Tacoma DF21E2

This is an update of an earlier review I had mislabeled DF21CE. It's really a DF21E2. Since I have had the guitar for a few months and gigged extensively, I think an update is in order, especially in reference to the action, fit, and finish department.

It still sounds great

When I bought this guitar I noticed that another Tacoma maple dreadnought hanging on the wall of the store had a neck in serious need of adjustment and a poor looking neck angle which I wasn't sure could be adjusted out without a neck set. But mine (a newer guitar) was fine. However, after taking it home to my unairconditioned cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, I noticed that the action became noticably worse as the weeks and months went by. I lowered the saddle and straightened the neck, but that only took care of the symtoms for awhile, leaving the unsatifactory neck angle as it was. After even more time, the action continued to grow worse, to the point that I decided that action must be taken. The left me with trying to return the guitar to Tacoma (probably the wise choice), or fixing the problem myself, since I am a guitar repair person, and probably voiding the warrantee in the process. Since I enjoy a challenge, obtained the guitar at a deep discount, and could easily turn it around in the music store, I decided to do the work myself. I removed the neck bolts, broke the glue joint between the fingerboard extention and the soundboard, and refit the joint to get a better angle on the neck. The work went fairly smoothly and soon I had a guitar whose playability matched it's looks and sound. I now will check to see if the situation stabilizes or worsens once again. Normally, the body distorsion will stop at a certain point (the wood doesn't want to stretch any more), and life will go on.
My suggestion to Tacoma would be to either strengthen the upper bouts (liek Martin's new design), or to build the guitar with a sharper angle initially and install a taller saddle.
If you are a purchaser and you are considering a Tacoma, try to find one with an optimum neck angle. Shy away from one with a shallow neck angle, because you'll be probably sending it back.
Tacoma makes a fine guitar, but this neck thing can be a critical issue, with contemporary demands for optimum playability as they are. Perhaps Tacoma is aware of the problem and is doing something to address it. I hope so, because they make a fine guitar in every other way.

Reliability and durability seem good aside from the neck angle on my guitar (and some other NEW Tacomas I have seen). Overall workmanship is excellent.

The guitar is a dreadnought with back and sides of outrageously flamed western curly maple, soundboard of sitka spruce, and neck of one piece mahogany. Fretboard, bridge, and headstock overlay are rosewood. The binding on the body and neck is tortoise shell plastic and the purfling and rosette are dark variegated wood with somewhat of a classic guitar sense of refinement. The color of the spruce and maple is very similar and the dark binding/purfling provide a very nice and rich contrast. The body is finished in high gloss and the neck is stained mahogany with a satin/semi-gloss finish. The bridge is shaped in Tacoma's unique "tone-shape" which has no sharp corners anwhere on it. The pearl fretboard inlay are "wave" shaped and reflect both the shape of the peghead and the unique shape of the bridge. On this blond guitar I think the design is elegant but I've also seen the red sunburst version of this model and I think that the same ornamention looks overdone and garish on that model. I'm glad that the guitar I purchased sounded better than the red one! The frets are jumbo (unusual for an acoustic), and the guitar is equipped with an undersaddle pickup system with no exterior controls to mar its clean and elegant looks. The nut is 1 3/4" and the shape is fuller than current Martins and Taylors. It feels like there is real substance to the neck. Tuners are sealed and nut and compensated saddle are Tusq. The guitar is equipped with a nice faux-leather handle case which doesn't appear to be quite as heavy as Martin's Gieb style, but quite nice nonetheless.

I should note that this guitar is more than just a Martin or Gibson knockoff. The bridge design is unique in both shape and profile and the X-bracing patter is quite different from the ubiquitous Martin design. In addition, the shapping of the bracing throughout is acutely triangular, culminating in a sharp point instead of the typical round shape. Thus the braces remain strong while being reduced dramatically in mass and weight, kind of like the older Gibson flat tops which sound so good.

I just dropped into this store while making a business related trip to Waynesville, NC, just to pass my lunch hour and to see what was going on. There were about 5 Tacomas sandwiched between numerous Martins, gibson, Guilds, Takamines. This Tacoma immediately attracted my attention with its sharp good looks, so I took it down, tuned it up, and was quickly blown away by its volume and tone. It was loud, crisp, bright, balanced, and full, all at the same time. I ran through some old-time flatpicked tunes, some Celtic fingerstyle, some ragtime, and noted that this guitar did an excellent job whatever it was called up to play I love the look of curly maple anyway, but I have found that the other curly maple guitars have owned (Lo-Prinzi, Martin, Guild) have been a little too bright and brittle and lacking in low-end richness. Perhaps its the softer western big-leaf maple that Tacoma uses, their unique bracing pattern developed for this model, or a combination of the two, but this guitar seems to "have it all" tonally for me. I especially love the clarity of the treble and the clear definition of the bass notes. While rosewood exhibits a very profoundly resonant base character, this maple guitar is strong bass-wise, but the notes are incredibly clear and distinct in a way which is quite different from rosewood. Because of the overall balance of this guitar, it is quite strong both as a fingerstyle or a flatpicked guitar. It also is quite sensitive to a light touch and doesn't break up when it's pushed. I've already giggled with this gem and note that it ahppily accomodates any type of music I call upon it to play.
It's an all around useful guitar and doesn't have such pronounced strengths and weaknesses that it dictated how I play it (and believe me that there are axes which do so).

The overall workmanship on this guitar was very clean and precise, befitting a high-end guitar. The only detectable flaw was a slight chip of wood missing between the first and second bridge pins on the bridge, probably as a result of hole drilling, but this was a very minor point. I did notice that Tacoma uses a different style of kerfing than seen in other makes, and the slots in the kerfing where the brace-ends are tucked are not. quite as clean and precise as Martin's but in function I don't think it means a thing. Its just an aesthetic issues which one notes in high end guitars. Nonetheless, I guess I'll dropped the rating to 9.5.

I have no reason to believe I'll have any problems with this guitar in reliability issues. It seems to be solid and substantially constructed guitar. I have already and will continue to use it at gigs without a back up because it appears really solid and is capable of accomodating all my styles.

I've had no contact with them at this point.

After owning scads of Martins, Taylors, Larrivees, 2 Santa Cruz, 2 Bourgeois, etc, etc, this is my first Tacoma. My previous impression was that Tacomas were very good values as mid-priced guitars. I;ve revised that impression. I think that guitar is an outrageously good value and I'll stack it up against any guitar out there tone-wise. Truthfully, I can't say that I've ever played a guitar that I liked any better. Certainly I like it better than the two Santa Cruzes and two Bourgeois that I've owned. I once owned a Martin D-18 special I liked awfully well (which was not as powerful as the Tacoma), a Larrivee D-9 (which was a little boomy on the mic), and a wonderful 1969 Martin D-18S (which was pretty beat up). But this Tacoma is good and it certainly was a super deal (although I don't think that Tacoma's have a great resale at this point). I also own a wonderful little Martin 000-15s which is hard to beat and performs wonderfully in old-time and fingerstyle music. I guess you can say I love most eveything about it, although it doesn't look that traditional, so I guess the Martin will get the call for old-time (old-time musicians don't really like anything that looks fancy, even Martins.

If this guitar were stolen, I would consider replacing it with another Tacoma, if I could find another that sounded this good at the same price.