Unveiled at MUSIKMESSE 2016 this week was Yamaha’s new TransAcoustic guitar – An acoustic guitar that has reverb and chorus effects built in, no external source, and sounds as unbelievable as the concept.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Ho1pVfE4o?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

No you’re not dreaming. Yamaha have managed to create an acoustic guitar with effects built-in that come through the chamber with the guitar’s sound. It’s achieved with an actuator inside the guitar that vibrates based on the notes creating chorus and/or reverb effects through the body of the guitar.

It works easily with 3 knobs on the side, facing you that control reverb, volume (for plugging into amps), and chorus. You can dial up each parameter individually and can achieve a highly resonant sound when boosting the effects all the way. For something I didn’t even realise was possible, and still don’t fully understand how it is, it sounds exceptional and is a revolution in guitar tech.

effects chorus reverb

The guitar itself is more of the quality you’d expect from an upper end Yamaha guitar, the design taken from their great L series. They feature Engelmann spruce tops, rosewood sides and neck, and an SRT piezo pickup for plugging the guitar in – though the point in case is you don’t need to anymore! The effects are powered by 2 AA batteries slotted neatly into a pull out compartment in the endpin on the bottom of the guitar, reducing it’s interference with sound quality.

Yamaha TransAcoustic guitar

Yamaha’s TransAcoustic guitars will be available sometime in August with two models available: the LL-TA dreadnought and LS-TA concert. It will retail for around £986/€1,107.