Takamine

I just received my EF381DX today, and all I can say is "WOW!"  The detail and finish work is superb.  The factory setup is very good as well.  I will probably have it taken in for minor bridge adjustment, but nothing too serious.  For comparison, I owned an EF381SC about 15 years ago and the factory setup and finish work was less than stellar and needed a little bit of adjustment for the action.  Don't get me wrong, it sounded amazing, but for the price I paid at the time, it could've been a little better.  This guitar sounds exactly like I remember how the SC sounded all those years ago, and is far superior in finish work.  The binding, fretboard inlays, headstock inlay and Abalone purfling and rosette are perfectly done.  The bone nut and bridge saddle are shaped cleanly and with precision (way better than my old SC), although I prefer either a B string compensated saddle or fully compensated saddle.  The pearloid tuning machines and perfectly buffed gloss finish round out the amazing look of this guitar.  Great work, Takamine!!!

Amazing looking guitar. I love my Ef381sc now imagine this ... Hopefully One day I can get it in my hands.

 How lovely. If only I could afford $2000 for a guitar! I want a good twelve string so bad rigjt now too. Thanks for getting me excited. I’m on my third Takamine. The first I bought at a store in Danvers Ma. Called Daddy’s Junky Music. I traded in an old Fender 12 string, an Ibanez 6 String, a Harmony Mandolin, a Trumpet, a Baritone, and a very old electric guitar that was a hollow body green starburst I guess you woulc call it that was called an Ideal which I figured was a Sears special or something. The guitar was Rosewood in color and it was a special edition and in 1987 was priced at $849 I believe. Loved it but kind hot sick about getting only $350 total for all of those instruments. Wrote 11 songs and learned many classic rock tunes with it until I was playing it and the strap came off the bass and it fell to the floor and the electronics didn’t work anymore. Since then  purchased a Natural colored Gseries, and now I have a G series with a 3 piece back. I love it, but it doesn’t compare to the first one I had. The limited rosewood. I was actually playing at an open Mic at a place in my hometown of Gloucester Ma. Called the Rhumbline and a guitar player by the name of Fly Amero asked me if I would let David Brown who played for Billy Joel borrow it to play a few songs with him. Fly is a Great right handed string left handed guitar player who I know played with the band Orleams at a time. I said sure he could use it. When David Brown returned the guitar to me he said it was very nice and I said thanks, I’m honored that you played it. The Fly came to me and said wojld you like David to etch his initials in it and I laughed and said are you crazy? Anyway I ended up trading it in after the electronics had stop working in like 1994 and I got $600 for it even though I said the pick up wasn’t working. This guitar was like a reddish brown color. I haven’t seen one like it since. If I only knew it could have been fixed easily I would love to have it now. But that limited rosewood guitar is probably the last Takamine I can afford that wasn’t a G series. I learned a lot with that guitar.