Industry Musical instruments Website Official website Headquarters Nakatsugawa | Area served Worldwide Founded 1959 Type of business Private | |
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Native name Takamine Gakki Seisakusho Products Acoustic classical guitars
Acoustic bass guitars
Preamplifiers
Pickups
Transducers Profiles | ||
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.
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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.
Since March 2015, Takamine's US-American distributor has been ESP Guitars.