Yamaha found a way to give a perfect reverb in any room — without plugging in

A man playing his Yamaha LS-TA TransAcoustic guitar.
Credit: Yamaha

I’ve always been a fan of Yamaha. I’ve always loved their acoustic guitars.

The first “grown-up” acoustic guitar that I purchased was a Yamaha that I still have today almost 13 years later.

I’ve had requests to use my 13-year-old Yamaha for recording, live performances, and unplugged sessions alike due to the beautiful full sound and impressive electronics.

When I saw that Yamaha found a way to include reverb and chorus without plugging in for their next line of Yamaha Acoustics, I knew I had to check it out.

The Yamaha LS-TA TransAcoustic guitar meets every one of my highly set expectations and is even more impressive than I thought it would be.

Originally I thought there was no way that a reverb could sound good just utilizing the built-in actuator — I was wrong, very wrong. The room and hall reverb selections are incredibly full and vibrant. The chorus is impressive and makes me wonder how this is even possible.

The Yamaha LS-TA TransAcoustic guitar bathed in sunlight on a couch.
Credit: Yamaha

Another preconceived notion I had was that there would be a lot of added weight or excess electronics to make this possible. At first glance, I didn’t even know that this guitar has such incredible features built-in. The actuator is inside the body of the guitar and does not require an excess of batteries or other electronics. All that to say, I did not notice any added weight.

The controls for the chorus, reverb, and line out are quite simple. What looked at first like the volume, tone, and line out controls actually controlled these unique features. The guitar comes with a little template for easy to see markings that can be removed to allow for a clean finish.

Yet again, Yamaha has stepped up to the plate alongside other high-end guitars and brought a real contender.

I can say that whether I am playing through songs with full chords, fingerpicking, playing lead lines, or singing along while playing this guitar, it genuinely gave me more confidence in my playing, and also made me sound better too. Call me crazy, but the added reverb brought me confidence much like a bathroom or parking garage gives all those singing prodigies we see on social media an added boost.

I admit that I was skeptical, but after playing this guitar for a month now, I switch back to my 13-year-old Yamaha and feel like I’m going from a brand new 2020 car to a classic. Still great, but missing some beloved bells and whistles. I find myself wishing for that reverb switch on every guitar I have picked up since my first strum of my LS-TA.

On another note, my 13-year-old Yamaha has a dreadnought body style. Maybe it is just everything I mentioned above, but I have fallen in love with the concert body style for acoustic guitars because of this Yamaha.

If you get a chance to test it out or if you are on the fence about purchasing it, just do it. You won’t go wrong with this amazing guitar.