General Music Chat

My New Takamine 12-string GD30CE12BLK ($620) has a beautiful, highly resonant deep & rich sound.
It's like holding down the loud pedal on a piano . . . such a full sound.
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I can see why these guitars are so highly thought of!
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But the strings were high, and I'd been considering removing the saddles to file/sand them down, to lower the action.
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I was planning on spending a few hours sanding down the TWO bridges. (Yep, TWO. This thing is in PERFECT tune.)
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It was 100 times easier than I expected.
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Instead of one pickup, this acoustic guitar has SIX pickups, all integrated into the saddles in the bridge.
No wonder it sounds so good when it's plugged in.
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And UNDER the saddle 'channel bars' - SHIMS!
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When you pop them out, the metal channel holding the saddle (with the integrated pickups) is lowered as a unit, and the action is lowered.
The whole shebang gets lowered, and the saddle now sits lower in the bridge.
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It's shipped with all the shims in place, with the highest action.
Different thicknesses give you a choice of 3 different heights.
The guys who designed this are smart.
I remove all the shims, because I need low action for my music.
No sanding.

EASY.
And it's a dream to play and listen to.

My recent joy and "affordable" surprise was a Gretsch 2256 semi hollow with P-90's
Playing a lot less distortion these days. What a joy those bell like cleans with the deep rich mid range.

I like my Takamine so much that I ordered a second one, a more expensive model.
So- just a couple weeks after buying the first one (a Takamine GD30CE-12 string), I ordered a
2nd one.
A Takamine EF381SC-Keystone Legacy 12 string Pro series.

It's a lifetime guitar.
The thing is that it looks almost completely identical to the one I now play.
But looks aren't everything!
It cost me $1000 more ($1600 w/case) but that'll definitely be the last 12 string guitar I ever buy.
Like the Takamine GD30CE, the Takamine EF381 also a Dreadnought, w/a Venetian Cutaway to reach those really high notes. Back & sides are maple, the top is solid Sitka Spruce.
If you want to see some cool things about acoustic guitars, go to Youtube, and look up the Takamine factory tour . . . pretty neat.
There's some impressive craftmanship going into these guitars!
$600 or $1600, you can't go wrong getting one of these.
btw, I've been playing guitar for 50 years.
But - a word to the wise: they can't make these guitars fast enough to keep up with demand.
These guitars are hot: expect a wait of 6 months to a year before you even get to see your new guitar.

btw - I ordered my 2nd Takamine 12-string in May; and I'm still waiting for it to get here.

That sounds like tough duty. New gear acquisition purgatory! Good luck. And hopefully it'll come soon and doesn't make any travels in stoopid cold temps.

I took my Breedlove C250/SM-12 for a spin yesterday and just had a blast with it after not playing any 12 string for a good while. Always fun reconnecting.

Yeah, I paid for that 2nd Takamine 12-string way back in May, and it's still back-ordered.
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I'll bet that when It finally comes in I could tack another $500 on it, and sell it within a week, if I wanted to.

I wanted to follow up on this post to say that I got my 2nd Takamine guitar a few months back.
It's the EF381SC-12, paid a little over $1700 for it.
It came with a phenomenal case, best case I've ever had.
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Current prices went up a few hundred, so I'm glad I bought it when I did.
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Beautiful guitar, very close in appearance to the 1st one, the GD30CE-12.
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With a good, solid hardshell case the GD30CE-12 was a little over$800.
The EF381SC-12 is about$1000 more than that.
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The Ef381 has a slightly thinner neck, and a different sound than the GD30CE. Hard to describe . . . maybe kinda sorta a louder mid range . . .
The GD30CE as a split bridge, and the EF381 has a straight bridge,
Tuning is terrific, and bought guitars really stay in tune a long, long time.
(As with any guitar, expect tuning to start changing if you bring it into an environment 20 degrees hotter or colder, or from a dry environment to a humid one. I have a wood stove, so during the dry winter I kept humidors in each case with the guitars).
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A couple real stand-out features for BOTH the $600 and the $1800 guitar.
1) Both these guitars are LOUD; you don't ever have to bang the strings.
2) Both these guitars a perfectly designed and crafted, and the RESONACE of both guitars is incredible. When one sting vibrates, the rest tend to vibrate right along.
3) Because of this, both guitars have an incredible SUSTAIN. When you strike a chord, it just keeps ringing and ringing forever. Makes you think of the sound of a harpsicord . . .
4) Each set of strings has its own pick-up. And when you plug these guitars in, the sound through the built in electronics is incredible, world- class.