Yamaha RGXA2 - The lightup guitar.

[GWARGHOUL]

So a while back I was in GC.
I was on a mission to buy a guitar.

First I gotta say .. Crestwood, MO GC has a collection-m NOT selection.
Not enough variations.. Not enough Jacksons. Not enough of anything really.. just PRS, Les Pauls, and Strats.

I tried out a few things.

I tried out two BC Rich NJ bich models.
Nice looking natrual finishes.

THEY WERE HORRIBLE!

The frets would not only cut up your hands up and down the neck-THE BINDING WAS CRACKED AT EVER FRET TOO!

Same thing on the second one.. the second one was as nice of a finish.
Granted the frets were a tad better.. but yeah..
The cheap looking "cloud" inlays were kinda Korean feeling too.

Guess what. These NJ's were made in Korea. Not Japan.

So I get too looking around..
and I see an oddball that sticks out to me.

Its a 400-sumthin dollar Yamaha.
It turns out to be very well made, and the pickup selector has built in led's that light up-kinda cool.

The fretwork was flawless.. I couldn't believe it.. a $600-sumthin dollar bc rich was totally inferioir to a $400 Yamaha.

Acoustically this things was very bright and loud...
Weight was VERY light.
Unique and very functional/toneful Yamaha bridge design.
Beautiful piece of rosewood on the fretboard.
I thought it was amde of soem space age polymers or soemthing.

I did some reasearch ater I bought it...


Alternative Internal Resonance (or A.I.R.) technology utilizes a lightweight wood core sandwiched between a harder, heavier wood on both the front and back of the guitar's body. Special sound tubes pass through the body so that string vibrations normally resonating only the guitar's top are transmitted through the entire body. By exciting the entire body structure and shaping the tone with the hard top and back, A.I.R. construction creates a full, powerful, and resonant tone with distinctive presence and body that are truly unique.

So its actually wood, as opposed to the polymers and crazyness I thought.

I have got to say, all of the yamaha guitars I have played have been a great value for the money, and innovative functionally or aesthetically.

I just wanted to tell everyone how great the guitars are..and especially this unqiue piece.

Let me know your experiences and such on Yamaha, and this guitar.

Heres the weblink..

http://www.yamaha.com/guitars/rgxa2/0,,CNTID%253D62690%2526CTID%253D600004%2526CNTYP%253DPRODUCT,00.html

[Dave L]

I´ve always been a "closet fan" of Yamaha. The old high-end RGX´s and Pacificas are absolute steals on the used market. I mean, look at something like the japanese RGX1212... neckthru construction, ebony fretboard, solid double-locking trem... classy stuff all the way. I bought a minty-fresh one for like $300 a few years back, just for the heck of it. But the downside is of course that you get about a buck fifty when you want to sell them.

[pro-fusion]

Yamahas have always been extremely solid guitars, with the only drawback being that they typically use their own weird hardware and electronics rather than name-brand stuff. The most recent Yamaha I had was an early '90s RGZ-121, which was a totally decent knock-off of an Ibanez RG, except for the crappy TRS trem and mediocre pickups. Change those out, and it would have been a real muther. I bought it for $100 but didn't want to put the work into it.

[Dave L]

Yeah, their pickups have always been weak and most of the weird trems they´ve used have been ranging from so-so to outright bad... I still cringe from a bout with a single-locking Pro Rock´r on an otherwise sweet canary-yellow Pacifica tele... but some of their trems, like the one on that RGX1212, have been pretty damn decent.

[GWARGHOUL]

The bridge on my Yamaha RGXA2 is very toneful, high qaulity and looks very cool.

Of course, its a fixed bridge.
A lot easier to acheive that on a fixed platform.

I guess I'm a closet Yamaha and Fernandes fan.

[GWARGHOUL]

I do kinda agree with the pickups.

I actually don't even know what size mine are. Can somebody tell me what size these are?

http://www.yamaha.com/guitars/rgxa2/0,,CNTID%253D62690%2526CTID%253D600004%2526CNTYP%253DPRODUCT,00.html

The stock ones are good for blues, but not much else.
Any good suggestiosn for metal and thrash?

Thanks.

[Drake S.]

I played 1 of these about 3 weeks ago at my local GC I had a blast playing it very different, but as always I'm a Floyd Rose type so I didn't bring it home.

[4koa]

humm.pretty cool.i wonder if a set of Tom Anderson M-pickups would fit in the route.they look to be about the same size as a p-90 pickup

[MountainDog]

I bought one of these about 3 weeks ago at a GC also. I too thought it played very well with excellent quality everywhere. I played it at a gig and did Metallica and Tool with it no problem on the stock bridge pickup.

There is a review with excellent ratings in the March 2006 issue of Guitar Player, and also a similar high marks review in the March or April Guitar World. Guitar World says "it represents the most significant electric guitar design innovation to come along since the Parker Fly".

[AfterForever]

cool, I've always wondered about the quality of those.. I hope I can try one in the near future

[GWARGHOUL]

Very cool guitar.

Glad I bought it.

The salesman (whom looked like a mini- Scott Ian) only told me that its funky, odd, and cool. He knew nothign about it. I got home and pulled up the model on the Yamaha site, and was amazed at how much more to it there was.

[xsentrick]

I've been contemplating one of these myself. I like the clean look of it and it is super light.

[Dave L]

Yeah, their pickups have always been weak and most of the weird trems they´ve used have been ranging from so-so to outright bad... I still cringe from a bout with a single-locking Pro Rock´r on an otherwise sweet canary-yellow Pacifica tele... but some of their trems, like the one on that RGX1212, have been pretty damn decent.

Just re-read what I wrote here and found out I had my head on backwards that day... I think it was a single-locking Pro Rockin´ Magic II.

[GWARGHOUL]

I've been contemplating one of these myself. I like the clean look of it and it is super light.

Yeah, very cool looking.
It is veryyy light. I have not tried any parkers, but I bet its similar.

Acoutsicly..it is amazing..very loud and toneful.

[Flatpicker]

Picked one up back in Feb. Very nice feel.
The pickups are minihums, voiced to sound like p90's.