I've started doing some guitar repair work so I'm going to be doing some non-Harmony Central format reviews of the guitars that work on. I have just finished replacing the cylindrical style jack and sorting out one of the recessed knobs on a Yamaha RGX A2 and I'll talk about that guitar for a while.Launched in 2006 the RGX A2 is Yamaha's attempt to create an innovative and futuristic guitar that "shatters the concept" of conventional guitar building listing their Alternative Internal Resonance system (A.I.R. for short), an LED pickup selection indicator and the bizarre choice of a cylindrical output jack that only Yamaha and Ibanez appear to employ in their guitars.
A.I.R. is a system used only in the RGX A2 and it's bass counterpart, the RBX4 A2, that claims to increase the resonance of lightweight guitars by spreading vibrations throughout the whole body of the guitar using "sound tubes". The absence of the system in any Yamaha guitars since the RGX and RBX suggests that the so-called "tonal revolution" of A.I.R. failed to spread to the consumer. After a while of playing the guitar it's easy to see why; you don't notice it. The RGX makes the same tonal sacrifice of other very lightweight guitars and A.I.R. makes little difference to that. I was not aware that the guitar used a design different to conventional guitar designs until I looked up the specifications on the internet so it appears to be no more than a marketing gimmick.
The other supposedly innovative feature of the RGX A2, the LED pickup selection indicator, is made essential by the inclusion of a 3-way rotary switch as the method of pickup selection. Although the LEDs are an attractive feature (see picture) their purpose ends there. The rotary switch is made fiddly by the stylishly recessed knobs and the guitar would be served better by a simple Les Paul style toggle switch.Despite the gimmicks this guitar plays reasonably well and compares favourably to other Yamaha guitars in the price range (about £300 new), although it's nothing to rave about, it's a decent guitar. The £300 RRP puts it perilously close to the cheaper MIM Fender Strats and some of the better Epiphone Les Pauls, one a lighter weight and brighter guitar, the other a heavier and more tonally sound guitar than the Yamaha RGX A2. The RGX A2 is a compromise that is not strictly necessary and it's pseudo-futuristic gimmicks don't save it from being a less than sensational piece of kit.
