Product: Takamine EF-391MR
Price Paid: US $600 used
Submitted
12/18/2003
at
11:04am
by
Tony
Email: fdkoolaid<at>aol dot com
Features
:
9
1984 model, these are discontinued, only made for 2-3 years.
Japan make, FXC body style, which is slightly smaller than
Tak's NEX. Still has 25.5 inch scale.
All maple, top, back and sides.
Only the top is solid, 4 band EQ,
Stained deep dark redburst that fades to black
on the edges, Very pretty, maybe even sexy?
20 wide low frets, Mother of pearl dots on board.
Chrome Takamine tuners, 2 piece saddle of bone,
Arched top and back, very cool!
Sound
:
8
I play with my fingers, haven't touched a pick in over 10 years,
Not necessarily fingerstyle persay but, a little of everything.
Very bright but mellow guitar, does that make sense?
It's not loud, that's for sure, extremely balanced though.
You can hear every note when you play a chord, sustain is great!
Seems to react very well to a light touch with lots of variety,
Keep in mind, I've been talking about the un-plugged sound
up until now!
Plugged in of course, it's as loud as you want it to be!
Electronics are pretty good, not as good as later day
Takamine preamps, but still pretty good.
Gives a nice full acoustic sound though!
Not alot of overtones like you get with Koa or Rosewood.
Very nice balanced and clear tones. you get exactly what you
play, very quiet guitar when played acoustically.
Sounds great in a silent room at home. Gets an eight for being
soft sounding with slightly too much midrange, That all but
disappears when you plug in.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
Bought used, no idea of factory set-up.
It's twenty years old now with with what I believe to
be original frets. Not much wear on them either.
Action is great right now, I'm a half-assed guitar tech,
and I files the saddle in a little, and tweaked the rod
now it plays great.intonation is close to perfect.
Flamed maple body is gorgeous. bookmatched really nicely.
Dark red fading to black. Almost has a brown look to it.
Very pretty. Neck is perfect for my hand, Takamine necks
are about the best in the business, right up there
with Taylor. The nut was kinda worn out when I got it
so I put a tusq one in, as well as tusq bridge pins,
I don't know that I can hear any difference though.
I always suspected that was all a bunch of B.S. Oh well
they got my money, and it seems like quality stuff.
High gloss finish, that shows fingerprints before you
even touch it! no matter how hard I try, it always
has smudges on it, they wipe right off but, you play
one song and they are back! Pisses me off!
Tell you one thing, smudges or no, this is hands-down
the most beautiful guitar I've evr owned, possibly ever even seen!
The compliments just never stop coming! I love it.
Oh shit, I almost forgot to mention, and this is BAD!
It appears that the neck joint is just beginning to
pull away from the body a little bit. It hasn't effected
playability or action yet, but honestly how far off
can that be? I'll eventually have to get it up to my men
at Downtown Sounds in Mass. They are absolute gods with
guitar repair! Probably cost $250 to reset the neck, but
it'll be well worth it.
Tuners are smooth and accurate. Considering it's
20 years old, I don't expect it to be perfect anymore, but
that neck joint thing bugs the hell outta me.
Now that I think about it, I shoulda saved that bitch for the
next section on durability, I'll give a ten here though!
Reliability/Durability
:
7
Okay, back to that neck thing, Everything on this guitar
has held up well to 20 years of use, including the finish,
even without a pickguard, it only shows light pick marks.
Frets have lots of life left,
Still, it shouldn't have the neck seperating like that.
only a seven here!
Customer Support
:
10
Obviously, this is well out of warranty,
Still, when I contacted Takamine customer support
they were very helpful and informative.
Very quick to answer too!
I give 'em a 10 for sure!
Here's a bit of info I got directly fro them -
in regards to solid wood and laminates.
They told me that every guitar Takamine made before
1999 has laminated backs and sides, excpet for a few
of the Hirade models. That means mine, yours and
everybody elses, including the fools on Ebay who
constantly claim 'solid wood construction'
There, enough said! don't take it too hard though,
it's the solid TOP that makes the difference!
Overall Rating
:
9
Been playing forever, 19yrs. I play through a Fender princeton Chorus
amp. Sounds great with acoustic. I've also got a '94 Strat, which I
hardly ever play anymore. I've just fallen in love with acoustic
over the last ten years or so!
If this guitar were lost or stolen, I'd be f**ked !!
I've never seen another one like it, the arched top and back are so COOL! I'd certainly try to replace it, but I doubt I'd find one.
I'd definitely stick with Takamines though.
I wish this thing had one of Tak's newer preamps but I'm not about
to cut this thing up to put one in. Possibly I'd look into an
all maple Taylor, The 600 series grand concert. Don't know if
they are really worth the extra $1,500 over a good Tak though.
My favorite things are the clarity of notes and, of course
the appearance. It's a much deeper red than most other guitars.
I know looks don't matter, and SRV's guitar couldn't have looked
worse or sounded better, but I really like this one.
Overall it gets a nine. I also own a Tak '92 LTD which probably sounds
richer and woodier than this one, plays great too!
Neck is very stable on that one. Have a '88 LTD from Takamine also,
it's like a thinline version of this 391 model, pretty too, much brighter red, all flamed maple. As far as effects go, I don't use much.
A good guitar sounds great when played well, A bad guitar sounds good when played well, and a great guitar sounds like crap when it's beat on. Here's a bit of advice nobody asked for, only play hard enough
to play clearly, you'll be suprised how much better you'll play, and how much better your guitar will sound. This is music and should be played with an amount of finesse, it's NOT a sport!
