Takamine AN-45

Mine is also an AN45 "supernatural series" not the EAN45C. Mine doesn't have cutaway and doesn't have on-board electronics, but a Fishman acoustic matrix (active pickup w/o eq) pickup was thrown in by the dealer (RM600 value!! yeah!!)

For this price, this guitar has one of the best specs you'll ever want on an acoustic guitar. Solid cedar top, solid rosewood back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard,

The saddle is a split-saddle which pretty much ensure perfect intonation through the whole guitar (quite rare for an acoustic). The nut and saddle looks like ivory/bone or some similar material, doesn't look plastic at all. Also good for the intonation and keeping in tune are the low-ratio(?) gold tuners with amber-perloid looking buttons.

No neck inlays on this guitar but it does have a beatiful abalone rossette. Does need inlays anyway as the guitar looks beautiful just by itself; simple yet elegant.

The body is Takamine's own NEX shape, don't really know how to describe it. It also came with a tortoise pickguard.

It came packed with D'Addario EXP16 light gauge string and pretty solid Tak hardcase came with it too.

I usually play in church a lot and am actually looking to do some session work and stuff like that. So I play a variety of music though mostly centred on pop/rock. On the acoustic, I do a fair bit of both strumming and fingerpicking as well.

This baby is has a great sweet yet warm sound. The trebles aren't very loud or clear but has just enough to make the sound quite balanced though a bit on the warm side.

It projects very well and the sustain seems that it can go on forever! Great guitar to play unplugged.

The sound is, admitedly, more suited to finger style playing but it can hold it's own when it comes to strumming it. Very nice all round sound.

The guitar did have a few problems when i got it. The finish was just a bit sloppy. Found somevery small bits of paper sticking out where the fingerboard meets the top near the sound hole. But it was no biggie. Didn't affect the sound or look. Took out the bits using a penknife. Did it ver carefully though, didn't wanna mess up my baby :)

The action was a nice medium-low profile but the lower strings buzzed slightly when strummed hard. But this was easily cured with just a lil neck adjustment.

If it wasn't for the things above, It'd get a 9.

This has been my workhorse since getting it in November 2002. Nothing came of, nothing went loose and nothing is coming apart as far as I can tell. Of course, I have been pampering her as often as i can, wiping with a good piece of cotton cloth, not bumping it around toomuch, no in-an-empty-car-under-the-sun situations etc. I would like to think that I'll be using this guitar for a long long time to come.

Haven't dealt with Kaman Music Corp (head company of Takamine) but my rating is for the local shop here. Yeah, the prices here are a lil jacked up but they treat me very well. They let me take my time and try out as many guitars as I wanted before making the decision.

After sales service was also great. Answered all my questions very well and took care of the neck adjustment, finishing etc without fuss.

To be honest, I was looking for at getting a Taylor 414ce when I got this guitar. But after a lil but of persuasion by the sales people and a lot of nitpicking at the details of this, I settled for this baby. For the features, you'll need to look at at least a 700 series from Taylors which will cost double. Good value for money I reckon.

This guitar will definitely not draw much attention to itself but when you look closely, you'll notice just how elegant it looks. Simple design w/o inlays plus a beautiful yet simple abalone rosette gives it an elegant feel. The cream colored bindings also add to this allure. The guitar will bowl you over the minute you pick a few notes from it. So warm and sweet.

All in all a beautiful guitar to play and a deceptively elegant one to look at.

Being a guitarist tho, I don't think i can settle with just one guitar, i'll probably get a few along the way but this one will definitely be one of my main guitars. Just simply love this guitar. It it does get stolen, God have mercy on the one who stole it, cuz when i find him, there won't be much of him left!! hehe :D

One thing, though, I'm really interested to know how many people actually has this guitar? Only seen another review of this baby.

This review is for the new (as of Dec 2001) Takamine AN45 "SuperNatural" acoustic, not the EAN45C electro-acoustic. My AN45 was made in Japan, in late 2001 I'm guessing. It has a solid cedar top, solid highly-figured rosewood back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood 20-fret black-bound fingerboard and rosewood bridge. The body is of a non-cutaway NEX style (Takamine's own take on the mini-jumbo / grand auditorium shape). The top has an abalone sound-hole rosette bordered with multi-layer wood inlays, and multi-layer wood purfling, with cream binding. There is a pretty wood inlay stripe down the back of the guitar. The tuners are Takamine's own (but look like Grovers) and are gold with amber-pearl buttons. The neck is typical of Takamine, a rather hefty C-profile with a slight V-profile near the nut - it suits my hands well. The bridge saddle is two piece, and I think both this and the nut are made from a man-made ivory substitute (it doesn't look or feel like regular plastic, though). Overall, this is a beautiful-looking though quite understated guitar. It came supplied as standard with a very nice heavy-duty plush-lined Takamine flight case.

This guitar sounds fantastic - very loud, very strident, with a good overall balance and surprisingly warm bass for this shape of body. The higher strings can sound a little harsh when strummed hard with a plectrum, so a lighter touch is needed here (perhaps ageing will mellow this?). For fingerstyle playing, though, the sound is perfect. I play lots of styles - blues, folk, country, country-rock etc. - and this guitar sounds good with all of them, but if I were to pick its niche I would say it is folk. One note to prospective buyers or existing owners: When I bought my AN45, I noticed that when damping the strings with my right palm, there would be a kind of mild harmonic ringing left over - not noticeable from even a short distance, but as the player I could hear it. I eventually tracked it down to the A & D strings, the portion between the nut and the tuners! So, I made a small black foam pad which I have placed under the strings, just behind the nut, and this has gotten rid of the ringing. This minor problem, plus the slight harshness on the upper strings under agressive playing, has influenced my scoring in this category - otherwise I'd have rated it a 9 or 10.

The guitar was nicely set up from the factory, with a medium-low action. Fret finish was excellent, however I did notice a little buzzing on the D string when picked hard, between the 2nd and 5th frets. I put this down to a change in environment, as I didn't notice it at the shop and I gave the guitar a very thorough check before buying. A tiny adjustment to the truss rod (a quarter turn) has reduced this to the point where I really have to hit the strings hard to get any kind of buzz at all. As far as build quality is concerned... WOW. The book-matching of the woods is excellent - there is a slight dark line on one side of the top which is not matched on the other side, but small idiosyncracies like this actually add to the character of the guitar. Anyway, it looks great. I could find no flaws whatsoever with any aspect of the finish - beautifully lacquered (not one single blemish anywhere!), all inlays and purfling cleanly executed, binding perfect too. The interior build quality is just as impressive, with no rough edges or excess glue. This is an incredibly well made and finished guitar - I'm dreading it getting its first scratch or ding (I know, a few marks make the guitar your own, but still...!).

I haven't owned this guitar long enough to comment on its reliability or durability, however it seems incredibly well put together. I would imagine it should last a lifetime or more if treated with a little respect. In the short time I've owned it, it has been totally dependable and I would happily use it on a gig without a backup.

I've never had to deal with Takamine, or with the local distributors for the UK, Korg. Not sure of the warranty arrangement, but the shop I bought it from provides their own 2 year warranty which includes trips to the workshop for action adjustment etc. - not that I will use it unless a major problem develops.

I have been playing on and off for 20 years. I have an Art & Lutherie Spruce acoustic (nice guitar), an Aria AMB-35 bowl-back electro-acoustic, and have just returned a Cort SJ3F to the shop (it had a pronounced dead spot which could not be rectified). This Takamine is the pearl of my collection, and for me it represents a significant investment in my hobby. If it were lost or stolen, I would be overcome with despair - then I would claim on my insurance and buy another one, same guitar, straight away. I love the sound, the way it looks, the way it plays, the way it looks, the build quality (did I mention the way it looks?!?!) - everything. I compared it to a lot of high-end guitars from Yamaha, Seagull, Simon & Patrick, as well as some lower-end Martins. For me, the Takamine was the best of the bunch. Your mileage may vary, of course. I only give it a rating of 9 in this category, as I assume that there must be a guitar at two or three times this price that is in some way better (though I can't think how).