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(More customer reviews)In the Summer of 2009, Yamaha introduced their NX series of electric acoustic nylon string guitars. The NX series is divided between the NTX and NCX. NCX inherits many of the physical attributes of a traditional classical guitar with the exception of a cutaway and lower string height. The NTX has a more contemporary design to make steel string and electric guitarist feel more at home. There are four NTX models: NTX700, NTX700BL, NTX900FM, and NTX1200R. The difference between the 700, 900, and 1200 involves wood choices. The dimensions and electronics are identical for all NTX models. The 700 offers a solid spruce top with Nato back, sides, and neck.
The NTX700 is what some people are calling a crossover classical guitar. Besides the electronic pickups, what makes a crossover classical guitar is the physical characteristics of the guitar. The NTX700 has a narrower and thinner neck. The nut width is 48mm compared to 52mm for a traditional classical guitar. Most steel strings have a nut width around 42mm, so 48mm is about in the middle of a classical and steel string. The neck is thinner measured from the fretboard to the back of the neck. The thinner neck can be provided thanks to the adjustable steel truss rod. The truss rod also allows for lower action since the neck can be slightly curved to accommodate the sweep of the string vibration.
As a comparison, I measured string spacing at the nut and bridge on the NTX700 and then on my traditional classical guitar. I am measuring the distance between the 1st and 6th strings. The NTX700 has a 37mm nut string spacing and a 52mm bridge string spacing. My traditional classical has a 42.5mm nut string spacing and a 56mm bridge string spacing. I should let you know that I am a full breed classical guitarist, playing primarily classical and fingerstyle repertoire. Wider string spacing is generally beneficial to classical and fingerstyle repertoire due to the need to individually pluck strings with your fingers, and to have to let open strings resonate next to fretted strings. The latter can be a problem with narrow string spacing because the finger fretting a string can accidentally dampen the neighboring resonating open string. This can kill harmonies needed in solo arrangements. But I personally find a 52mm nut too wide for my hands. When I picked up the NTX700, I immediately noticed the narrower string spacing. To me, it feels perfect. Not too wide to be painfully uncomfortable, and not too narrow to limit solo arrangements.
The NTX700 body joins at the 14th fret. This is common in steel string and electric guitars. It allows for easier access to the NTX700's 22 frets. This ended up being one of the physical changes over a traditional classical that surprised me as being quite significant. A 14th fret body joint changes the distance between the bridge and sound hole. It is shorter on the NTX700. The distance from the bridge to the middle of the sound hole is 135mm on the NTX700. On my traditional classical, it is 180mm. How is that important? A classical guitarist can vary tone by playing at different distances from the bridge. When a string is plucked close to the bridge, it sounds thin. When plucked, close to the sound hole, it is rounder and darker. With the NTX700, I can vary tone with just a slight movement of my right hand. It took me a while to figure out why the NTX700 seemed more expressive than my traditional classical. I have concluded it is more expressive because of the 14th fret body joint.
The NTX700 has curved frets, or has what is called a radius fretboard. Traditional classical guitars have a flat fretboard. I love the radius fretboard of the NTX700. I don't see going back to a flat fretboard. Doing bars is a magnitude order easier on the NTX700. It is beyond me why classical guitars have not adopted a radius fretboard. Classical guitars are about the only type of guitar that still has a flat fretboard. Steel string and electrics have been built this way for decades.
The NTX700 has pretty low action. I took my traditional classical into the shop and told them to get the action as low as possible without having fret buzz problems. The NTX700's action is lower than my traditional classical, but a bit higher than my flamenco. With all these things, the narrower and thinner neck, low action, and radius fredboard, after playing the NTX700 for while, and then going back to my traditional classical, I felt like I went from driving an Audi A4 to a 1950 Chevy truck with no power steering and manual transmission! The traditional classical now feels huge! The fretboard feels like a big wall! The NTX700 is a magnitude order easier to play. Passages that were once hard, are now much easier and I am less likely to mess up. I am also much more comfortable playing the NTX700. I play the guitar for pleasure. If I am straining to do a stretch with a big grimace on my face, I am not experiencing pleasure. So I want a guitar to be comfortable in order for it to be pleasurable to play.
Intonation on the NTX700 is very accurate throughout the whole neck. Also, I like that the NTX700 has marking on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 17th frets. Traditional classicals generally skimp on putting these little white dots. One dimension that is consistent with a traditional classical guitar is the scale length. The NTX700 has a 650mm scale length.
The NTX700 has a thinner body. Body depth measures 80-90mm compared to around 100mm for traditional classicals. The thinner body is cool. It has several benefits. It makes for better balance and positioning when using a strap. It also makes it easier to see the frets because you can hold the fretboard closer to your body. The thinner body acoustically will not have the same volume. I would say my NTX700 produces about 80% the volume and about 90% the sustain acoustically compared to my traditional classical. In some respects, this is a good thing because it helps reduce feedback. If you plan on using your NTX700 primarily unplugged, then you are buying the wrong guitar. The NTX700 has superb pickups that begs the guitar to be amplified. In my opinion, you should be using your NTX700 plugged in most of the time to get the full benefit of this wonderful guitar.
The NTX700 has a larger lower bout. Acoustically, I'm not sure what this does, but you should be aware, if you have a snug fitting classical guitar case, the NTX700 will not fit in the case because of the larger lower bout. The NTX700 is longer end to end than a traditional classical. This also could present case issues. With these dimension changes, the NTX700 still feels normal when resting on the left leg with a foot stool. It also feels fine on the right leg or with a strap. The NTX700 balances at the top strap mount. The jack doubles as the bottom strap mount.
Even with the reduced volume, I prefer the purely acoustic tone of the NTX700 over my traditional classical. This, of course, is highly subjective. There is something about the acoustical tone of the NTX700 that I love. After much experimenting, I believe I love the sound of the NTX700 because it has less sympathetic resonance. It sounds less muddy. It has a tight sound that works good for leads. In fact, the tone from the basses to the trebles transitions in a consistent manner. I have had my NTX700 for about three weeks now, and I still find myself playing for hours and getting these moments of pure bless. Now, like most classical guitarist, I have acquired an ear for classical guitar tone, much like the way a wine affectionate acquires a taste for fine wine. Some classical guitarist might hate the acoustical tone of the NTX700. You really should play one before you buy. But if this helps, I overheard my 10 year old son saying to my wife "I don't know why Daddy loves his new guitar so much. It sounds just like his old one." So that should tell you, to the untrained ear, it sounds pretty much like a classical.
The NTX700 has excellent pickups. They sound natural and do not have feedback problems. There are two pickups in the NTX700. One for the treble string, and one for the bass strings. These type of pickups have been offered in Yamaha steel string acoustics for a little while now. The NX series has a specially tuned version of the A.R.T (Acoustic Resonance Transducer) pickups optimize for the tone and dynamics of nylon strings. The pickups are coupled with a preamp. The preamp has a three band graphic equalizer, separate gain for the bass and treble pickups, a master volume, and a chromatic tuner. The preamp is reasonably low noise. When recording through the pickups, noise is not a problem. The tuner is great. It works plugged in or unplugged. The tuner has an auto shutoff feature. You can easily read the tuner in the dark. In comparison to my Intellitouch tuner, the tuner on the NTX700 is just as accurate. Specs on the NTX700 say the tuner is accurate to +-3 cents. When you plug in the NTX700, it automatically turns on the preamp and will use power from the 9 volt onboard power supply. The 9 volt battery can be changed without removing the strings. All you do is push a release and a compartment holding the battery pops out. The battery is rated to last about 70 hours. There is a low battery indicator. Also, the NTX700 comes with two accessories. You get a little wrench to adjust the truss rod, and a rubber sound hole cover that can be used for feedback reduction. It is good they provided the sound hole cover because the NTX700 has an elliptical, oversized sound hole. After market covers would not work.
Unfortunately I did not have access to a NTX900FM or NTX1200R to compare. As I mentioned earlier, the difference is in wood choice. If budget is an issue, my guess would be to put your money in your amp. I have a Fishman Loudbox 100. This amp cost more than the guitar,...Read more›
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