Yamaha LL 16 D A.R.E NT

I bought it several years ago when I was looking for a better acoustic guitar. After these years I can honestly say that it was a very good choice. The instrument is precisely crafted with many nice details. It is really sturdy and reliable, stays in tune long and has a stable tone. If appropriate strings are used (12s) it tunes as good as it is possible in a guitar with regular frets and relatively high string action. The string action was actually something that I adjusted a bit, slightly lowering it by filing the bridge. The sound is powerful but not "bombastic", it is rather well-balanced (of course, it may depend on your strings) and very analytic: you can easily hear the contribution of each string to your chords. This is excellent for fingerstyle playing and a range of other styles but in some situations you might want to have more "integrated" sound. Maybe it is the question of strings - I use mostly phosphore-bronze ones. But probably it may be partially due to the very stiff bracing which gives an excellent attack but makes your sound a bit "stiffer" as well. Since the strings are thick, I have the feeling that it is more difficult to produce nice tones in higher position - but this may be subjective as well. Nonetheless, the sound is great anyways but perhaps not extremely universal. In sum, it is an excellent, robust instrument that can stay with you for years.