Post by bobcarter on May 22, 2016 12:03:49 GMT
We’ve all suffered that quandary, be it early on a Sunday morning or late on a Tuesday night, when we really fancy having a noodle, but the neighbours and/or spouse are asleep and it seems a bit antisocial to pick up the guitar.
Or our loved ones have reached the end of their patience having heard us mess up the same 4-bar phrase for the 500th time in a row (and yet we know that if we could just play it through a couple more times, everything would fall into place). I remember struggling endlessly with an arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”. After a few hours, my wife came in looking drawn and said, “You can stop now. I’ve got enough.”
So, in the spirit of preserving neighbourly relations and marital harmony, enter the Yamaha Silent Guitars.
If you want to have a listen, here’s me doing a quick run-through of Clive Carroll’s arrangement of Mississippi Blues. The guitar is recorded straight into a Zoom R8 with all EQ both on the guitar and on the R8 completely flat. No effects except a small amount of the guitar’s own on-board reverb. The straight pickup vs mic sample dial is set to about 80% blend.
soundcloud.com/bob-carter-2/yamaha-silent-guitar-mississippi-blues
The Silent Guitars have been around for a while apparently, but have now been upgraded with the snazzy SRT system, which allows you blend the piezo signal with a sound produced by sampling a high-end, mic-ed up Yamaha acoustic. There are steel-string and nylon-string versions.
It’s billed as a practice and recording tool (like their THR amp series – I’ve got the THR5A and it’s amazing) but there’s no reason you shouldn’t use it live too.
I couldn’t really justify buying another “normal” guitar, but this seemed to fill a niche so could be added to the bedroom wall with a clear conscience. I’d read a review which had piqued my interest.
It was shortly after the launch, so as with so many guitars you read reviews of and want to try out, it was almost impossible to find any shop that had one. I’d normally purchase as local as possible in case of any after-sale problems, but in this case I was forced out of the rural safety of Dorset into the scary bright lights of London to visit the main Yamaha store on Wardour Street.
The one I ended up with has serial number 0049, so was pretty fresh off the press.
They had the finish I wanted, which was the natural wood, which I think looks lovely.
www.yamahamusiclondon.com/?keywords=slg200s
I was trying it out with one of the little THR5A’s they had in store, as that was what I’d be using it with.
On the whole I wasn’t 100% sold from the outset, but since I’d made such an effort to go up to London, and the sales staff had had to get one specially out of the warehouse just for me, I felt more or less obliged to buy it once I’d gone in (it was £484).
The first thing I noticed is that, although they bill the guitar as being ideal for use with their THR amps, I don’t think it is really. The bass response is huge, and while I hadn’t managed to distort my THR with “normal” guitars before, the SLG’s signal proved a bit too much for the little speaker. It also sounded very mid-rangey, and while an onboard bass and treble is provided on the guitar, it felt like a mid control would have been really useful too. Now when I use it with the THR, I run it through an EQ pedal and knock out some of the mids.
The other thing is that is felt really stiff to play, with a very high action. The tech there spent a goodly amount of time with me before I took it out of the shop, and we swapped the 12s it came with for 11s (though I’m used to 12s) and dropped the action, which helped a bit. It still felt stiff, but I put it down to not being familiar with the guitar and thought I’d get used to it.
After trying it out for a few more weeks at home, I had to take it into Absolute Music in Poole to try and drop the action further, and I think it’s pretty much OK now. One problem I think is that, because it looks like an electric, you expect it to play and feel like one, which it doesn’t.
So, so far I’ve grumbled a bit – though I liked it, it wasn’t a guitar I immediately fell in love with and for a while I wondered if I’d made a good choice.
But….
Having had it for about 6 months now, there is a lot to love about this guitar. Through headphones, it sounds pretty good, and is very nicely built and finished for a sub-£500 guitar. The mic-model blending is very effective, taking away a lot of the harshness of the raw pickup sound. The onboard reverbs (there’s a room and hall, plus a chorus but I never seem to find a use for that) are a bit enthusiastic, but quite usable, and although I haven’t made much use of it yet, the Aux In allows you to practise (or even play live I guess) along to a backing track. So far I’ve found it helpful for plugging in a metronome to play along with.
It’s not “silent” – unplugged it’s about the same volume as an unamped electric, but it’s certainly inoffensively quiet.
I’ve only experimented on a couple of occasions live with it using the THR5A, and haven’t quite found a sound I’m happy with yet. But I suspect it would sound much better with a larger amp or straight into the PA.
It’s got a monster bass and huge sustain (almost a bit too much, actually, as it can get a bit muddy if you’re lazing with muting your strings) and is a lot of fun.
It’s very light, very comfortable and surprisingly well-balanced to hold and play. It’s also very portable. The upper bout comes off to go into its little case, which then looks a bit like a machine gun case from an old gangster movie, so it makes a great guitar to take with you on holiday to keep your hand it. The string spacing's probably a bit narrow to be a real fingerpicker's guitar, but its perfectly usable.
One of the magazine reviews complained that the batteries (two AAs) didn’t last long, but I disagree. I get a good few hours between recharges and it also comes with a mains adapter just in case.
It’s a guitar which should be taken on its own merits. It doesn’t sound exactly like an acoustic, but it doesn’t sound electric either.
If you expect it to sound and behave exactly like an acoustic (you won’t be able to do any body slaps, for example!), you’ll be disappointed. But if you accept it for what it is and learn to work with its advantages, I reckon a lot of people could benefit from having one in their collection.
Any my wife and neighbours love it, for obvious reasons.
Try before you buy, and see if it captures your heart.
Or our loved ones have reached the end of their patience having heard us mess up the same 4-bar phrase for the 500th time in a row (and yet we know that if we could just play it through a couple more times, everything would fall into place). I remember struggling endlessly with an arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”. After a few hours, my wife came in looking drawn and said, “You can stop now. I’ve got enough.”
So, in the spirit of preserving neighbourly relations and marital harmony, enter the Yamaha Silent Guitars.
If you want to have a listen, here’s me doing a quick run-through of Clive Carroll’s arrangement of Mississippi Blues. The guitar is recorded straight into a Zoom R8 with all EQ both on the guitar and on the R8 completely flat. No effects except a small amount of the guitar’s own on-board reverb. The straight pickup vs mic sample dial is set to about 80% blend.
soundcloud.com/bob-carter-2/yamaha-silent-guitar-mississippi-blues
The Silent Guitars have been around for a while apparently, but have now been upgraded with the snazzy SRT system, which allows you blend the piezo signal with a sound produced by sampling a high-end, mic-ed up Yamaha acoustic. There are steel-string and nylon-string versions.
It’s billed as a practice and recording tool (like their THR amp series – I’ve got the THR5A and it’s amazing) but there’s no reason you shouldn’t use it live too.
I couldn’t really justify buying another “normal” guitar, but this seemed to fill a niche so could be added to the bedroom wall with a clear conscience. I’d read a review which had piqued my interest.
It was shortly after the launch, so as with so many guitars you read reviews of and want to try out, it was almost impossible to find any shop that had one. I’d normally purchase as local as possible in case of any after-sale problems, but in this case I was forced out of the rural safety of Dorset into the scary bright lights of London to visit the main Yamaha store on Wardour Street.
The one I ended up with has serial number 0049, so was pretty fresh off the press.
They had the finish I wanted, which was the natural wood, which I think looks lovely.
www.yamahamusiclondon.com/?keywords=slg200s
I was trying it out with one of the little THR5A’s they had in store, as that was what I’d be using it with.
On the whole I wasn’t 100% sold from the outset, but since I’d made such an effort to go up to London, and the sales staff had had to get one specially out of the warehouse just for me, I felt more or less obliged to buy it once I’d gone in (it was £484).
The first thing I noticed is that, although they bill the guitar as being ideal for use with their THR amps, I don’t think it is really. The bass response is huge, and while I hadn’t managed to distort my THR with “normal” guitars before, the SLG’s signal proved a bit too much for the little speaker. It also sounded very mid-rangey, and while an onboard bass and treble is provided on the guitar, it felt like a mid control would have been really useful too. Now when I use it with the THR, I run it through an EQ pedal and knock out some of the mids.
The other thing is that is felt really stiff to play, with a very high action. The tech there spent a goodly amount of time with me before I took it out of the shop, and we swapped the 12s it came with for 11s (though I’m used to 12s) and dropped the action, which helped a bit. It still felt stiff, but I put it down to not being familiar with the guitar and thought I’d get used to it.
After trying it out for a few more weeks at home, I had to take it into Absolute Music in Poole to try and drop the action further, and I think it’s pretty much OK now. One problem I think is that, because it looks like an electric, you expect it to play and feel like one, which it doesn’t.
So, so far I’ve grumbled a bit – though I liked it, it wasn’t a guitar I immediately fell in love with and for a while I wondered if I’d made a good choice.
But….
Having had it for about 6 months now, there is a lot to love about this guitar. Through headphones, it sounds pretty good, and is very nicely built and finished for a sub-£500 guitar. The mic-model blending is very effective, taking away a lot of the harshness of the raw pickup sound. The onboard reverbs (there’s a room and hall, plus a chorus but I never seem to find a use for that) are a bit enthusiastic, but quite usable, and although I haven’t made much use of it yet, the Aux In allows you to practise (or even play live I guess) along to a backing track. So far I’ve found it helpful for plugging in a metronome to play along with.
It’s not “silent” – unplugged it’s about the same volume as an unamped electric, but it’s certainly inoffensively quiet.
I’ve only experimented on a couple of occasions live with it using the THR5A, and haven’t quite found a sound I’m happy with yet. But I suspect it would sound much better with a larger amp or straight into the PA.
It’s got a monster bass and huge sustain (almost a bit too much, actually, as it can get a bit muddy if you’re lazing with muting your strings) and is a lot of fun.
It’s very light, very comfortable and surprisingly well-balanced to hold and play. It’s also very portable. The upper bout comes off to go into its little case, which then looks a bit like a machine gun case from an old gangster movie, so it makes a great guitar to take with you on holiday to keep your hand it. The string spacing's probably a bit narrow to be a real fingerpicker's guitar, but its perfectly usable.
One of the magazine reviews complained that the batteries (two AAs) didn’t last long, but I disagree. I get a good few hours between recharges and it also comes with a mains adapter just in case.
It’s a guitar which should be taken on its own merits. It doesn’t sound exactly like an acoustic, but it doesn’t sound electric either.
If you expect it to sound and behave exactly like an acoustic (you won’t be able to do any body slaps, for example!), you’ll be disappointed. But if you accept it for what it is and learn to work with its advantages, I reckon a lot of people could benefit from having one in their collection.
Any my wife and neighbours love it, for obvious reasons.
Try before you buy, and see if it captures your heart.
Jo whoever he is.
