NTX – The Players Review

Right – first up, let me lay this one completely down on the line. I have never gigged a nylon string guitar before last week, I know next to no classical licks – let alone Spanish flamenco style, and I’m probably better known playing AC/DC covers with a band than stripping it right back like this. When it was first suggested that I take this thing out, after all blind confidence and excitement had subsided, I literally took a big gulp and thought about how I was going to do it.

I decided to take the NTX700BL out with me for a few gigs. The NX range comes in 2 varieties, the NCX and the NTX – with the NCX being a more traditional sized neck (with 52mm nut) and body compared to the NTX with its thin-line body and much thinner neck (48mm at the nut). Playing the NTX feels a lot more like home for someone who has only ever played steel strung acoustics and electrics, and meant I didn’t feel too bad when I committed the first deadly sin of classical guitar playing – playing with a pick.

One of the cool things about the NX guitars is that all the guitars use exactly the same configuration of pickup/pre-amp (bare in mind they are priced from £535 all the way up to £2935) so just because I’m testing what I guess is the ‘entry’ model, electronically – it’s still seriously spec’d out. The guitar uses a 2-way A.R.T. (Acoustic Resonance Transducer) system that Yamaha developed for their acoustics and is now found on nearly all of their electro-acoustic guitars. The 2-way system was found to be the best for amplifying nylon strings and when it’s linked to the pre-amp where there is a master volume control, individual controls for each transducer, as well as a 3-band EQ. There is also a handy tuner. Nice.

Night 1

As far as throwing yourself in the deep end goes – I probably couldn’t have picked a better night to bring the NTX out than the local blues jam night. The ‘house drummer’ looked at me with a very confused face when I told him he could sit this one out.

One thing I quickly realised was the size of sound that comes from a nylon string guitar. When playing unaccompanied with a steel string I’ve always found the inevitable ‘solo break’ a bit of a mystery of how to get through it – do I hold some bass notes and do a couple of light licks or do I just hold the rhythm down and crack an ‘insert solo here’ joke? I found with the NTX – do neither, just pull the solo!

Nylon strung guitars, playing picked notes sound great – just don’t expect to be able to hold any notes or get the same kind of sustain I’m used to with an electric. Unfortunately I realised this last bit of information about 3 quarters of the way through the solo – so home to perfect some runs, and then on to night 2…

Night 2

This one really put the NX through its paces. Out of all the acoustic gigs/open mic nights I do this one gets the most rowdy, so I was really giving it some to get the volume to support the songs.

Practicing some runs paid off and night 2 went off without a hitch. The sensitivity of the pickups really showed and I was getting quite a cool percussive sound when hitting the strings hard – great for the funkier number in my repertoire, I’m pretty sure I saw some light dancing…

Talking to fellow performers I was greeted with a lot of “ooo, what’s that then?” Call me crazy – but I’ve also found that pulling out a nylon string greats your performance with a lot more mystery and intrigue. I got a distinct feeling that I completely stood out from the other steel string players, and when you’re playing to pay for tonight’s kebab – that’s a definite result!

Night 3

I really got to let rip a bit this time as I was playing for a singer so could focus totally on what I was playing. As mentioned before I’ve found you get a massive sound from these guitars so I was able to throw in all sorts of licks around what I was playing to spice up the performance. The percussive playing came in nicely again and the whole thing just grooved.

I’ve never considered I needed a nylon string before, and in fact my memories of classical guitars are very out of tune, very hard to play school guitars with one string missing and a cracked top. This has completely changed my mind and to be honest has opened up a world of new ideas. The increased dynamics, smoother tone and just generally unique looks make it a really cool guitar to pull out and perform with.

You may not think you need a nylon string guitar – I sure as hell didn’t, but after this experience all I can say is just plug it in, try it, and you may just surprise yourself…