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the video review of the Alvarez-Yairi WY1TWR
Kazuo Yairi is justly regarded as one of Japan's greatest luthiers. His partnership with American distributor St. Louis Music (now part of Loud Technologies)—which birthed the Alvarez-Yairi brand in the mid-'60s—has been one of the most consistently fruitful partnerships in modern guitar history. He has also always been an innovator, contributing design concepts to guitars for Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia that mated traditionally built bodies with Modulus graphite necks, and developing his signature direct-coupled bridge, a two-piece design that affixes bridge pins directly to the top to minimize bridge lift and increase break angle.
In the guise of the WY1TWR, the Alvarez-Yairi penchant for innovation is alive and well. From its soundhole-free design and thinline, cutaway profile in dashing cherry-wine red to its Fishman Aura imaging technology, this is a guitar that's bold in appearance and designed for today's performing player. But the WY1TWR is also a very comfortable guitar to play, and with the Aura emulating a microphone sound, it's also easy to see the guitar having applications in a home recording context.
DARING STYLING
The WY1TWR isn't the first Alvarez-Yairi to explore the concept of a soundhole-free design. The Express and Fusion series, which debuted in the early 1990s, embraced a similar approach. The WY1TWR explores some of the same styling themes but incorporates several more timeless elements like herringbone trim and a generally less-cluttered look.
Attention to detail on the WY1TWR is superb. The spruce top's straight grain was plainly visible through the glossy cherry-wine red finish of our review guitar (the instrument is also available in sunburst and black) and it managed to be subtle and flashy at once. The beautifully flamed maple on the back, meanwhile, reveals an understated tiger-stripe pattern that enhances the luxurious feel of the guitar. A bound rosewood fretboard is elegantly unadorned with fretmarkers—save for the signature Yairi diagonal at the 12th fret—which lends a subdued styling counterpoint to the guitar's more striking elements. And the trademark Yairi direct-coupled bridge, which reduces the bridge footprint, provides a subtle architectural touch to the top's "blank slate" appearance.
The thinline body is narrower in profile than the DY88 models that made up most of the Fusion and Express series guitars, which makes the guitar look and feel much more like an electric guitar. And the guitar's cherry red hue definitely can leave a player feeling like they've crossed over into flashier electric territory.
FUSION IN FEEL
If the look of the WY1TWR suggests a guitar designed for players with a foot in each of the electric and acoustic worlds, the guitar feels similarly tailored. The neck has a C profile that feels like a cross between a heftier '60s-style Fender neck and a more contemporary Martin. And with light-gauge strings, the thinline Yairi beckons the player to dig into deep electric-style blues bends.
Considering the absence of a soundhole, the WY1TWR sounds responsive, if quiet, unplugged. And its spruce top and maple back and sides still seem to impart both the warmer and snappier qualities, respectively, of those tonewoods. But the WY1TWR is clearly designed as an amplified acoustic and it's an ideal platform for Fishman's Aura imaging technology.
ADVANCED AMPLIFICATION
The WY1TWR custom Aura electronics include a Fishman undersaddle pickup, a side-mounted preamp with just two dials (one for volume and the other for adding the Aura's image to the pickup signal), and one sliding switch (for selecting one of four Aura images). A nine-volt battery is accessible through a special compartment at the bottom of the guitar, and instead of the now ubiquitous endpin jack, the guitar has an electric guitar–style jack in the lower bout. The Aura images available on the WY1TWR are designed to emulate the performance of four different microphones—setting number one on the slider switch is an image of a Neumann U 87 large diaphragm condenser, number two is a Schoeps CMC 6 Ug, setting three is a DPA 4011, and setting four is a Neumann KM 84.
Plugged in to a Fishman Loudbox 100 amplifier with the tone controls set flat and just a touch of reverb, each image, as well as the straight undersaddle pickup, tended to sound a little boxy. My first impulse was to dial in more of the Aura image for each of the four settings. While this was relatively effective for images one and four, images two and three remained somewhat compressed sounding.
Ultimately, the fix for each setting was a more aggressive roll-off of the midrange, and to a lesser extent, the high end. This did make me long for some form of onboard EQ, as I had to rely on the amplifier itself when making these tweaks. This adjustment brought out significantly more color and expanded the tone spectrum of each setting. Images one and four remained the most natural and full sounding, imparting a hearty low end that complements the more-cutting undersaddle pickup, expands the guitar's tone palate, and offers versatility to the stage guitarist—particularly one who has to adapt to different song styles, mixes, and moods.
As you'd expect from a thin-bodied guitar without a soundhole, the WY1TWR is also very feedback resistant, giving the performing player a little more volume ceiling to adapt to the din of a noisy crowd or a band. And in my own band rehearsals, the guitar held up admirably through a Yamaha PA, maintaining a toneful presence amid a full drum kit, bass guitar, and organ.
The Wrap
Guitarists who long for a design that deviates from the norm will no doubt find the WY1TWR intriguing. With its electric-guitar playability, top-shelf pickup system, and striking looks, this Alvarez-Yairi is not a guitar for the purist who wants to play strictly unplugged, yet it offers a world of intriguing possibilities for the gigging and recording player. |
