Takamine AN-10

This guitar is an understated beauty. Not a lot a glitter, but real pretty. Satin finish, rosette of darker woods (not stand out), gold gotoh tuners with amber pearl knobs are about the only glitz. Satin finish. Solid cedar top and solid mahogany sides and back. Made in Japan

I chord a lot for church music, but also pick depending on what I'm doing. This guitar has a rich warm sound. The brights are great too. Although it is touted as being a great finger picking guitar, I find it suits my needs really well also. It is very all-around.

I bought mine as a factory second (I was told it was sold as used because they are not manufacturing this particular model anymore) and it was set up perfectly. I found no visible defects whatsoever. No buzzing, nice low action. I am used to a Martin 000 and the action on the Takamine has convinced me to sell my Martin. The tuners are top notch, the saddle is split and the spacing was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. Incredibly easy to play. I play so much more now that I have this guitar.

Have only had it a couple of months, but so far, so good. It looks and feels like it is meant to last.

Haven't had to find out.

I have been playing off and on for 20 years, but for the last 5 years I really haven't spent much time with my guitar. Played piano instead. Then I realized the reason was that I didn't enjoy playing the Martin 000 which didn't sound that great and was very difficult to play. This has changed all that for me. Find a guitar that makes you want to play it.

All solid. Solid cedar top, solid mahogany back AND solid mahogany sides. All in all a very solid guitar (but not that heavy). The cutaway models don't seem to have solid sides, I don't know if that makes a difference to the sound. Beautiful finish - a really gorgeous looking guitar. Amazing value for money compared to Martin and Taylor.

Good solid bass, rich mids and smooth highs.

I think as some other people have said that it's ideally suited to finger picking but it certainly can handle picking/strumming without any trouble. I have mostly used a pick in the past but this guitar is great because it encourages me to play more fingerstyle than picking/strumming and since getting it I've been able to perform without a pick for the 1st time (used to get nervous about finger picking and revert to strumming).

I would say mine sounded a little metallic when I 1st got it but the sound is mellowing very nicely. I fitted a K&K Western pickup under the bridge (its inside the body so the split saddle doesn't matter). With the K&K belt clip preamp and the mids pulled back somewhat, the sound is absolutely gorgeous, especially through my friends Marshall AS50R (great little amp BTW).

As the guitar came, the action and playability are superb. The neck is super smooth and the frets have a wide 'soft' profile that really helps you to play better.

My GS-330S is somewhat beaten up now (surface stuff) so I will take a lot more care with the AN10. Having a good hard case included in the price helps a lot. If my previous experience of Takamine is anything to go by, I'll have this one for ever.

Got a very quick reply from Takamine UK when I emailed them about something else, I also got a couple of free T shirts from them in the post a little while later. Thanks Takamine.

I've been playing guitar since 1977. I'm an intermediate to good non professional self taught acoustic guitar player. I play at home a lot, I lead worship regularly and do occasional open mic spots. Would like to be a brilliant guitarist, singer and songwriter but I'm not. However, I do love playing guitar and singing and that's enough for me.

Having thoroughly enjoyed a Takamine GS-330S for about 5 years I tried all sorts of guitars to get the 'next level' sound. I tried low to mid Martins & Taylors, Guild, Larivee (very nice) and lots of others to no avail, I couldn't find anything that made me want to give up my old Takamine. I have to say that this was the 2nd AN10 that I tried, the 1st was good but didn't have that wow factor and also I was really wanting a change from Takamine (don't know why now!). Some months later, I was about to purchase a Yamaha LL16 and decided to have one more look at evrything else when I found this AN10 and it really won me over. I think for me its the cedar top that makes the sound just right.

I love this guitar, it's great to play and the sound is magnificent! Try it out if you can, it's not as sparkly as a Taylor or as gutsy as a Martin but it's up there with the best of them with it's own unique sound. It's also loads better than nearly everything in it's price range (IMHO).

This is a 2004 all solid wood non-cutaway dreadnaught. The top is Canadian cedar, and the back, sides, and neck African mahagony, all satin finished. The tuners are Gotoh, with lovely translucent knobs. This guitar features a pinnless, split bridge, which I'll get to later. There are no onboard electronics here, and that is great as I really dislike the Takamine under saddle pickup sound. Yeech. Phht!

My style is mostly fingerstyle folk, jazz, blues, and pop, all while singing. I would imagine always having a guitar likes this in my arsenal as one of the collection. I'm a professional singer/songwriter and I have owned and played just about every guitar there is, always searching for guitars of true greatness. I am one picky bastard. This guitar, at least the one I found, is truly astonishing. This is a fingerstyle guitar, so hard stummers need not apply, just like a hard strummer probably wouldn't love a OM Santa Cruz or Goodall. The openess, clarity, overtones, and fundementals most remind my of several Santa Cruz's and Goodall's I have played. This is one very even guitar, tone-wise, having nice bass, but no overpowering muddiness. Excellent string to string balance. It is reasonably loud, but no cannon, so it doesn't intefere with my singing voice. The sound here is all wood, no shrill, with an unbelievable non-grating bell-like high end. Although this is a mahagony dread, it sound much more like a Koa OM or 000. Strange, but true and great. There are interesting sounds, lovliness, and inspiration all up and down the neck. And my guitar is only several months old. Should only get better. I mostly play Martins, and I'm a sucker for the Martin sound, but this is different in an angelic kind of way. Taylor, though the make nice instruments, doen't offer anything in there entire line that even comes close. To get this type of presence and openess, you have to go to hand made companies. Every nuance is captured, every note musical, even the body thumps and string squeak sound nice. This AN-10 has is as fine a piece, in it a totally different way, as ANY Martin I have owned yet. If I were going to be stranded on a desert island for a time, I would opt for a great warm woody Martin, and a more boutique hand made guitar that sings the sweet angel songs. Believe it or not, this is one of those "angelic" guitars, for several thousnad dollars less. I did not but this guitar on price, and I really don't care for most Takamines. How they do it, I don't know, and don't care. This is a very, very fine fingerstyle guitar.

This is the finest mass produced guitar I have ever owned. The finish is simple but really flawless. And I by that I mean absolutely perfect, no runs, drips, uneveness, glue blobs, etc. In fact, the finish on most Takamines puts Martin, Guild, Gibson, etc. to shame. Very, very Lexus in a good way. The satin cedar top seems durable so far, which is always a concern with cedar. I have never, ever purchased a guitar that didn't need some type of luthier setup, fret fixing, etc. Except this one. It left the store, of the wall and straight into battle(!) This guitar's fret job is absolutely precise from the factory, which is shocking. Also, the split bridge makes the intonation more accurate then any guitar I've owned. Ever. Even, and especially, when playing in odd tunings. And the Gotoh tuners seem to have no backlash whatever, and are super smooth. Do you here me barking, C.F Martin? Elven magic? Who knows? Very impressive.

Time will tell, but the omens are good so far. I never play gigs with just one guitar, just to break up the sound as a solo singer/songwriter, but I expect I could with this. The tuning is very stable.

Haven't talked to them yet.

I have been playing for about 5 yrs professionally. I own several Martins, a Godin Multiac Duet, and a couple electrics. If this guitar were stolen, I would be sad, then I would go looking for another one just like it. Don't get me wrong, if I had infinite money, I would bum around with a Goodall instead, but this is at least 95% there, at a fraction of the price, and doubtless more durable for some road abuse. Who wants to risk the road with a $3-5K guitar? I was considering one of the Gibson L bodies as a "sweet" guitar, or whatever caught my fancy that I wouldn't be lost to catatonia if it fell over on stage, or suffered some road abuse. Go look for one of these, forget that is a reasonably priced Takamine, and lock yourself in a room for a while, see if its suits your finger style. You'll be surprised. Plan on spending on a really nice non-undersaddle pick-up for this (K&K Pure western, MacIntyre Acoustic Feather, etc.) Stay away from the I-Beam for this guitar, as it adds alot of sparkle and presence this guitar already has in spades. I have a LR Baggs M1 magnetic pickup in it right now, and it sounds very good, but lack some of the body sound I need, so I will be installing another pickup and maybe use both. No undersaddles here though, with the excetion of maybe the Sherlter Blue Stick, which I have heard correctly installed and liked very much.

Mine was a B-stock as there are a few tiny scratches on the top, also there is some shading of the cedar top, some areas are lighter than others but you have to look for it to notice. I'm not sure if this was one of the reasons for it being a b-stock or just the way the wood takes the finish. Nice tuning pegs.

I'm a finger picker as well as strummer. The guitar sounds nice, well balanced, nice low end, full sound, fairly loud. I wouldn't mind a little more "shimmer" in the high end, but this is most likely the strings more than guitar itself. Nothing I really dislike about it. I wont give it a 10 in sound, but a solid 8.

Action was good out of the box, not great but good. Aside from the slight shading and tiny scrathes, the binding in one location is dented or rather looks almost like it was melted as there is a little gully. Again, this was a "second" so I'm guessing this is not the norm and to behonest it's very small and no one would see it unless looking for it. Alos so glue where neck meets top. Back and sides as well as neck and head stock all are finshed great.

We'll see

Don't know

Overall very good sounding looking and playing guitar for a mere $339 shipped. It has a few flaws as it's a second, but I saved at least $200 bucks so I'm very satisfied. I own a Art and Luthier Wild Cherry which most people seem to love for the price (around $200), that guitar is built GREAT but sounds only "OK" IMO. The AH-10 sounds much much better compared side by side.

This is an update to my prior review. The guitar sounds better than ever. I've found out that it likes Polywebs (YMMV). I thought I'd go ahead and give you all a link to a sound clip. It was recorded dry with the mic that came with the computer, but it should give you a flavor of how the guitar sounds. I don't remember what strings I had on at the time of the recording, but they were not polywebs and they were .013 guage. I checked with Takamine and they assured me that the .013s were ok to use. Anyway, the address: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/brentbarkow

Takamine AN-10. A complete SOLID guitar. The soundboad is made out of AAA quality SOLID Canadian Ceder with very straight and high grain count. I can not see any run-offs. The back side is made out of premium quality SOLID African mahogany. The aroma of the wood is great. The gold tuners with shell pegs are very attractive and quite expedient. I chose to not have a pickup. I like a all natural sound. I felt very comfortable with the neck. The bridge set up is great. The guitar came with buzz-less low action. For those of you who has not seen or played this guitar, you do not know what you are missing out. The fingerpicking quality of this guitar is comparable to my Martin D-18 Vintage. It strums great as well. You just have to see it for yourself to believe it. The look is simple, but elegant. I would like to see a better headstock and rosette design.

I mainly play fingerstyle, blues, jazz, and classical. The guitar plays great with very little noise. This guitar would be a great recording guitar for a studio or a live performance. It sounds absolutely fantastic.

The fit was simply great. A nice non gloss finish to bring out the quality of the solid woods. The grains on the woods are properly bookmatched. No flaws of any sort. The action is set up properly. I bet there is a perfect guitar out there, so a 9 is almost perfect!

The guitar is durable, but I baby it. The tuners are smooth and sturdy and the end button is installed properly. The guitar feels like it's going to last me a lift time, no quiestions about that.

Takamine folks are great. They respond fast and they try their best to help you out.

$700 for the guitar and $50 for a nice hardshell case. I can not seem to be able to find anything I can complain about! Simply put, Takamine has made a great model, AN-10. Again, go see it for yourself.

This is a 2003 model AN-10. It's a standard dread, so it really doesn't have any "features" to speak of aside from great tone and playability. The AN stand for All Natural. No laminates here. It has the Cedar top, and mahogony back, sides, and neck. Satin finish with no pickguard. Nice wood binding around body and soundhole. It has the Takamine split saddle bridge for correct intonation(which works very nicely), and a no peg bridge. It has very nice gold tuners that are very smooth and accurate. The neck is kind of thick front to back, and a very good width to it. Fits my hand perfectly. I'm giving it a 10 for features, because what it does have is dead on. Perfect!

Musical style? Well, it's an acoustic. It has a very balanced sound(I know, I know, everyone says that). The bass is not heavy at all, but is very defined and puchy. The highs are pleasently smooth and sparkly without being hersh at all. There is nothing I dislike about this guitar. The sound is fantastic! I was very pleased. The feel is also amazing. This is the second best sounding acoustic I've ever played, and they were both close. The best I've played was a Tacoma DR16CE. That guitar sound GREAT! I soent all day hitting every music store in town looking for a great sounding acoustic, and the Tacoma just blew me away. The Takamine was a very close second. The Tak played ALLOT better than the Tacoma though. I played Taylors, and discovered I like the sound of the 3, and 4 series, but above that, they had SO much bass, that it was just un-usable to me. It seems like these companies(mainly Martin and Taylor) got into a big contest over how much their guitars could make. Teylor went so far to the extreme, that it has more bass than an acoustic bass guitar. NOT balanced at all. I did like the feel of the Taylor necks though. This neak, the Takamine, is almost as wide as the Taylor neck, and is just a tad thicker. Wide enough that your fingers aren't struggling for space on the fret board when chording. Thick enough to give you a very stable and comfortable feel. It's just a very pleasent guitar on all counts. I don't think I could have made a better purchase as far as an acoustic.

Everything is top notch on this guitar. The fret work is amazing! The binding is perfect, and there's no glue vissible anywhere. The action was perfect as well. Notes fret easily and I can't make this thing buzz no matter what. It's really a VERY well crafted guitar! I can't recomend them enough. I purchased mine "used", but it was dead mint. I'm sure it had the original strings. The frets didn't look like they had ever been touched by the strings. I say used, because I got it on Ebay, but it really would be considered new by all standards.

This guitar is dead solid! Much better than the Fender I upgraded from, and not even in the same catagory as the piece of crap $800.00 Ovation I ended up giving to my Aunt. Geez, those guitars just suck! I know they're plastic, but DAMN! They just suck the tone out of everything. I gave it away because I was afraid it might start to suck the tone out of my other guitars as well.

I e-mailed Takamine to ask them what gauge string came stock on this guitar and to verify the year, and withing 8 hours I recieved a reply with much more info than I had even requested.And, it was written by a person, not just some standard response like most companies give off of their FAQ page. They seem to be very good people to deal with.

I've been playing guitar for 22 years. This is only the third acoustic I've owned however, and is by far the best! If it were stolen, I'd take the insurance money and pay some crackhead to rape the guys mother. If you're looking for an acoustic, PLEASE, check this one out. You'll be glad you did. Also check out the Tacoma's. Both of these have the sweetest sound I've heard yet. If you must just fall into the current rage of owning a Taylor, really compare the 3 and 4 series to the higher priced ones. I personally think they're just silly as far as the HUGE amount of bass. If you have a bass player already, really think about how usable a Taylor would be when recording, or playing live with a bass player. You'll give your engineer a migrane. Trust me, I've mixed with a Taylor 910, and it was a nightmare!

2003 Takamine AN10. Made in Japan. It is a Dreadnought shape with 14 frets to the body. The top is solid cedar, and the back and sides are solid mahogany. There are no electronics installed at the factory on this guitar. The body and neck are solid mahogany. The guitar has a satin finish, but it is smooth enough so that if you look at it at an angle you can see reflections in it. I've had the guitar for a few weeks, so the satin finish on the neck has already worn glossy. Eventually the whole guitar will become somewhat glossy with age. The bridge is pinless, so the strings are installed through the back of the bridge (like a classical guitar). This configuration is supposed to put a little more load on the guitar top. The tuners are non-locking. They are gold plated with a black cap and amber plastic buttons. They seem to be a little higher-ration tuner than I have used before, and they make accurate tuning easier. The neck is a medium thickness and is very comfortable to me. The width at the nut is 1.69" - which is pretty standard on a dreadnought. I bought this guitar with the case included.

I needed a guitar that was going to be pretty versatile. I play in a bluegrass group, do some solo gigs with singer/songwriter type material, and also do some solo fingerstyle pieces. This guitar is not ideal for bluegrass, but it holds it's own. It seems to cut through a little easier than a rosewood dread, but it's more difficult to get that deep driving rhythm sound. It's ideal for accompanying my voice, and depending on how you attack it, it can be very versatile. It's a tiny bit mid-rangey right now, but as it plays in it will improve a lot - the bass will get deeper to balance out the mids (I can't wait to hear this guitar on it's first birthday!). Dreadnoughts aren't normally used for solo fingerstyle, but this guitar shines. The dynamic range is wider than I expected for a cedar-topped guitar.

All of the woods are bookmatched well. I have checked the top carefully in different types of light and can find no grain runout (I think that's especially important with cedar since it's a softer wood). The mahogany used for the back and sides is very nice looking. There are no problems with the finish. The bindings and trim are all first rate. The setup is pretty standard for a quality factory guitar. I'm going to play it a while longer before I decide whether to bring the action down a tad. The fretwork is superb, and obviously done by someone with some skill.

I've played it live a few times already and don't foresee any problems. The tuners are high quality and will hold up just fine. As others have said, we'll see about the finish. I would not hesitate to use this guitar without a backup (but I won't, since sometimes things just happen). This guitar comes without a pickguard, so I ordered a tortoise pickguard from Elderly and put in on just for my peace of mind. It didn't affect the tone at all.

I really don't anticipate any problems, but I bought local - from an authorized dealer - and I sent my warranty card in - and I watch the humidity - and I don't leave it in the trunk, etc.

I've been playing since 1972. I own a couple of other acoustics, a Peavey (Falcon) Strat copy, a banjo and a mandolin. Before I bought this guitar, I played everything it it's price range and settled on this one. If this guitar were lost or stolen I would probably end up with another one. Of course I'd shop around, but I don't think I'd find anything close to the value of this one.

Manufactured in 2003. Solid cedar top, solid Mahogany back and sides with a satin finish. No electronics. Dreadnought body shape with a pinless bridge and split saddle. Bridge and fingerboard are rosewood (no fingerboard inlay). Gold tuners with amber buttons. Neck shape is a comfortable modified C shape. No pickguard. I guess I'll give it a 10 for features since the tuners are of very high quality and I really like the pinless bridge with the split saddle (for intonation). Other than that, it's a non-electric acoustic guitar and has everything that it needs.

Ah, the sound....I wasn't not looking for a Takamine. Every one I've ever played (admittedly lower-end models) had a one-dimensional sound. I was in the shop and picked up a G-series Takamine with a cedar top since I didn't have much experience with cedar and was curious. I was pleasantly surprised - especially in the trebles. I hung it back on the wall and picked up the cedar guitar next to it and *Eureka*. The highs were far superior to the G-series and the lows were deep, but also tight and well defined with good separation. I played a bit of fingerstyle and the guitar responded very well to a light touch. Very articulate. Strumming chords with a pick, there was a nice, strong fundamental with just enough overtones to make the chords sound lush and full. Just for fun, I tuned down to drop D and was surprised at how well the guitar handled it. I had expected to overdrive the top, but the guitar hung right in there. Played some bluegrass runs and was completely sold. Excellent note separation and clarity. In my opinion, the best sounding guitar under $1000. Period.

Setup was just right. No buzz, but easy to play. Plenty of saddle. No flaws that I could find.

Should be fine for live playing. The top is cedar and will get some dings, but so what? Do you buy a guitar to play or to look at? Satin finish will get shiny in the places you touch it, but again.... Seems to be very dependable. It's lightly built, but well built - just as it should be.

Limited lifetime warranty. I've never had any work done.

I've been playing for 31 years, and this is one of the finest sounding acoustic guitars I have ever played. There is another manufacturer that makes an all-solid-wood guitar that is fairly close to the same price as this Takamine. I will say this without equivocation: the Tak blows them away. Find an AN-10 and play it. A/B it with anything in the same price range and you'll come to the same conclusion. I'm not usually one to gush over a guitar and give it "10's" in every category, but don't take my word for it. Go find one.

2002 Takamine AN10, made in Japan. Solid cedar top, solid mahogany back, sides, and neck. Beautiful dark cherry finish on the back sides and neck. Dread body style with gold Takamine tuners with amber tuning buttons, very classy. This guitar is a 9.4999999, rounded down to a 9, for a cheap end pin and no strap pin on the neck. This is the only "feature" lacking.

I play mostly acoustic rock type music (Eagles, Edwin McCain, Hootie, Indigo Girls) and this guitar fits the bill spectacularly. I was so hung up on the Martin/Taylor made in the USA crap and all of the ripping Takamines take from acoustic purists for being disposable guitars, that I overlooked these masterpieces for too long. Takamines are known for their electronics, but let me tell you, this guitar is an excellent straight acoustic. The tone is just oozzing from its tightly grained cedar top. I am going to repalce the saddle with bone and cannot imagine the tone after that. This guitar already has amazing tone and resonance. It is getting better every time I pick it up.

The action on this guitar is perfect, not too high or low. The neck is perfectly straight with equal action all the way up. The cedar top on this guitar (I ordered it through my dealer) is perfect and very tightly grained. This is the first guitar I have ever owned or seen for that matter with perfectly finished bracing. Not only are there no rough spots or unsanded areas on the inside, the braces are almost polished in their finish. No glue or splinters anywhere. This guitar has what I would call a very thick satin finish. The grain of the wood is filled and the wood is protected, but the finish is not glossy. This is an excellent guitar. Nice SKB custom Takamine case included.

It seems very sturdy. I put a pickguard on it to protect the cedar top. They are known for being delicate. The finish is very solid. The strap button(end pin) is solid, but seems cheap. It will be replaced by the endpin jack I get installed anyway. Strings break, so a backup is always necessary to be safe.

Never dealt with Takamine/Kaman. This is my fourth out of five Kaman products, though, so obviously I trust their products. I have a forty year plus dealer backing it as well.

Whwn I first ordered it and was waiting, I kept thinking I should have gotten a Martin DM instead. I love the DM tone and hadn't played the Takamine when I ordered it. I am glad I ordered it now. It has a much more balanced sound and is all solid wood, so I know it will improve over time and only get better. The finish on this guitar is flawless ans much better than I have seen, even on american guitars. If it were stolen I would get another, maybe an EAN10C, as to have the excellent electronics already in place.