Product: Tacoma EM19
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
03/15/2001
at
10:03am
by
jamie
Email: jamie<dot>m<dot>wagner at wdi<dot>disney<dot>com
Features
:
8
MAde in 2000 most likely. 14 frets to the body. solid sitka spruce top. No electronics. Solid mahogany back and sides, mahogany neck. Gloss finish top, back and sides. Body is best described as small jumbo. Standard ebony bridge (Tacoma has their own shape) and fretboard. Black Gotoh tuners. Very playable neck. Very nice hard shell case included in price
Sound
:
8
I bought this guitar for finger style/acoustic blues to contrast the Martin HD-28 that I own. This guitar holds its own against Martin OOO-16 mahoganies and J-15 jumbo magogany that I tried. In fact, it kind of blew them out of the water. I tried a couple OOO-16's -- one was comparable, the other sounded crappy and buzzed on the high e string (could have been the fault of Guitar Center handling I suppose). It has that well balanced small body sound with some very subtle over tones, very nice mid-range. I really don't have any dislikes on this guitar. For the price, I couldn't find anything better.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
Set up very nicely. Action suits me fine. The top is one of the things that drew me to this guitar. It has a realy nice cross grain look, much like my HD-28. Other guitars in this price range had tops that just looked like pieces of wood, if you know what I mean. No flaws in wood, finish or craftsmanship that I could find. I don't think it had been in the store that long as the strings seemed pretty fresh.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
Seems very durable so far. Tuners are tight and it stays in tune also. Hardware is sturdy and the black finish is a nice touch. I really don't play out except with friends but I would definitely rely on this guitar in any situations I might find myself in (except if I had to use it to defend myself against a gang of thieves)
Customer Support
:
8
The Tacoma area rep. happened to be in the store when I bought this guitar and he was very helpful. Pretty standard warranty except Tacoma offers a transferrable warranty which is a nice feature if I ever decide to sell this beauty.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I've been playing off and on for a long time but almost obsessively for the last couple of years which makes my wife jealous. I also own a Martin HD-28 (a beautiful instrument) and a Guild D-25-12 12-string. I would definitely buy this guitar again. It really spoke to me when I picked it up. I was ready to go with either a Martin OOO-16 or the J-15 all mahogany but this guitar had an almost aged sound that set it above the others that I tried (nothing against Martin, I love 'em, but Tacoma seems to really make a beautiful line of guitars in that $700-$1500 price range). The sound of this guitar and the under stated, but classy look of it stand out. There isn't any pick guard and, with the 3 color herringbone marquetry around the sound hold, it is truly and simply beautiful.
