Yamaha CG-TA TransAcoustic Nylon-String Acoustic-Electric Guitar Gloss Natural

Picked this up after upgrading from a Cordoba. It has a pleasant tone, easy to play and with the reverb can give you nice electric acoustics. Obviously it's not a concert quality guitar, but for small gigs or taking it to any other events, it's definitely worth the price. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to upgrade from beginner to intermediate or even advanced playing.

I recently bought a Yamaha CG-TA from a local store after much deliberation. I am in the process of thinning out my herd of musical instruments and I traded in two classical guitars and a banjo for this one. I have been reading about the CG-TA for a while and was intrigued. I was resolved to play the guitar first *before* purchasing. Novel idea, huh? On of the reasons I traded in one of my classical guitars was that it didn't meet my expectations/hopes since I hadn't played it before ordering. Oh well. So I spent a couple of days visiting the local GC store and playing their floor model before buying one. Here's my take on the Yamaha CG-TA: GUITAR It's basically a spruce top C162 (there is also a cedar top C162). It's a sound mid-range classical. Nothing particularly outstanding, but it is nicely made and has a reasonable tonal quality. It is not a concert-grade instrument, but then it's not a concert-grade price. I certainly viable for an early to intermediate player. It is nicely made, as I would expect from Yamaha. Not a luthier piece, but well finished. The frets are well dressed and the action is ok, though I may lower it a tad or perhaps replace the high tension strings with medium tension. So, summary: it is good quality guitar at a slightly high price. The price markup is, obviously, due to the electronics. ELECTRONICS The "TA" stands for "Trans Acoustic" an internal system that, when activated, resonates with the played strings. There are two reverb dials allowing you to dial in a "hall" reverb or a "room" reverb. The "Hall" setting does seriously over-process at high levels, so I wouldn't do that. The "Room" setting is more restrained as one would expect. The Chorus knob adds a chorus "shimmer" to the music. Any of these effects could be achieved using a mic or acoustic pickup fed through the appropriate effects box, and into an amp/speaker setup. Many amps already have these effects built in (my Marshall AS50 has such). What the CG-TA allows is access to these effects sans pickup, mic, or amp. So, when playing the CG-TA, you simply switch it on (by long-pressing the volume knob), dialing in the Hall/Room reverb and the Chorus effect and off you go. BTW the effects do not actually amplify the sound much. They do a little bit, but it's a side effect of, well, the effects. The guitar has a 1/4" line-out that can be fed into an amp, and the volume knob controls that output. USING THE EFFECTS Definitely less is more. I play classical guitar to get a classical guitar sound. In general effects are really not the point, eh? For example I almost never use the effects in the Marshall AS50 when fed through a mic. The sound just doesn't seem… right. Right? If I wanted an overdrive shredding sound, I'd play electric. But with the CG-TA, a little bit of either or both reverb and chorus really makes the guitar stand out. I typically dial in about 1/8th of the chorus range and about 1/4 of the reverb, with maybe 1/3 of the Room reverb. The sonic effect is of a bigger, more spacious guitar sound, without overwhelming the tone quality. I find that too much effect is too much. Especially, a high level of the Hall reverb causes, a D-string F-F# note to "boom", probably because that's the air resonance of the body. It's not a wolf tone, more a noticeably louder version of the note. SUMMARY Overall, I really like this guitar, which is why I bought it, of course. Especially when practicing, or playing in a small setting where setting up an amp isn't a good solution, it really stands out as a unique instrument. PS: As I was playing the CG-TA and deciding on buying it, I picked up a Cordoba Flamenco (the GK Studio) guitar priced around the same level. Don't do this. The Cordoba had a noticeable better tone and caused me much agonizing over which to get. I finally settled on the Yamaha because (a) Effects (b) the Cordoba has a narrower nut (which might appeal to people as a crossover from steel string acoustics or electric guitars), (c) the body of the Cordoba was a little thinner than the CG-TA and gave off a little less volume. The moral: once you've decided on what you want to buy be careful about checking out other guitars.

First off, it doesn't sound like a concert classical, but nothing this price would. The voice is midrange-forward and punchy, and with the laminated sides it's missing some sustain. With that said, it's absolutely terrific for comping jazz standards along with my vocals. I've got Gc22 and 32, and sometimes they're a bit too dark. All the things that make this fall short as a classical make it sing for country, folk, or jazz that's on the pop side, not bop side. The effects are great for adding texture.works great through a PA with no feedback -- if you dial in the PA eq. It has slightly high action like all Yamaha gc and cg guitars do, but I don't mind. You get used to iequipment. For 700, there's really nothing to disagree with. Typical high value Yamaha.

Wonderful guitar to practice and play. The reverb is so good you feel like playing in a big hall. The only thing I don't like is sometimes it makes noices inside I think the transacoustic sistem the motherboard inside vibrates and it touches somewhere so you hear some buzzes.

The first thing I want to say about my new Yamaha CG-TA ("TransAccoustic") guitar is that it is an excellent sounding classical-nylon string guitar, with good volume if desired, and with well-balanced bass, mids and high tones, even when played naturally without any "TransAccoustic" effects turned on. It is easy and fun to play, it came with good action as built, good intonation, very smooth and accurate tuning, with a comfortable neck profile and feel. And it retains all its good qualities and sound while capo-ing down several frets. It is an attractive, well-built guitar that just feels, looks and sounds good. I've played mostly classical guitar, casually, for my own enjoyment and for small groups, for over 50 years. My playing consists mostly of strumming chords or simple finger picks to accompany myself, or a group of friends, while singing. I frequently use a capo up to the 4th fret. I have played guitars that literally cost twice as much that didn't sound as good and weren't as easy feeling as this one. It's hard to explain, but I find there is just something particularly pleasing about the feel and sound of this guitar. When choosing this instrument I played around with it in the store for about two hours, fell in love with it, all the while never realizing it had this extra feature called TransAccoustic, which I had never heard of. I saw it had a plug for amp connection, and three inconspicuous knobs on top of the body, so assumed it could also be connected to an amp and played as an electric. But that wasn't my priority when I bought it. And, I had no idea about its capability to add varying amounts of reverb and chorus effects to its sound WITH NO EXTERNAL AMP INVOLVED, powered internally with a small hidden circuit board, two AA batteries, and an internal small device attached inside the body (no speaker) that uses the natural vibrations of the guitar wood to add the sounds of the effects to the natural vibrations of the strings! So as good and fun to play as this guitar is naturally, without being amplified or without the internal effects being turned on, the real magic happens when you add a little of its internal TransAccoustic reverb or chorus - the TA part! It's hard to explain. The quality of the effects I believe is excellent even when turned way up, but I prefer a natural, classical, non-electric sound. So, when I use these effects, I turn on the reverb knob just a little – about 1/4 circle. Rather than produce an electronic sound, this transforms this free standing guitar into a very live sounding, high quality acoustic instrument, with no feel of being an electric guitar. If you are playing in a somewhat acoustically dead room (small, carpeted etc.) it results in the guitar sounding like you are in a live space with hard surfaces and good acoustics – like a stairwell or tiled bathroom. The effects knobs are sensitive, so you can easily add just a touch of the TA effects, or a whole lot. I prefer just a touch, which I end up using most of the time.

This is the CG162S but with Yamaha's Transacoustic system. Room and Hall reverb effects are excellent. Chorus effect may be of interest to fingerstylists. Tone is very good unplugged. Well-built. Battery will drain if you leave cable plugged-in. Factory action was high for me.