Takamine Guitars

Takamine (Japanese高峰 楽 器 制作 所, Takamine Gakki Seisakujo, dt " musical instruments Takamine factory ") is a guitar Companies in Japan, the high-quality instruments, primarily manufactures acoustic guitars for over 40 years.

Foundation

1962, combined a number of independent luthiers in the small town of Sakashita (after a local government reform is, the church today Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture), to produce guitars under a common brand name. The nearby mountain Takamine ( means " high peak " ) served as the namesake.

Initially, classical guitars were built, but over time, the share of Western guitars.

1968 joined the internationally recognized luthier Mass Hirade the company, who also introduced the " Hirade " Master Series. He brought a number of significant improvements in terms of design and the quality of the guitars. His hobbies were classical concert guitars, his masters series still enjoys an excellent reputation among concert guitarist. Mass Hirade it is also due to that the international sales was recorded in 1975.

Takamine began very early to experiment with pickups and gained very quickly expertise in this field. In the 1970s finally brought an acoustic guitar model on the market, its piezoelectric / Pre-amp produced an unusual for this time of clarity and a wide sound range. Within a short time Takamine was known with this system worldwide. These innovations in the field of electro-acoustic sound pick-up and the development of further collection systems brought Takamine soon become the market leader and a kind of pioneering position in the field of electro-acoustic guitars.

One of these developments was the so-called " Cool-Tube " pickup. This is built into the frame of the acoustic guitar and includes a mini -amplifier with a small electron tube ( = tube ), which transforms the signal picked up by the piezo pickup into a warm, punchy sound. The Cool-Tube technology has been continuously developed by Takamine, with the current CTP -2 ( = CoolTubePreamp 2 ) represents the interim development tip.

6 -string guitars are factory 12-53 strings, 12 -string guitars with D' Addario EXP38 Light 12 - String D'Addario EXP16 Light equipped with 10-47 strings. For guitars with nylon strings D' Addario Pro Arte EJ45 Normal Tension strings are used.

Takamine today produces a wide variety of series of high-priced models to more favorable G- series. The G- series is, however, not produced in the mother country Japan, but in South Korea (G-, EC - 500 Series ) and China ( G, EG Series 100 to 400 ).

Acoustic Guitars Takamine include not only those of Martin, Gibson and Lakewood to the most popular, currently to be acquired models in high-quality sector and upper price segment.

Since 1987 Takamine Limited Edition Takamine gave the company every year from guitar. These guitars are mostly built in quantities of several hundred instruments per year handcrafted in Sakashita, the headquarters of the company tradition in Japan. It's always electro-acoustic guitars that are equipped with the latest pickup and preamp and have the complex next to rare woods inlaid. Since November 2007 there is a book about the Takamine and the guitars of the Limited series with detailed information, color photos, data sheets and historical and production-specific chapters.

Guitarists

Some famous guitarists work with Takamine, including Jon Bon Jovi, Garth Brooks, Nils Lofgren, Bruce Springsteen, Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Kosho of the Söhne Mannheims, Meredith Brooks, Julia Nunes, Richard Kruspe of Rammstein and others.

Distribution

The distribution rights for Takamine in the U.S. belong to the Kaman Music Group, who in 1978 got the rights to acquire the distributor Coast Wholesale. Since that time, Kaman has a smaller proportion of Takamine, the Kaman got as compensation for the active promotion of Takamine U.S. sales of Takamine. The industrial group Kaman is also the mother of the guitar Ovation. Beginning of 2008, the Fender company Kaman Kaman Music from the group, which thus parted with his entire music business. In the U.S. and in Europe Fender took over the sales of the previous Kaman guitar brands, including Takamine. The German distributor has taken the company Fender / Germany in Dusseldorf in July 2007.