Takamine GD30CE-12NAT 12-String Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Praises to Takamine for producing a fine guitar for the common man. The finish is beautiful and attention has been paid to all the details. Best of all, the two-piece saddle gives this work of art perfect intonation (a problematic feature of most 12 strings regardless of price). The tuners are good quality and adjust easily, without the sloppy free-play of many other guitars in this price range. The electronics are very good and easily adjusted to output the full, deep, intrinsic bass that this guitar has acoustically (not as a result of the electronics). The neck is perfect and the action is equal to my six-string Taylor 714CE (remarkable for any 12 string). Clearly, Takamine is contending for market share and will be successful at capturing large segments of it if they keep up this level of craftsmanship and dedication to the customer. The body woods are beautiful and it looks and sounds like a much more expensive guitar. This sound is remarkably deep, yet balanced across the spectrum, unlike others I have tested in stores that have far to much treble for my taste. I find myself walking over to it on it’s stand and just stroking the strings, course by course, to marvel at how well intonated they are and how wonderul it is to have a good-sounding 12 string. Thank you Takamine (and Amazon for the great price).

A week later and the Takamine keeps getting better. The tuner is useful and accurate, especially for a 12 string. I trust it better than my own ears, thanks to the split-saddle intonation. The onboard preamp is simple to use and allows easy customization of the sound to suit your tastes. The band I’m with loves it and want me to figure out more songs to use it with. The satisfaction and pleasure continue to increase and the more I play it the more complex and “magical” sounds it produces for me.

A month into owning the Takamine the electronics began to fail. Fortunately, I was still within Amazon’s warranty period and received a replacement within 2 days and no charges. While I was disappointed at first, the replacement guitar was even better than than the original! The action is lower, tuners are better and the sound both deeper and louder. The only drawback is the wood is not quite as unique looking; the sides less colorfully figured and the top with some streaks natural to the wood, but like a mole on a pretty girl’s face. But, guitars are meant to be heared and this one sings even better and is easier to play as well.

One caveat to buyers – replacement electronics are only available through authorized Takamine dealers. Not direct from Takamine, not from third parties, but only from a dealer. Hopefully the electronics won’t go bad beyond Amazon’s warranty period, or it will cost about $100 to replace. Still, given the price of the guitar this is really not all that bad. For comparison purposes, since I live very close to Taylor guitar’s factory, I gave their new 150e 12 string a try. The Takamine is every bit as good at half the price, though the Taylor has an edge in the looks department.

Interestingly, Taylor has a new pickup, the Expression 2 that uses very similar pickup technology as Takamine (who call theirs the Parathetic pickup). Both systems move the piezo from under the saddle to behind the bridge. Again Takamine provides a significant benefit at half the price.

Kudos to Amazon as well for standing behind their policy. Believe me, Amazon Prime is worth every penny!

I think the best things about this guitar are the fit and finish and the overall appearance. It is definitely a good looking guitar.

The body finish is a deep high-gloss, and underneath that is a flawless spruce top, nice black and white bindings that compliment the appearance, and matched mahogany sides and back. The sound hole rosette is understated and blends in with the overall look of the guitar.

The neck has a smooth satin finish that won’t ever feel sticky. Of course the neck is a little wider than a 6-string, but I think it hits the sweet spot of being able to properly space the string pairs without becoming too wide. Combined with the thin neck profile, it is a comfortably shaped neck. The headstock face has a very thin, almost black veneer. Originally, looking at images, I couldn’t tell if the headstock was painted black or if it was wood grain as it appeared completely different depending on which image you were looking at. In my case, the guitar I received does have a very dark color to the headstock veneer, but there is subtle wood grain showing through, and the overall appearance is very pleasing.

The fretboard itself is dark, not quite ebony dark, but close, and the white position markers on the side stand out cleanly. The position markers on the fretboard face are small and match the sound hole rosette.

Out of the box, the set up was almost perfectly spot on. I did tweak the truss rod very slightly in order to further reduce the neck bow, and I did deepen the A and D string nut slots slightly only in order to ensure barre chords play as easy as possible, but those were a couple very minor tweaks.

I am now a huge fan of the Takamine split bridge saddle. The intonation is really good, especially for a 12 string guitar, and I believe the split saddle has much to do with that as it seems to take one set of compromises out of play.

The guitar is on the loud side (not a bad thing), and to me, especially with the set of strings that came with the guitar, it seems very open and resonant. You definitely get that pleasant 12-string jangle. Fingerpicking gives you a great, complex sound. With a flat pick, it is possible that you may want a bit more of a controlled, distinct tone as it does become very full when strummed, but I think that’s something you could always handle with a string change if need be. In my case, I’m going to reserve judgement for a few more weeks until the strings settle down.

As far as playability goes, the spacing on the string pairs is a pretty good compromise between ease of play and avoiding too much coming from string collisions. Out of the box, the action was approaching excellent — the action is on the low side, with no fret buzz. In my case, I did make a couple minor tweaks, but were they 100% necessary? Probably not. The neck shape is comfortably thin. The strings measure out as a set with 10 thousandths diameter E-strings. With those strings, barre chords are a bit more work than for a 6-string, but it’s not that much of a difference given the excellent action. I like the position of the on-board tuner, and I like the body shape and the cut-away.

All in all, I’d have to say this is a really good guitar, especially considering the price.