Takamine Guitars
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Takamine Co., Ltd. (高峰楽器製作所 Takamine Gakki Seisakusho IPA: /tɑkɑ↓mine/?) pronounced tock-a-mee-neh, is a Japanese guitar manufacturer based in Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan. Takamine is known for its steel-string 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 preamp-equalizer component.
The company name is often mispronounced IPA: /tækəmajn/ by English speakers.
[edit] Miscellany
Takamine's US-American distributor is Kaman.
A Takamine copy of a Martin guitar was the cause of a letter from Martin Guitars in the early 1980s because Takamine's acoustic guitars including the logo design were supposedly nearly identical to Martin Models[citation needed]. According to Chris F. Martin IV, CEO of CF Martin and Company in a speech given to the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum members on August 8th, 2005, no lawsuit was ever actually filed, and Takamine did change the appearance of their guitars{[citation needed].
Every year since 1987 Takamine presents a Limited Edition Guitar model, which gets produced in very limited quantities up to a few hundred guitars for the world wide distribution. These guitars always come with the latest pickup/preamplifier combination available and artful inlays, often with motifs focusing on nature or astronomical phenomena. The first book about Takamine guitars will be available in November 2007. It is focusing on the Limited Guitar Series, but also covering historical and technical details of Takamine instruments (info at [1]).
