Yamaha has updated its groundbreaking TransAcoustic series with the TAG3 C, a cutaway dreadnought acoustic electric guitar that has onboard effects and Bluetooth connectivity that allows you to stream audio and play it through the guitar’s soundhole.
This is a dramatic expansion of the TransAcoustic concept. Models such as the FG-TA have presented players with chorus and reverb. But a looper? And Bluetooth?
The latter allows you to stream audio from your smartphone/mobile device etc and the two actuators inside the body will process that information and play the audio through the soundhole. Very impressive.
Also impressive is the expansion of the onboard TransAcoustic effects. The TAG3 C might well put your pedalboard out of commission with delay, chorus and reverb all onboard – and there is a looper.
It’s like the marketing blurb says, the next-gen TransAcoustasonic provides the “entire creative process of listening, playing, and creating is brought together in a single guitar”.
If this all seems a bit too 2024 for you let’s look at the fundamentals. Taking the Bluetooth, the looper and all of the electronics out of the question, this is a nice cutaway dreadnought with an all-solid build. Knowing Yamaha, it will be a very tidy build, too.
The tonewood recipe is also quite reassuringly familiar, with solid Sitka spruce on the top, solid mahogany on the back and sides. The fingerboard is ebony, as are the bridge and pins, with the nut and saddles fashioned from urea.
A transparent pickguard adds to the unfussy aesthetic though there is a circle design on the lower cutaway that should alert you to the fact that this is not your garden variety acoustic. The open-gear tuners are a nice old-school touch on what is very much a new-school instrument.
Now, back to the electronic stuff. The good news is that these added features do not treat too heavily on the design of the guitar.
Like most acoustic electrics, there’s an end-pin jack. The controls for the effects are mounted on top-side of the guitar, and include tap tempo and a tuner. When you dial in your reverb, delay or chorus sound, the actuators respond accordingly to the vibrations of the strings and there you have it, effects.
There is an input for the charging cable (and you will have to use Yamaha's TransAcoustic cable for this) on the shoulder of the guitar, and it is a pity that this hasn't been secreted inside the soundhole or perhaps down beside the end-pin.
The looper is very clever. Not only can you create loops of your playing, allowing you to lay down a chord progression to play over, you can also use the guitar percussively, tapping out a beat on the guitar’s body and then saving that as a loop to play over. Magic.
Yamaha is offering the TAG3 C in two finishes, Natural and a sunburst. It is priced £1639 and ships in a hard-shell guitar case. For more details, head over to Yamaha.
