Introduction
There's no doubt about the originality of the guitar on our test bench today. By way of introduction, it has some peculiar, or rather personal, touches in its design. I'm not referring only to its looks, but also to the factors involved in the construction systems or internal design of the instrument. On the other hand, the price-to-quality ratio these guitars usually offer is striking. That has been our experience with guitars like the Yamaha AES 620 and other archtop models, as well as the company's basses. Yamaha makes products that hold their own perfectly well against the competition, often offering good gear at market-level prices and sometimes even below other brands that offer the same or less.

RGX A2
Today's model is surprising for a number of reasons. Let's take them one at a time.

Construction philosophy: AIR INTERNAL RESONANCE
For years guitar building has been based on the idea that the heavier and more uniform the materials, the better the sound. YAMAHA breaks with that idea with its new A.I.R. (Air Internal Resonance) technology. This new concept, applied to guitar building, is based on the use of very light materials that have a tonal response equal or superior to traditional materials.

The RGX A2 certainly is especially light. It catches your attention the moment you pick it up. Many guitarists value this: instruments that aren't heavy and are easy to handle (I mean soft to the touch and comfortable to play). For all those who shy away from the heavy, legendary models of the well-known brands, this is an appealing option thanks to its innovative character, its stability, a more than satisfying sound considering its price and, as mentioned, the relief its low weight gives your back.

Design
Clearly innovative touches. Besides the air internal resonance, we find several personal aesthetic details. The body belongs to the Stratocaster family, though it's more streamlined. Its shapes are somewhat more pointed and elongated. The body is sculpted, with different widths along its length, getting narrower toward the bridge and wider toward the headstock. The model we reviewed is finished in white lacquer, both on the top of the body and on the front of the headstock, which also has a touch of gray. The back is finished in pearl gray lacquer.

While we're talking about its innovative design, let me take the opportunity to point out other eye-catching aesthetic details. For example, the two gray lines running across the body, or the design of the tuners, which are cylindrical and ridged and a far cry from the standard tuner format found on most guitars.

The RGX A2 also adds indicator lights. Surprising, right? It's true: the body houses a battery in the back, just like the battery that powers a preamp in a bass. And what is this battery for? When you plug the cable into the instrument, a light suddenly appears around one of the knobs. The purpose of this light signal is to tell us which pickup is being used.

Since the pickup selector switch is round, located next to the volume knob (and looking just like it), these lights tell us whether we're using the bridge pickup, the neck pickup or both. In one case the light is blue, in another it's green, and when both are on, it's blue/green.

Personally I would have preferred lights of another color, I don't know, something warmer like red, orange or yellow, which would give it a slightly more aggressive edge. In any case it's just a personal observation, and as for tastes... you know how it is.

Electronics
I couldn't hold back from describing those magic lights in the previous section, though they really belong in this one. So I won't repeat what the battery and light circuit are for.

The pickups are two white-finished Alnico humbuckers. The circuit is controlled by two selectors/knobs: pickup selector and volume. The absence of a tone control is striking; nonetheless, the sound is quite manageable by switching between pickup combinations, and obviously you'll have the tone controls on your amp or mixer.

The sound
Moving past its eye-catching aesthetic eccentricities, let's focus on what matters (or at least what should matter to a guitarist, along with tuning and stability): its sound.

Despite its dual-coil pickups, the guitar delivers moderately sharp tones; more so than expected. I especially liked this because it makes the instrument versatile. You get thicker sounds from the neck pickup which, with the right distortion, does well in hard-hitting, fat-sounding settings. It doesn't reach the darkness of other configurations like a Les Paul, a PRS or even Yamaha's own AES 620, but it has a fitting vibe that works in that context. The advantage is that at the other end, the brighter sounds with more attack, it outshines the guitars mentioned. This sharp side is what makes it a versatile instrument that will serve you well in both "matte" and "glossy" settings (it sounds like we're talking about finishes, but we're not).

To wrap up the sound section, I want to stress that it's striking and effective, more than you'd expect for €480.

Tuning, bridge and tuners
At first I found the tuner design a bit awkward, though as I used them I realized it was more a matter of habit than anything else, since they work efficiently and their precision is perfectly adequate.

Its simple, fixed bridge means the strings aren't subjected to drastic changes in tension, so it's harder to knock the instrument out of tune while playing. However, when you bend strings and so on, the guitar is affected by those pulls on the strings, and both the bridge and the tuners need to be well designed to hold each string properly.

I tuned the instrument once, played for a while and only had to touch it up at the beginning. So it seemed to me to have acceptable tuning stability and fine intonation. I don't know how the materials the guitar is finished in will behave over time, except for the wood of its neck, maple, which as you all know is highly prized and therefore promises to be suitable. As for the body, I imagine this "plastic" finish will be less prone than wood to warping from humidity and temperature changes. In short, I expect this good intonation and tuning stability to hold up over time.

Conclusions
Honestly, the guitar tipped the scales in its favor considering the €480 price. This price range is relatively modest, and yet the instrument performed like others that cost considerably more. I don't think it's a luxury axe, but it is an extremely competitive guitar within other brands' product ranges between €400 and €800. So if your budget is around there, you should at least try this one before deciding on any alternative. From what I hear from other guitarists, especially younger generations, innovation is valued, breaking away from conventional designs, and especially the freedom of movement a lightweight guitar provides. On that front there's no doubt: it's been a long time since I tried a guitar that weighs as little as this one; in fact, I'm not sure I've ever tried one this light.

To sum up, the YAMAHA RGX A2 is a good option if what you're looking for is a reasonably moderate price, a guitar that weighs next to nothing, is innovative, has distinctive design touches (above all the lights and the shape of its tuners) and the versatility to move through all kinds of sounds, with attack and brightness generally predominating, while still holding its own in dense textures.