Takamine guitars

Takamine Co., Ltd.
Native name
 Takamine Gakki Seisakusho
Private
Industry Musical instruments
Founded 1962 (1962)
Headquarters Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan
Area served
 Worldwide
Products
Website Official website
EG-361SC model
1978 F-340S model

Takamine Co., Ltd. (株式会社 高峰楽器製作所 Kabushiki-gaisha Takamine Gakki Seisakusho) is a Japanese guitar manufacturer based in Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan. Takamine is known for its steel-string acoustic guitars.

The company was founded in May 1962; in 1978 they were one of the first companies to introduce acoustic-electric models, where they pioneered the design of the preamplifier-equalizer component.

Although English speakers sometimes incorrectly pronounce the company name as /ˈtækəmaɪn/ ("ta - ka - mine"), the correct pronunciation, as in the original Japanese, is /tɑːkɑːˈmiːneɪ/ ("ta - ka - mee - nay"). The name was taken from Mount Takamine located in Nakatsugawa.

Company history

While known primarily for their acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars, Takamine produced a limited run of very high quality solid body electric guitars in the early 1980s. These are the GX100 (Gibson Explorer body style), GX200 (proprietary type body style similar to a Stratocaster, stop tailpiece bridge), GX200-T or TB, (same as GX200 only with a tremolo bridge), GZ300 (proprietary design), and GZ340 (proprietary design). The GX200 and GZ340 contain factory DiMarzio made pickups.

The Takamine EG523SC came with a clear finish Spruce top and flame maple back and sides. On top is a TK-40 pickup with a tuner and equalizer powered by a 9V battery.

In the early 1980s, Martin Guitars issued a letter asserting that the Takamine F-340, as well as Takamine's acoustic guitars in general, included a logo design that was allegedly nearly identical to that of the Martin Models. According to Chris F. Martin IV, CEO of CF Martin and Company, in a speech given to the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum members on 8 August 2005, no lawsuit was ever actually filed, and Takamine did change the appearance of their guitar logo.

Every year since 1987, Takamine has presented a Limited Edition Guitar model, which has been produced in very limited quantities up to a few hundred guitars for worldwide distribution. These guitars have come with the latest pickup/preamplifier combination available and artful inlays, often with motifs focusing on nature or astronomical phenomena.[1]

Since March 2015, Takamine's US-American distributor has been ESP Guitars.[2]

Series

References

  1. ↑ Book on Limited Editions. Retrieved from http://www.sttec.com/.
  2. ↑ "ESP and Takamine Announce Partnership in the USA". ESP Guitars. 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.