through. Rolling back the volume knob will clean up your tone nicely, especially with a good tube amp. These guitars were a collaboration between Dave Friedman and Grover Jackson. Unfortunately, they are no longer working together, and Grover has moved to the Nashville, TN area. I do believe Friedman guitars will be hitting the market again soon, made by someone other than Grover. With that said, the Grover-era are pretty amazing guitars, and may become harder to find. So, if you are in the market for a 1980's super-Strat style shredder, I'd recommend checking out a Grover-era Friedman while you can.
Most Liked Negative Review
Amazing bass with a major flaw
Being mainly a guitarist, this bass is perfectly ideal for what my needs are. A great bass with a great sound/tone for recording, and many option with the knobs to fine tune and tweak that sound to my preference. However, my biggest gripe is that the string action is ridiculously tight for this bass. I like to play with ticker gauge strings, as I typically go for lower tunings, but this bass is (ironically with it being a 5 string) is simply not made for it. The action towards the neck of the fretboard makes thicker strings unplayable. They make contact with the fretboard at around the 2nd-3rd fret, and raising the bridge to compensate isn't enough. To make matters worse, the screws that are used to raise the strings on the bridge are very easily stripped, and I'm struggling to find any sort of replacements for them.
- Practice4
- Recording3
- All around great guitar1
- Metal songs1
- Rock songs1
- None6
- Poor Quality2
- Virtually no low end warmth.1
- Kind of expensive1
- Shipping box arrived damaged1
- Beginner2
- Stray player since 19741
- 74 years old, been playing 60 years.1
- Jazz, rock, classical player for 60 years1
- Metal,hard rock and instrumental rock1
- Sound4
- Attractive3
- Stays in Tune2
- Stays in tune2
- Tone2
Reviewed by 186 customers
Great all around strat
submitted15 days ago
byCass
fromDenver
Price is right
Sounds really good
submitteda month ago
byTrenton
fromGladwin county
This pedal sounds quite good. It is quite customizable. If you do buy this, if you do not have the cord used to power it, there is a battery adapter under the actual pedal part. you just put the black pins on the pedal in and take the pedal off. anyways, really good sound if you want a proper rock or metal distortion/overdrive for an affordable price.
Not too bad for the price
submitteda month ago
byJeff
fromNashville TN
Typical Chinese bling, the sound is lacking.
This drum is just like the vintage ones
submitted2 months ago
byJeff
fromSeattle, WA
Play with freelance jazz and rock standards groups. All kinds of gigs and shows. I want to buy one of the sets.
Love this guitar.
submitted2 months ago
byLarry
fromMinnesota
Love this guitar. Easy/Good tuning, very playable, thin neck is fast.
Its so good it fits my church setting well
submitted2 months ago
byjordan
fromHamilton, new jersey
This product is the best drums i've ever played on because the shells are a nice color and when you tune the drums up, it sounds so good. When you play it in a open space it fills the room and when you play it in an enclosed space it sounds even better. All Im saying is that this is hands down one of the best drum sets.
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