Tagima Telecaster

Mr. Tagima has been a highly respected luthier in Brasil for years. Now he runs a guitar factory and its serial production is as good as when Mr. Tagima worked only at request. I got a Tele Tagima left handed, I believe it was one of the first ones manufactured by them. Mine is an exact copy o the Fender Teles. Two single coil, six pieces bridge, vintage style tuners, pickguard turtle. I'm not certain about the woods (body and neck) but you can check it out at www.tagima.com.br

I play contemporary rock (a bit of punk rock with mr. Wander Wildner's band) but sometimes i go too for blues and some country rock. As a good brazilian boy, I play lots of bossa nova and some jazz stuff. For all purposes, the Tele Tagima is such an axe!! I plug it usually in a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (40 watts, al tube) through a Boss Tuner>TS 9 Ibanez>Dunlop Cry Baby>Boss Chorus>Dano Phaser>Dano Tremolo>Dano Compressor (just for lead work). The Tagima Tele has a wonderful clean sound and works fine with distortion and assorted effects. The one complain: when you use distortion at high levels and get too much near the amp, the feedback is unavoidable. I'm thinking about a pickup changing to solve this.

I didn't need to make too much changes in the factory set up (just a bit adjustment on one or two pieces on the bridge). The pick ups work correctly (except for the eventual unwanted feedback cited above). Mine Tele Tagima is almostr perfect: finished very fine, very good hardware all over.

I bought my Tele Tagima without a case. But since I got a hardshell case from Fender (a model that fits Teles and Strats, cos I got a Jap Strat,too)everything went fine. Well, it's the kind of guitar that I can take it alone to a gig, no fear of breakage or something.

I contacted Tagima factory by e-mail and always got fast and apropriate answers. Now I'm talking to them about a Tele Thinline left handed (they say they can make it, yeah!). It got warranty but mine is gone and, to be sincere, I never had to use it!

I've been playing guitar for some 20 years now. I got others besides the Tagima Tele. I got a Fender Strat (Japan), a Gibson SG Standard (1997) and a Gibson Les Paul Studio (1996), all lefties. Sometimes I use a Epiphone Sheraton, too. Each one has its own sonic appeal and I like to play all of them. But, surely, if my Tele Tagima were stolen or lost or broken, I will run for a new one right away!!! Maybe, besides the pick up changing, I consider on puting a Bigsby Tremolo on it.

Normal telecaster, nice tunning machines, very good shadow pick on
neck, the frets are large, very good to play. Nice playability!

I play some british rock, like oasis and the beatles, and this guitar
complete all my necessaries. I'm using a Peavey Blazer, with a Tonelock Ibanez Tubescreamer, and a Zoom GFX-4. It sounds great.

Nice pickups, but a little bit of more punch is needed. To complete your setup, buy a les paul standard, but don't sell your tagima telecaster.

Nice tone and level machines.

Some problems in my in jack. Other parts are cool.

90 day warranty, A lot of places to be repaired.

A very good copy of a Fender Telecaster, bought used in 1999, made in Brazil in 1990, by a brazilian luthier called, of course, Tagima (todays he have a factory). The body was made in mahogany, and the neck was made with a brazilian wood called marfim (something like maple). It's in a good shape, the same fret numbers of Fender model , the color is a translucent very dark green, and the varnish is burned by the time, and so it's appears black. The bridge is in Tele-Style, and I changed by a Original Fender Tele Reissue Pickup. The neck pickup was a single, but I changed to a Gibson `57 PAF crome covered. The neck have a rosewood scale and the frets are jumbo sized and it's a wonderful grip .The turners was changed by a set of Schaller. 3 way switch completes the guitar.

My music style is Rock & Blues, and I'm using basically a Peavey Bandit 112 with 12" Scorpion speaker, a Boss OD-1, an Ibanez TS-9 and a Tech 21 SanSamp XXL. With the modifications, the sustain is very better and the tone too, with a little noise only in the single pickup, but it's normal in single coils pickups. The sound it's rich and very bright in single pickup and very, very rich and full in the PAF Gibson.

It's bought used, and was in poor condictions. After a complete setup, changed de pickups and tuners, it's reborn. The guitar was very depreciated by the last owner, but I saw the possibilities of a very good instrument with low investiment.

It's a warrior and survive. If I need go to a gig, I'm go without a backup, because it's shows to me: "You don't need another guitar".

The manufacturer have a site (www.tagima.com.br), but a long time it's not actualized. Have too a phone to suport. But I never call.

This is a guitar to made changes. I like it, and so it's a good choice to me. With all the modifications, the price paid was very low (US$ 350). It's a very good guitar and I'm very happy with my purchase.