longterm test
A few months’ gigging, recording and everything that goes with it – welcome to Guitarist ’s longterm test report
Yamaha has been quietly innovative in the acoustic guitar market for years. Never a company to make outrageous claims nor shout from the rooftops, they have developed things like the AG-Stomp preamp, the Silent Guitar and the Atmosfeel pickup/preamp system to name but three. I’ve reviewed guitars with the TransAcoustic system onboard before and so I’m aware of what it can do, but this is the first time I’ve encountered it on a nylon-string guitar. If you’re unfamiliar with how it works, basically there’s an actuator installed on the guitar’s inner back that responds to the vibration of the strings, transmitting it into the body of the guitar and out into the air. The result is natural-sounding reverb and chorus from within, all powered by two AA batteries. No need for external effects, it enables the player to essentially travel light and enjoy a produced sound without the hassle of hooking up to an amplifier. Everything is controlled by three subtle rotary controls mounted on the guitar’s upper bout, one controlling the amount of chorus, one the reverb level (Yamaha says that up to 12 o’ clock on the dial you’re getting ‘room’ and from there ‘hall’), and the centre rotary looks after the signal level if you hook up to an amp as well as being the on/off for the TransAcoustic effects.
The CG-TA model is based on Yamaha’s CG162S that streets around the £328 mark, whereas the CG-TA variant will set you back nearly twice that at £619, but the jump in price also accounts for the built-in pickup system as well as all the internal processing gubbins that makes the TransAcoustic magic happen. Basically, you’re getting a nylon-string classical-style guitar with a solid Engelmann spruce top and laminated ovangkol back and sides. In case you’re wondering, ovangkol is a West African distant relative of rosewood, with markings very similar to that of the Indian variety. It’s been widely used by companies such as Taylor and luthiers rejoice in its ease of use. Tonally it shares a lot with rosewood, with a slightly fuller mid-range and a good treble response. Add in a nato neck with a rosewood ’board on the CG-TA and you’ve got the basis for a good little instrument that sits in the budget-butperfectly-acceptable category.
Before I started fiddling with the effects I did a couple of laps with the CG-TA as a pure nylon-string and found it to be surprisingly sprightly for an instrument at this price. It’s slightly heavier than you might expect for a guitar of this size, but obviously there’s quite a lot going on under the hood. A 52mm nut width is pretty much the norm for a classical guitar and so it didn’t come as bewilderingly spacious – in fact, my first guitar was a nylonstring and so it always feels a bit like going home when I pick one up.
Time to switch on the TransAcoustic side of the guitar and this is done by holding down the centre rotary control for several seconds and… what a difference. I’ll say at this point that I find chorus on an acoustic guitar almost completely abhorrent and so, apart from a few exploratory strums, I left that part of the Yamaha trick bag well alone. The reverb, on the other hand, is something altogether different. Sticking with the upper levels of ‘room’ – that would be around 10 to 11 o’ clock on the dial – you’re introduced to such a step up in terms of sound. Suddenly everything I played sounded ambient and somehow ‘produced’. What I was hearing was strangely inspiring and it’s no word of a lie that I didn’t notice the time passing and when I could actually be bothered to look at a clock it was 1.45am and well past my bedtime.
Obviously the CG-TA is an eminently playable instrument and part of this is due to a low action – classical guitars tend to have higher actions than we acoustic players would choose – and absolutely rock-solid tuning. I tuned the guitar when I released it from its case, but I didn’t have to touch the tuners again, even with the marathon playing session that followed.
It would be easy to argue that the TransAcoustic side of the guitar is a mere novelty and one that you would soon tire of after only a short while, but I found it inspiring, the added reverb enhancing everything I played. I already own a decent nylon-string and the only thing that prevents me from sitting on the couch with a halo of reverb around everything I play is the faff of setting up an amp, cables, etc. And so, from a grab-itand-go convenience factor alone, the CG-TA transcends any such frippery and becomes an extremely useful instrument – and composing tool – in its own right. I want one!
“Suddenly everything I played sounded ambient and somehow ‘produced’. What I was hearing was inspiring…”