Takamine DSF-49C Santa Fe

This guitar was made in Japan. made in 2000 ?
the case was about $100 more.

I play most types of music.
I use a P.A. as a amp most of the time.
I found the preamp (DSP)to have a lot of noise and a lot
more noise when I use it with my wireless. I had to replace it with
a new Graph-X preamp from Takamine. This preamp sounds much better ! (But No tuner in it.)
It took me about a year to get a replacement from takamine !!!
As for the sound, it's good now, but I think for the money I payed I would get a Gibson next time !!!
Buy the way, Takamine sent me the preamp, and I had to put it in myself.

This Guitar set up - I would call poor for a top of the line Guitar.
I had to have a fret job done to it under warranty !
And like the preamp it took about a year befor takamine would
do anything ! also this guitar came with loose bracing.
Need I say more !

After having all the problems worked out.
I think this guitar will work O K
I had it for about 4 years now and I have no other problems to report.
I think if you are doing a gig, (for me anyways) I always take a
back-up with me! If I needed or not .

Warranty - Befor I bought my guitar, I was told that this guitar comes with a life time warranty, I was not told that it is only for the 1st. year and after that it's only on parts. (not labor)
And you know about the help I got from Takamine !

I have been playing over 40 years.
If this guitar was stolen I would get a Gibson !!!
This is not a bad guitar, I just got a bad one.
I did not like the preamp, fret work, & the service I got !

I WANNA MAKE SURE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS MODEL. IT WAS MADE IN 2000 ( I THINK) SOLID SPRUCE TOP-ROSEWOOD SIDES WITH DIGITAL ELECTRONICS
BODY IS MINI JUMBO W/ CUTAWAY , TAK TUNERS.

SOUND IS EXCELLENT. FULL-RICH,YET BRITE SOUND. I PLAY ROCK WITH SOME FOLKY-COUNTRY OVERTONES. THE DSP ELEC GIVE IT NUMEROUS POSSIBLE PRESET SOUNDS OF WHICH 2-3 ARE WORTH IT. I PREFER TO WRITE MY OWN PRESETS, WHICH THIS ELEC PKGE ALLOWS YOU TO DO. SOUNDS GREAT PLUGGED IN ( I USE THE MARSHALL 50 WT SOLOIST ACOUSTIC AMP ),BUT SOUNDS EVERY BIT AS GOOD STRUMMIN' ON MY DOORSTEP !

SET UP FROM FACTORY IS VERY GOOD, IT PLAYS VERY WELL. HAS A FULL NECK, BUT DOESN'T FATIGUE YOUR HAND. FINISH IS EXCELLENT AND IS EXTREMELY WELL MADE. CAN GET UP THE FRETBOARD WITHOUT ANY TROUBLE. LOOKS GREAT ,TOO .THE TURQUOISE AND CORAL INLAIDS ARE WELL DONE I'M GIVING A 9 BECAUSE FABULOUS IS NOT A REALISTIC DESCRIPTION

IT HANDLES WELL LIVE,AND THE FINISH SEEMS TO TAKE SOME PUNISHMENT. HAD TO REPLACE THE CHEAP BATTERIES IN THE ELECTRONICS RIGHT AWAY. I'M NOT DELICATE WITH MY EQUIPMENT, BUT I DON'T BEAT IT EITHER.....DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A BACK-UP WILL BE NECESSARY

NOT YET

BEEN PLAYING FOREVER AND THIS IS IT FOR ME AS AN ACOUSTIC. NOBODY BETTER TAKE IT . I FRONT A BAND, SO MY DEMANDS ARE A LITTLE DIFFERENT. IT STAYS IN TUNE LIKE MY TELE'S AND MY OLD IBANEZ BLAZER I HAVE AND JUST GETS THE JOB DONE SO I CAN CONCENTRATE ON SINGING & THE SHOW. IT'S HIGH QUALITY PRO EQUIPMENT...EXPENSIVE , YET WORTH IT. HAVEN'T DONE ANY RECORDING WITH IT YET, BUT EVERY INDACATION IS THAT IT WILL WORK WELL. I'D PREFER ANALOGUE ELEC, BUT I'LL GET USED TO THE DSP. IT'S THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR I'VE ALWAYS WANTED.

This was made in 1999, though I bought it brand new in 2001. It basically sat on an upper rack in the store, untouched. The two years of aging have definitely mellowed the sound of this. I hate going through all of the specs on guitars, so check them out in the review below.

I play blues, country, and celtic on this thing. It sounds goregeous unplugged, but it sounds really full and mellow when run through an amp. I've had no problems with feedback before. I use no effects on this because the tone is so great clean (and I get a reverb effect playing out).

I did have a problem with putting Martin strings on this--it made a much too bright and tinny sound (though it would be great for just country). But I use elixir's now, and they sound good for blues and celtic.

I do need to take this in to be setup, as there is some fret buzz. A little annoying on a guitar that is $1,800 retail, but then I got a great deal on it, so I shouldn't complain much. What's an extra $60 of filing frets when you get the guitar for 60% off?

My other guitar is an Ovation Celebrity, and I feel like I could drop that guitar on the floor and it would bounce right back with no problems. With this I'm a little more leery. It will definitely stand up to live play, but maybe it's the price tag of it that has me so gunshy. I don't even like my dog getting too close to it, much less other people.

n/a

My other acoustic is an Ovation Celebrity. which is a good guitar in its own right. But this blows my Ovation away by a long shot. If someone stole this, my mortal soul would not rest in the grave until I had hunted down the thief and feasted on his kidneys. If it was lost, I would point out that the laws of physics preclude material objects from simply vanishing--and then threaten with bodily harm whomever had 'misplaced' my Takamine. There is some question in my mind as to whether I would grab my Tak or my dog in the event of a fire.

I tried a Taylor, a high-end Ovation, and a high-end Fender before playing this guitar on a whim. It was more than I was prepared to spend at the time, but my wife did not end up killing me when I told her what a deal I had gotten.

This guitar has a solid sitka spruce top with East Indian rosewood veneer backs & sides. It's got the new digital preamp that Takamine has got out. This 21 fret Japanese made guitar has got a rosewood fingerboard a glossy finish. The tuners are Takamine brand gold tuners and the neck has some medium looking frets. I bought mine with the Takamine SKB case. I give it a 10 rating because the preamp is like a computer allowing you to dial in many different sounds.

This guitar suits my style (country music) very well because it gives me a bright sound. In fact, the majority of the country players are all using Takamines at shows. I'm playing this guitar through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (hardly an acoutic amp/better electric amp) with no pedals. It's got a brilliant tone when plugged in which doesn't sound too artificial. The new preamp has a LOT of different sounds that Takamine claims to sound like different types of guitars such as classical and parlor guitars. I disagree but the different tones are beautiful so I'm not complaining. Unplugged however, I think it lacks a bit of sustain but I figure that's because of the cutaway and the big hole that they put in the guitar to place the preamp. Other than that, the guitar sounds fine.

The guitar was set up great from the factory. The action was low which I found very nice for quick playing. The top was properly bookmatched as expect from a $2000 guitar. The guitar didn't contain any flaws that I could find but I was a bit disappointed to look into the guitar and see drips of white stuff (glue?) dripped on the rosewood. I was unhappy that this mistake would happen on such an expensive guitar. On the outside, this is the most beautiful guitar I've seen and you can bet that my heart ached when I put the first chip in it. A word of warning however, play at least two of the same model when buying Takamine guitars. The quality of wood and workmanship on their guitars vary greatly.

This guitar is good for live playing. I've taken it into some pretty intimate performance environments and it hasn't fed back very much and is pretty much plug-in and play. The finish on the guitar is very thick and looks like it will last a long time. I'm still learning how to use the pickup in performance situations because it started freaking out on me once in a performance and I didn't know how to fix it. READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL ON THE PICKUP BEFORE PLAYING LIVE WITH IT. I don't think the pickup malfuntioned but rather that I hit some button (Sub-function or something like that) on the guitar.

I only talked to Kaman Music once to obtain a warranty card and I found them helpful. I don't expect to deal with them again for a long time based on the price I paid for this guitar.

I've only been playing for about a year but I like to think that I've progressed a lot in that year. If this guitar were stolen, I'd kill the person who stole it. I don't know if I would buy this guitar again however, I might look into the Larrivees instead. I fell in love with the look and feel of the guitar. However, I feel that Takamine may have sacrificed some quality to obtain this look. If I could change one thing about this guitar, it would be to add all solid wood to it.