Takamine guitars

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.

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.