PRODUCT: Takamine EG50th – 50th Anniversary G Series
REVIEWER: Reza Nasseri
INFO: www.promusicaustralia.com
June 2012
Situated at the base of Mount Takamine, what originally started as a family business in the early 60’s has now expanded into one of the world’s most popular acoustic guitar companies. This long lineage of quality guitar production has now resulted in the birth of Takamine’s 50th anniversary models, and I had the chance to check out the G-series before they hit the stores.
The Takamine EG50th guitar is an acoustic-electric dreadnought cutaway, featuring a solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, rosewood bridge and fingerboard, gold rosette and machine heads, all in a full gloss finish surrounding the instrument. A limited edition vine inlay on the neck and pick-guard are only present on 50th anniversary models adding an extra touch of beauty and class to these guitars.
Unplugged I consider this guitar to be “The King of the Zing”, with an extremely bright chime that seems to sparkle over strummed chords and fingerpicked passages. The bright overtones come as a result of the strong Sitka Spruce employed, adding an enchanting harpsichord-like, renaissance-feel to the sound. While the emphasis is on top end when it comes to tone, there are still enough warm overtones to make this guitar sound full and classy, with solid projection due to the scalloped x-bracing under the spruce top.
The bridge and nut seemed to be made of some kind of composite “Tusq” style material, which was very smooth to the touch, aiding tuning at the nut and resonance at the bridge. Gold machine heads looked ‘the money’ and worked perfectly, making tuning a breeze. Visually the guitar favours a classic look with its full gloss finish, and the contrast between the subtle flamed mahogany and cream binding adds to this.
Plugged in, this guitar sounded very natural, with the TP4T preamp amplifying the natural tonal characteristics of this guitar. This preamp needed very little EQ to sound dynamite, and a splash of tiled room reverb helped bring the sound to life. The onboard 3-band EQ was wide and musical with just the right amount of cut and boost, so you can’t accidentally ruin your amplified tone. I was also delighted with the onboard tuner (which is something I’d like to see on every guitar one day) which worked very accurately and had an easy to read display.
The Takamine 50th Anniversary G series acoustics are classy, bright in tone and visually appealing. They are a unique instrument in terms of sound and looks, with an easy to use onboard preamp that results in clear, crisp acoustic tones.