Well made, excellent fit and finish, action is very good too. In the past, I have only owned Taylors (my favorite) and Martins. For the money, the Yamahas are an exceptional value. Materials, workmanship, and sound are awesome. This solid wood rosewood Jumbo projects well, especially when setup with Elixir Nanoweb light/medium strings. I now own 4 Yamahas (FS&FG830, LL16 (this purchase), and an LL6. All of them are rosewood, but only the LL16 is solid rosewood back and sides. I am very pleased with all of them, combined they cost less than a nice Taylor. Of course Taylors are made in the USA, so that point makes the 2 brands incomparable. I did swap out the bridge pins and saddle for bone, which is a cheap upgrade and worth while. Still sounded great without the upgrade.

Out of the box and once tuned this guitar played fantastic!!

After playing many Yamaha guitars over the years and always being impressed, I picked up a used LL16R. The build quality appears excellent to me. Very nicely appointed with an abalone rosette, maple binding, beautiful rosewood back and sides, and it just feels substantial. It's very playable, nice action, and the 5-piece neck is very comfortable. I think the quality, sound and tone of this guitar at this price point is exceptional. I've played and own several Martins, Taylors, Gibsons, and others. I can't put it in the same league as a Martin D-28, it's a different sounding guitar, and it's all personal preference. I rank it right up there with some of the best rosewood guitars I have played, and it's nice to have variety. And I have been gradually moving away from larger guitars, and playing more OM and 000 sizes, but this body shape is more comfortable than most.

I play in small venues, often as a lead player, but do solo stuff as well. I recently made this purchase so have yet to use it in a show. This guitar kind of sings, the overtones are amazingly beautiful and it has great sustain. The combination and quality of tone wood makes a smooth rich sound, I play a lot of single notes and every note sings out. The playability out of the box is not perfect, but I think once I get the action adjusted it will be nice. Because of the slight dip in the mids common of rosewood, this is an excellent guitar to sing with. My voice seems to fit perfectly. This is truly a great guitar and is made out of exceptional material, it also has a really great look to it, I like the light spruce top common of Engelmann spruce. I highly recommend this guitar, especially for the very reasonable cost.

In the last year I have bought every acoustic guitar you can think of, including 814ce, 516ce, 214ce Dlx, 414ce, hummingbird, D41, DC18e, DC28e, D1, Dcpa1, dcpa4, EF341, EF360, DV-03, LV-05, D17, 810ce, 510ce, 526ce, J45, just to name a few. I still own 7 of those listed above, but I must say I was shocked at how good the LL16 is. I love Yamaha guitars, I have a 1973 FG200 I bought new. But Yamaha has created a truly remarkable instrument with this model. First of all, it is beautiful, high quality rosewood. Stunning Engelman Spruce top, ebony fretboard and bridge, maple binding, high quality gold tuners, mother of pearl inlays, I mean it's worth 3 times what it cost. The volume coming out of it is loud but clear, and it just rings for days. Then, I plugged it in to my Fishman SA330 pa and wow, the reproduction of the sounds and tone was second to none. It came with a very nice Yamaha hard case, and while it's a dreadnaught it is a bit of a different shape with a narrower waist. All I can say is get one, now. No really, get one. You just won't believe how good it is. I am going to sell my GPRSGT because this is so much better. And I love Martin's. I have 4 of them, this is just so good I can cut one out and come out several hundred bucks ahead.

After five decades of playing every high end acoustic available, I had finally whittled my collection down to three favorites; an expensive Ovation, Taylor and Cort Jumbo Cutaway. All acoustic-electrics. I've owned four Martins, two Guilds, Gibson, Breedlove, Takamine, Zager, Ibanez, Epiphone and countless others. I wanted to add an all solid rosewood dreadnought again but just couldn't justify the price points of the major makers these days. With a simple google search I came across the Yamaha LL16 and checked out some demos on YouTube. They sounded great online so I took a chance and bought one without playing it first. Now I can say, like so many others. that there are no disappointments with this instrument. The tone is so well balanced I was surprised. Not bottom heavy like Martins but plenty of beef there when you want to dig into it. Beautiful overtones and clear and distinct top end too. A great players guitar as well as balanced accompaniment for singers. If all the LL16's sound as good as mine then this instrument is the best value in a solid rosewood guitar on the market today IMHO. I like it so much I'm thinking about adding their mahogany and 12-string versions to round out all the acoustic sound options that appeal to me. Don't hesitate to buy one of these. It's everything they advertise and more. One thing that seemed odd was that they used hard plastic for the nut and saddle, but these are easily upgraded and don't seem to degrade the sound quality at all.