Tag: yamaha

Yamaha APX500 II for your acoustic rhythm sound

this Yamaha APX500 II is quite famous and i like it. i tried this guitar last night on stage performance and i think I’ll put this guitar to my recommended-gear list. when you’re on low-to-mid budget, this guitar may could be on your top list.

the APX500II model

check out these pics i organized for this post, we can see that it has a nice modern look and finish. you might want to perform some acoustic style and you don’t wanna look too old with classic guitar, then this Yamaha APX500 II is going to be the guitar you are looking for.

yamaha apx500ii guitar
Yamaha APX500 II acoustic guitar steel strings

take a look to this black color one. we can take this onstage and perform it live and on standing position. its cutaway made us possible to reach high notes easily. last night’s performance was great, i was being able to perform well.

 

how does Yamaha APX500 II sound?

my last night performance was using a Roland JC 120 as monitor and the stage output was through behringer g100 DI box. it sounded beyond average but actually what i want is to have one direct mic output and i didn’t get it last night. the JC 120 wasn’t able to get the rich acoustic tone but it caught the notes clearly and the DI box delivered the tone successfully to outputs. i guess the Yamaha’s system 65 onboard preamp will work nicely through PA speakers. what i suggest you, (which i haven’t done it yet 😀 ) is, try to get the direct mic output for this guitar. this Yamaha APX 500II has a wide treble sound and tone clarity and we will get this sound by using direct mic output, while you can solve the lack of bass tone by equalize it through the on board preamp output. actually the preamp works fine and the other parts is nicely crafted.

apx500ii guitar section
Yamaha APX500 II acoustic guitar anatomy

here you can take a closer look to its head-stocks, on-board preamp (powered by 9volts battery), the oval hole and its saddle bridge. i made brief video shootout so you can make a comparison >> yamaha APX500II

overall this guitar will meet your standard. it is highly recommended for singers who want to perform their vocal style with playing acoustic guitar on stage. this guitar will enrich your band performance while you don’t have to worry about your band’s mate tone get ruined by additional acoustic rhythm sound. I can assure you that Yamaha APX500 II guitar sounds pretty good on stage.

if you are a solo performer, this guitar is one of good options. its playability makes possible to play speed guitar-solo, while for me, i love to strum it hard, playing some rhythm and riffs. ( it was difficult to play some solo /speed-picking with this guitar when you play it in standing position, need more practice i guess 🙂 ). see you next post..

my nylon string acoustic guitar, yamaha CX-40

what can make you relax sittin’ on your back while you were singing your favorite songs? it’s an acoustic guitar. yes, indeed. the clear sound defines relaxation and joy. for me, the nylon string acoustic guitar is the best friend in your private time.
what i have in my room? it’s  Yamaha C40 Full Size Nylon-String Classical Guitar. hmmmm,… it’s YAMAHA CX-40 actually, I’ve got it from local store. nice stuff with simple sound enhancement, a Yamaha pickup installed will give the extra value. whether you want to plug it in and record some tones, or you want to enjoy your private moments, this is the best i can get with reasonable and affordable price.” yes i recommend some of my stuff i have, this blog is a kind of voluntarily reviews about stuff those help me to accomplish my guitar playing style. i try to value them objectively, but i guess you will find out that this blog is my whole ideas of my own opinions. it is about guitar, after all 🙂 a musical instrument that owned by heart and played by the deepest feeling.. be cool”

so what is my dislike about this nylon guitar? there’s almost no complain about the crafting and its manufacturing, it is fine by me. it feels good on my hands.

nylon string acoustic guitar
yamaha CX-40

what i feel annoyed about is, the pickups, it seems Yamaha didn’t take this part seriously. it is noisy, a lot, because from what i felt, the pickups isn’t sensitive enough to get the nylon string tones. it is attached-bridge pickups actually, the advantage of this pickup is, it is not a regular microphone. you won’t get the hum feedback from the body since the sound is directly distributed from strings to guitar bridge.

BUT,.. still it has nice sound comes out from the body. so if you likely want to make a record with this guitar, i suggest you to have two outputs for it. the first output is direct microphone straight pointed at the guitar body, and the second output is from the pickups. that is all i can get, so far, for now. hope you like my stuff here.

ps: i might record my stuff with my webcam and videoblog it, so, this post will be edited in the future for much better information shared.if you don’t like nylon classic guitar you might get interested by yamaha’s steel-strings guitar 500 series