Beautiful, well-polished guitar with solid-looking materials.
Takamine guitars are pretty much the standard for modern acoustics. I remember when they first hit the Irish shops as standard shelf life: the prices were outrageous, but at that time the Irish government automatically slapped a 33.3% VAT on any and every musical instrument you could buy because they were considered hobby items, not tools for professional artists.
This backfired for many music stores as the second hand market filled things in where shops couldn't compete. One good thing (of many) about that was how it kept a steady line of older built quality/classic items on the market and this kept the prices on them relatively high, because buying half-arsed imported shite from Taiwan at the same prices as thirty year old classic models was crazy.
But some new guitar brands like Takamine did very well and sold even at inflated pieces because they very much are investment items. Buy one today and use if carefully for the next twenty years, your money is still pretty much guaranteed because aged/matured high quality instruments tend to rise in value over time.
For example: this is the other guitar of the two Cecilia gave to me to research, a Gibson NV185 Nouveau series, assembled in Japan using American woods and pegs. Around 240 of these guitars slipped under quality control and as it turned out were assembled in America as well. The woods used along with the workmanship involved set a hefty price on them as they were overnight collector's items. I had hoped this was one of them but the serial number was just outside the 'magic' models released around the same time. But they're still worth serious money and there aren't many of them on the market. As you can see, the woods are extremely beautiful, the workmanship exceptional, the tone, roundness of projection, everything down to the tuning pegs are all to the highest standards. It was assembled in Japan around 1981/1983 and over the years has only developed further character of sound. These are not off-the-peg items. Today they're assembled to a buyer's specs, so there's no factory assembly, it's all done by hand in America.
So I told the owner the story, gave her the figures (age, value, approximate number of models available in the Nordic region) I was given by Finland's No.1 luthier
Kitarapaja in downtown Helsinki. She was amazed, thrilled. But nobody in her family plays so I told her to consider it money in the bank (four figures min) and put it away for a few more years and wait for the collector's market to peak again. In return for my extended efforts over a few weeks she gave me the Takamine to keep. That's only worth around €275/€325, but it's still a beautiful working guitar for any performer level. Built in 1981 and bought in Finland in 1982, it too will increase in value over time. But for now it's getting lots of domestic use and I'll likely give it to our own guitarist/producer Erkki to try out on the material we're working on lately. Everyone else who's tried her out loves the tone, the feel, the ease of action on the fret-board, the harmonic notes, and tuning system. The bridge pieces I'm currently using are custom-made, I bought them raw and filed them down to size myself. But I'd like to try some standard over the counter bridges to see what variations there are in her depending on bridge type, string type, pick-up or mic, etc.
I'm absolutely mad about her though and have yet to name her and sign-write the hard-case she came in.
Is there any truth to the claim that acoustic is more difficult to learn than electric? I'd always assumed beginners start with acoustic guitars before moving on.
It really depends on the player, the size of their fingers, their reach, etc. With acoustic playing, one must balance one's strumming and/or picking consistently with one's chord selection, keeping all elements of playing in harmony with each other. With electric, that process is (at least partially) lessened by the fact that the pick-ups and volume control/tone controls/pick-up selection can do some of the work for you. That's not to say it's easier to 'play' in the sense that it'll make you sound like a genius. Rather, it'll give you some guarantee that even if you're not the world's greatest player ever, you'll still have a floor under your playing that you can use as your foundation or basic range.
Most will start on acoustic because it's generally more affordable. With an electric, you need the guitar, the amp, your choice of signal processors (effects, stomp boxes, rack units, amp type, etc) cables, power supplies, noise reduction, etc. Even your strap and plectrums matter. Whereas you can but an acoustic off the rack and you're ready to go.
Having both to hand is of course preferable for any composer. But for me (I've recorded lots of guitar takes of my own over the years, but I'm not a traditional guitarist: my game is creating loops, using guitar effects as opposed to strumming along using chords) I'm much happier with the electric because it's already in the approximate sonic regions I prefer to operate in. My electric is a Washburn KC20V from 1983, not a collector's item but still a very desirable model for its time:
Four pick-ups: a pair of single coils on the bridge end, then two standard coils middle and fret-board side. There pick-up selection is in five points: two are out of phase and the other three as standard. Bot the volume and tone controls by the bridge are easily accessible in play mode for even finer expression. The whammy bar only de-tunes, it doesn't raise the pitch. But she's clean, noise free, lovely to play (rosewood fret-board, very solid) and comfortable to wear even down as low as I like to play. As low as my strap allows me, it makes the fingers stretch further along the neck.
Plus she looks awesome and her chrome really pops under stage lights.
I got her for €25 a few years ago from a sucker who was moving house but didn't know the value of it.
He was asking €35 so I offered €40 and he bit, then I went to get it and he said €25 was fine, take it away.
I laughed all the way home.
I'm still laughing today.
She's a babe.
and she was definitely coming on to people in the office. So one evening after work in the pub someone mentions that the cleaner girl was coming on to him when he was working late.. And I was thinking to myself - Oh yeah, tell us more, what happened, did you take her into the toilets and f*ck her brains out? No, in fact he was disgusted, he thought that she was a dirty bitch
