Yamaha APX1000

100 Guitarist July 2011
YAMAHA APX500II, CPX700II & APX1000 £320, £515 & £778
ELECTRO-ACOUSTICS
decked out. The all-over gloss
red metallic finish – one of the
new colours – is very well
applied and buffed, aside from
a small length of imperfect
edging next to the cutaway’s
purfling, while the grain lines
indicate that the lacquer hasn’t
been sprayed on too thickly.
The rosewood fingerboard is
edged in body-matching cream
plastic binding and, like all APX
and CPXs, there’s a second
strap button at the heel.
In common with all steel-
strung, six-string APXs, the
span across the nut is 43mm,
while the nato neck has a
moderate-depth ‘C’ profile
with just the hint of a ‘D’ along
the shoulders, and width
graduates only modestly
further up. Aided by a fine
set-up, well-dressed fretting
and a shorter 634mm scale
length, this is eminently
playable and comfortable, yet
bridge string spacing is
perverse. As opposed to the
APX norm of 53mm, our
sample’s is barely 50mm,
harking back to eighties FGs.
Fingerstyle isn’t out of the
question, but there’s no
denying the spacing feels
restrictive. Yamaha evidently
reckons most buyers will be
strummers, which may or may
not prove true.
Sounds
The guitar is a decidedly
capable performer. Acoustic
volume, if not blastingly loud,
is up to par for the body size,
with reasonable dynamics and
sustain, and the tone is smooth
and fluid with an agreeable
degree of lower-end warmth
and sweet-edged highs.
Powered up, the new pickup
clearly pays dividends. There’s
not a hint of piezo ‘quack’, the
whole delivery sounds natural,
flowing and open, and the
wide-range AMF mid contour
helps realise an impressively
broad tonal palette without
ridiculous extremes. Icing on
the cake is the system’s decent
gain and spot-on cross-string
output balance.
CPX700II
This 15.75-inch wide, nato-
backed cutaway mini-jumbo,
with a solid not laminated
spruce top, shows off a new
colour – tint – which means a
top stained to a medium-hued
browny-amber that looks
stylishly striking without being
garish. The back and sides are
left natural while the cream-
bound body is glossed to a high
standard and carries a simple
abalone-inlaid rosette and
discreet clear scratchplate. As
on the APX500II, the
fingerboard has body-matching
binding, this time continuing
around the headstock, which
bears the series-identifying
compass motif.
Unlike our two APXs, the
CPX’s full-scale nato neck is
satin and a shallower affair,
kicking off at just over 20mm,
deepening quite gently further
up and fashioned to a more
conventional ‘C’ profile.
Thanks again to an excellent
set-up, the grip is enjoyably
slick, while string spacings are
the typical Yamaha dimensions
of 43mm at the nut and 53mm
over the bridge. Some of us
would undoubtedly prefer it if
the latter was a shade airier,
but the arrangement is
pretty amenable to picking
techniques nevertheless.
Sounds
Acoustically, CPXs aren’t
necessarily the punchiest small
jumbos around, and this one’s
a touch light on low-end grunt
and richness for its size. But
their biggest asset is a precisely
balanced timbre, accompanied
by a sustaining, resonant
follow-through. The CPX700II
ably fulfils this brief.
Fired up, an important
benefit of the ART’s sensors is
an inherently well-balanced
output across the strings, and
this one’s bang-on. The one
caveat, though not as noticeable
as on earlier, similar ARTs this
reviewer has tried, is that the
The Rivals
CPX700II
Takamine’s spruce/sapele
EG541SSC (£550), with solid
top and back, features a
TK40 system. Vintage’s
VEC1900N (£579) is all-solid
spruce/lacewood, powered
by Fishman’s Presys Blend.
Crafter’s cedar/mahogany
GAE698-CD (£519), with a
solid top and back, has an
LR-T Pro preamp. All three
include a built-in tuner.
The preamps now use two AA batteries instead of a 9V PP3
GIT343.rev_yamaha 100 5/20/11 3:08:25 PM