What's with Takamine?

deejayen

Thanks, Boogieman.  I was at a dealership, but they only had one Japan-built Takamine in stock.  It wasn't a dreadnought, but their 2023 Limited Edition guitar.  I quickly decided that its tone wasn't what I was looking for, and I would have described it exactly as you did.

It's a shame the dealership don't stock some of the other models, as I may like some of them, but the particular guitar I tried has somewhat cooled my enthusiasm.  I had been considering buying a Takamine mail-order, but it's unlikely I'd do that now.

ICBM

There is still one Takamine I'd really like to try, but they're very rare - and very expensive, which given that it will be either very me or very *not* me, I can't take the chance of buying one to find out, even if I could justify the cost...

https://www.takamine.com/TB10

(The nut width specification does put me off too, but it's actually hard to believe it's accurate, from the photos - it doesn't look that wide.)

hollywoodrox

susbemol said:

The UK distributor is KORG UK (https://brands.korg.co.uk/), not Rose Morris.

Might be worth getting in touch with them directly: https://www.takamine.co.uk/pages/support

It was Korg when I bought mine in the 90s and I used to get a Takamine newsletter ,I’m not sure if it’s still Korg, they’re a big enough company though

hollywoodrox

I was looking at an old Santa Fe  for sale on the internet & it said tube pre amp & sure enough on the pic inside the sound hole a tiny little tube . I never recall seeing them in my catalogue around 98 99

Whistler

hollywoodrox said:

I was looking at an old Santa Fe  for sale on the internet & it said tube pre amp & sure enough on the pic inside the sound hole a tiny little tube . I never recall seeing them in my catalogue around 98 99

My 1997 Ltd edition Takamine is a Santa Fe with an inlaid Gecko around the soundhole and Gecko footprints on the fretboard. Back then they had the latest Takamine preamp which was ordinary. 19 years later, in 2016, the preamp dies and I bought a Takamine CTP-3 Cool-Tube preamp which was introduced somewhere between 1997 and 2016 - quite likely after your 98/99 catalogue. The replacement preamp cost me £300 in 2016 but my goodness, the plugged-in sound is amazing!

ICBM

hollywoodrox said:

I was looking at an old Santa Fe  for sale on the internet & it said tube pre amp & sure enough on the pic inside the sound hole a tiny little tube . I never recall seeing them in my catalogue around 98 99

I think the Cool Tube preamp came later than that. It does genuinely use a valve - I took one out to be sure! It's actually a standard 12AU7/ECC82.

With more modern Takamines you can't be sure the electronics are original - in the 90s Takamine took the unique in the industry, and very commendable, decision to make all their preamps going forward compatible with the same push-in mounting and connections, so a preamp can be replaced easily and upgraded to a newer model if preferred. This alone attracts me to them, since one of the major bugbears with older electro-acoustics is preamps failing, or simply becoming obsolete, and being impossible to replace without major work... usually at about the point the guitar itself is maturing nicely.

Lon,prs

Well after thinking my new Takamine was a nice guitar I returned it after 3 weeks..

Put lighter strings on it 11s down  from 12s and the neck has no give..backed off the truss rod and zero relax..
Strings buzzing and the neck doesn't even move with me trying..very poor..

So I have a look at something else, probably not from China..

guitarjack66

Lon,prs said:

Well after thinking my new Takamine was a nice guitar I returned it after 3 weeks..

Put lighter strings on it 11s down  from 12s and the neck has no give..backed off the truss rod and zero relax..
Strings buzzing and the neck doesn't even move with me trying..very poor..

So I have a look at something else, probably not from China..

Let's not bring in China in again. They cause trouble wherever they go. Always choose Dresden.
I wont insert poor taste quip about being bomb proof though.