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Yamaha RGX A2 Electric Guitar

 

Review of the Yamaha RGX A2 by The Man in the Jar   

Introducing a nifty little guitar with Alternative Internal Resonance.   Oo-er...

Features of the Yamaha RGX A2

Tuners - Sealed mini-tuners with a very unique feature. Instead of flat knobs in the traditional sense these tuners have knurled cylinders that you twist. Although these feel unusual at first touch it only takes one tuning session to get used to them. They are easy to fine tune and suit the futuristic vibe of the guitar. 

Headstock - A neat stubby design with a split-level face. The maple neck is finished in a gloss aircraft- grey lacquer that extends onto the headstock. The face of the headstock is then partially covered by a white plastic slab through which the tuning capstans emerge. The lower quarter of the headstock is uncovered. The plastic slab has the Yamaha logo in grey.   

Nut - The black plastic nut is tidily finished.

Neck - The bolt-on maple neck is slim and fast, the gloss lacquer gives a smooth feel under the hand.

Fretboard - Nice close-grained chocolate brown rosewood fretboard without fret markers on the face. Dot markers are however retained on the edge of the fretboard in view of the player. The truss rod is accessible by removing a screw-on plate at the body end of the fretboard below the 22nd fret. Very unusual.

Frets - Medium well-polished.

Action - Low straight from the box.

Body - On the face of it this is a Strat type body in shape and contouring. However it hides an intriguing secret. Yamaha call it an Alternative Internal Resonance body. This is made by sandwiching a light weight wood between two heavier, denser slabs. The central wood has holes called "air tubes" which pass vibrations from  the top to the back of the guitar. This ensures the whole body resonates giving better sustain and tone for a lighter overall weight. The guitar certainly is lightweight and the acoustic (un-amplified) sustain is quite impressive.
The front of the body is white with two decorative aircraft-grey lines, one above the bridge pickup, the other following the line of the control knobs to the bottom of the body. These embellishments emphasise the modern design. The edge of the face has a line of metallic silver binding-effect paintwork and the back and sides are aircraft-grey.  

Bridge - A very sleek and distinctive minimalist design.

The saddles are elliptical strips of metal that have the profile of a paperclip. The strings break over a groove in the front end and dive through the body through a slot topside. Each saddle has two adjustable screws accessed through holes in the top. An adjustment screw in the rear slides the whole saddle backwards and forwards for adjustment of intonation. The dove grey of the hardware compliments the body colour nicely.  

Pickups - Two Alnico humbuckers sit in white soapbar-style housings. 

Controls - One master volume and an unusual rotary pickup selector. Rotary selectors are usually a vintage feature but Yamaha have modernised the concept by incorporating LED's in the control housing. A blue glow indicates the bridge pickup is engaged, a green glow indicates the neck pickup is engaged, combined blue and green show both pickups are selected. The LED's are powered by a 9 volt battery which is loaded into a compartment on the back of the body. If the battery expires it does not stop the guitar from working, it just won't glow anymore. 

Strap-buttons - Quite large and safe looking.

Output Jack - This is situated on the bottom of the body directly in line with the two control knobs and the decorative grey line. This looks very good but means that the guitar cannot be leant against a wall while it's still plugged in.

Finish - Excellent throughout.

 

Sound of the Yamaha RGX A2

Running on clean I was surprised at the mellow bassy response I got from the neck pickup. This also dominated the sound when both pickups were engaged together. The bridge pickup alone has a pleasing toppiness without sounding flabby in the mid and low range.
Overdriven, the bridge pickup is the natural choice giving great gritty top-end, an easy voice to tweak for any kind of hard rock. The neck pickup transferred its mellowness to darkness. Heavy brooding metal rhythms came surprisingly easy from this unassuming little guitar.
The sustain is noticeably impressive with a gorgeous hint of underlying harmonic feedback appearing in the middle of the note's decay. Alternative Internal Resonance certainly adds something special that I'd like to try through a full-on smoking stack.  

 

Overall Impressions of the Yamaha RGX A2 

The RGX A2 is a quirky little guitar with many unique features. Visually there's a hint of the 80's in the styling but nothing is over the top. If you don't like the "glow-in-the-dark" feature simply leave the battery out, the selector is easy to use without it. 
Most of all I like the results delivered by Alternative Internal Resonance (or AIR for short, get it?). Hopefully this heralds the start of a new trend in light-in-weight high-in-sustain axes.  

Buy the Yamaha RGX A2 

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