Takamine EF-261SAN

Bought this one new in 2005. Paid nok 10300,- incl. Takamine hardcase.(Approx usd 1600,- !) I gues the case is special fitted for this guitar since it is quite difficult to get it out of the thing..;-)
All the details can be read under, but I have to say the finish is beautiful !

I play mostly folk/pop fingerstyle guitar. I have played for approx 18 years, pure hobby. I seldom use picks and the preamp help me to get brighter bass sound from my thumb picking. The guitar is not loud accousticly. A bit dissapointing actually. I expected more based on the other rewievs. The plugged sound is good.

Nice playable action, but there is a slight fret buzz on the d-string. Irritating.. Lousy fabric strings !

Seems like solid built guitar. It does not have a pickguard but for me that is not a problem. The balance of the guitar is not good. It is head-heavy so use a strap that has resistance om your shoulder. Seems the hardware is of good quality.

No experience.

I've played for 18 years at home and with friends only for pleasure. I have a CHEAP old Ibanez dreadnough that have been my companion all the time. It is great sounding and this Takamine was a step up, but I must admit that I am a bit dissapointed in comparisome with the cheap Ibanez. But the Ibanez is old, dry and warm sounding. The Taka is fresh and will surly be better with the years. By the way: the smell from the cedartop is amazingly strong !
The guitar is very easy to play. I can do "Cavatina" on this one without too much buzz. The high action on my Ibanez always gets me in trouble on that one.
All in all: Very nice guitar !

Don`t know a great deal about this guitar. Saw it in Cash Converters <they sell graded and second hand TVs, stereos, cameras etc>, for dirt cheap, seemed like too good to miss so i put a deposit on it, like a good boy. Obviously made in Japan, 20 frets, what is apparently one of Takamine`s own EQ systems, with bass, treble and middle controls, pop up volume control, battery check light, and exciter control, which does crazy things with the treble end of the bargain, great for cutting through mixes without getting loud.

don`t know about the woods, although the body carries quite a nice reddy/browny colour, obviously a stain and not the actual wood colour!
rosewood neck, weird shaped body which makes it very comfortable to play this side of Ovations hideous plastic creations.

gotoh tuners, medium size frets, double fret marker at the 7th as well as the 12th.

it came with a great hard case which fits the guitar perfectly, my guitar would be trashed if it wasn`t for that case <i went to step over a barrier but my jeans were quite tight and my leg didnt get high enough to clear it and i fell on the case. so therefore case build quality must be quite high.

non standard features now include a `mature cheese` sticker on the case, of which i`m very proud.

unplugged it sounds great, pretty quiet, but tight and refined with it, a nice sound for just mic-ing up and mixing it into percussion rhythms and things. amp wise, i`m just using a JCM2000 with it for now until i can go the whole hog with a proper acoustic amp. it`s also been used quite regularly at an acoustic night at a local pub, where it just goes straight into a portable pa system. again, no problems either. compared to other electro-acoustics it does have quite a middle-y sound, even with that particular control dialled out. It`s just as easy to get a bad sound as it is to get a good sound, it takes quite a bit of work to get a sound to work with each system - the settings i would use with my Marshall are completely different to those i would use at the pub, and vice versa.

really, theres just one sound to be had, which is the amplified sound of the guitar itself, the EQ just shapes that sound into something useful for whatever particular situation. It`s generally a good sound, anyway - much more refined than the Yamaha apx-4, thats for sure.

oh, and it comes alive through a chorus pedal. just thought i`d share that.

spot on, aside from the nut, which looks like it could have been replaced/refitted at some point. either way it`s been fitted quite badly and when i get around to it, i`ll get it sorted. the action is absolutely spot on though, and doesn`t half turn the heads of other guitarists. It turned my head in the shop <i was working there at the time>, and on my break i ran as fast as i could to the bank, and as fast as i could back to secure it.

it seems to pick up scratches and things quite easily, and the absence of a scratchplate of any sort does cause a few with very heavy strumming. It IS a light guitar, and i can`t help feeling the woods used aren`t the strongest around, but it seems to have been quite roughly treated by the last owner, with no obvious side effects bar one cosmetic ding to the body, and a little wear around the head stock. only one strap button <something else i`ll have to get sorted someday> so don`t know about that, it looks solid enough though. Dependable, and the case is an absolute godsend for touring.

got a 60 day warranty fromn the shop. wasn`t going to use it just because of the nut, though - under the realisation that if i took it back they might realise their mistake, that perhaps the 1 should have been a seven or something.

These shops are great <when they get it wrong, anyway>. A guy i`ve been playing alongside for a number of years got a Fender Strat <1978-81> for #120 from another branch of the same store. Okay so the neck had been replaced with what happens to be a nice Squier neck, but probably one of the finest guitars i`ll ever play. I`m away the list price for these, when new is about #700... so #134 is pretty wild, great value. Don`t think I could bare to replace it - purely from a wallet crunching perspective.

i`ve been playing for about 7 years, had various guitars, a Squier <still got> Epiphone Les paul <gone but not forgotton>, Ibanez RG <still got>, Godin SD <just bought>, Aria AW55 <still got>. Amp wise, i`ve always gone the marshall route as opposed to the fender one, although thats one of the items on my agenda...ye olde Fender Twin.

This, however is a great guitar, nice player, nice unobtrustive unplugged sound that isn`t too loud, nice tone plugged in, very easy to while away the lonely winter hours with. Or rather, forget to ring the g/f because your busy whiling away the winter hours, you chose to be lonely.

this guitar will keep you warm at night, guaranteed.

same as above

this guitar is perfect for me. its great for strumming or finger picking, either way you can get a greet sound. i play it mostly unplugged and it produces warm, bright, full beatiful tone. when i plug it in i play through a fender deluxe tube amp. even through the amp you still get a great sound.

the action is nice and low which in my opinion is important. everything else that the factory set up seems good. the finish shows finger marks pretty easily, but thats a minor thing n for that it gets a 9

this guitar is very reliable. the hardware seems like it will last. the finish is nice and doesnt wear off easily. the strap buttons are solid and i wouldnt use a backup

Ive been playing for a couples years n i play all the time, its my life and i love it. ive looked at many guitars before i bought this one and outta of the guitars this was the best sounding and all around greatest guitar. god forbid it get stolen or i lose it, but if that happens i would replace it.

The features are the same as what others have described above. I'm not quite sure when my guitar was made. Made in Japan. I like the cedar top, beautiful finish, and the compact body.

Unplugged, this guitar has warm but bright sound. I prefer warmer & sweeter sound but it's still very nice. It suits my music style(mostly finger-picking with some strumming) very well.

Action & fit are excellent. It fits perfectly in my hand - that's what I like about Takamine. There was no flaw on this guitar that I could see.

I've been using this guitar on my gigs without a backup, and there hasn't been any problem. I think it's durable enough to last for a long time of playing. You can depend on this guitar.

Never had to deal with them.

I have been playing for about 30 years. The compact body makes it easy for me to play without getting tired. If this guitar were ever stolen or lost, I would definitely buy it again. This is good enough for professional use - Don't let the price cloud your judgement.

I think it's a 1995. Not sure. It's got a cedar top and mahognay sides and back. 20 frets on what seems like a ebony fretboard, but it could just be very high quality rosewood. Nice compensated bridge. It has built in electronics with an EQ. Cool.

It's sounds great live (no amp). Very good projection, but not as good as a dreadnaught sized stringbox. A nice warm sound, but very clear. I like.

Lowest action of anything at the music shop (I looked at over 60 acoustics). I didn't try the Taylors there (or I would have walked out with a loan and a price on my head set by my wife). Beautiful guitar. Gorgeous woods. Super finish.

Solidly built. One of the tightest constructed acoustics I've owned.

Haven't had the need. Probaly never will.

2000 model, made in Japan, 20 nickel finished frets, solid Cedar top, all active electronics with 5dB 3band EQ faders (Treb, mid, Bass), volume knob, batery check switch, exciter which adds harmonic frequencies(basically makes the guitar stand out more, makes it louder and brighter), Takamine NEX body with Cutaway, mahogany neck with reinforced graphite truss rod, rosewood fingerboard, rosewood side and back, dovetail neck joint, antique stain finish with gloss, Takamine Palathetic bridge piezo pickup, split bone bridge, Gotoh tuners

I play mostly pop...with some ocasional finger picking stuff...the exciter is great for getting the guitar through the mix and giving it some sparkle. I usually plug it straight into a Radial JDI passive direct box which +0/-1 dB from 20hz-80khz(read my review in the fx section)then out to a Mackie CFX20 mixing board...the sound is crystal clear, but would sound better with a tube preamp but since i can't afford one right now i usually just eq it a little to make it sound a bit fuller, the electronics are dead quiet but you have to make sure you plug in the guitar before you plug in the amp/DI box and unplug the amp/DI before you unplug the guitar or you can send a very loud pop into the amp/mixer anc can potentially blow an amp.
As a said earlier, the sound is very good, the bass is full the trebel is bright but not ear cutting or anything, I use D'addario medium light guage and custom light guage strings, i find the custom light to be a little too bright but after you play it a couple hours it becomes nice an full, the medium light creates a full sound from the start but can make the mid and bass a little muddy after a lot of playing...for strumming, it provides a very full tone almost like a 12 string, with finger picking the top end can be boosted a little or the exciter can be adjusted to make the top come out clearer, but the bass is very full, in fact i find this guitar to sound much larger than some large Yamaha dreadnoughts
In my opinion, this guitar suits my needs so i'm quite happy with it...the sound isn't spectacular but for its price it sounds more like guitars in the $1000 (CAN) range

the action is a little high on the bridge side, but i haven't had the time to get it adjusted yet. The pickups sounds great the top was done so well it looked like the whole top was made with a single large piece of cedar. I still haven't been able to find where the joint is even staring at it an inch away. everything was set pretty well with the exception of the action but i'm very happy with the setup. The strings were horrible but what do you expect wtih stock strings...One problem with this guitar was that it didn't have a pickguard so i had to go by a clear pickguard whcih was $5

This guitar will and does withstand live playing...I play at church and it's being used everyweek. The tuners are very smooth and very well made, the faders on the preamp isn't sealed and i could see the circuit boards which isn't a good thing because if water gets dripped in it could fry the electronics...the strap buttons are solid and i can depend on this guitar. I will and do gig without a backup since i can't afford another guitar or at least anything that's half decent.
the gloss finish gets a lot of finger marks and can scratch pretty easily with zippers or hard picks...
I'll have to give it an 8 because of the electronics.

never dealt with CS
there's a 1 year warranty

i've been playing guitar for about 6 months, this was my first guitar and i intend on keeping it for a while, i also have a didjeridu from austrailia, Kawai NS30 upright, and a crap arse violin. If this guitar was stolen and i had the money to replace it i'd probably by either a Ovation Balledeer or a Takamine EF508 which is similar but better than the EF261SAN.
i love the clear sound, body shape but i'd prefer a slightly thinner neck and a lower action. my favourite feature gotta be the exciter, it just makes the guitar sound so much better when plugged in.
when i was buying this guitar i was either gonna get this, or a highend Takamine G series which sounded slightly better acoustically but didn't sound as good plugged in and lacked the exciter in th epreamp. I choose for a better plugged in sound because i play mostly live and needed it to be fed into the PA system. I was also considering the Ovation Balledeer but the Balledeer was a little too expensive though the electronics are a little better. acoustically though, this tak sounded better than the balladeer and with a bit of aging it will sound much better than the balladeer in the long run...
i wish it came with a pick guard, lower action, sealed faders for the preamp and a solid side and back...but a solid side and back is a little too mcuh too ask for a $700 guitar