Takamine EG535SC Review

MSRP: $999

Estimated retail price: $699

EG535SC: Designed for great sound

The Takamine EG535SC is an acoustic-electric, twelve-string guitar. A with a jumbo-sized body, this is the largest of Takamine’s twelve-string  collection, and as such, it packs plenty of low end. A solid spruce top provides excellent overall resonance, and the flame maple back and sides are gorgeous. Rosewood bridge and fingerboard help bring out that big sound unplugged or amped. This gorgeous guitar also features abalone inlay and a natural gloss finish that protects the wood and makes the guitar shine. For amplification purposes, the Takamine EG535SC comes with an active pickup and equalizer, the TK40 preamp.

The TK40 Preamp

Takamine has specifically designed the TK40 preamp for use in their G-series guitar, which are all designed for excellent sound quality and craftsmanship for all levels of players. The TK40 preamp includes the input jack, volume controls, and equalizer, and a mid-contour switch. If that wasn’t enough, the built-in tuner make it easy to get in tune on the fly. The equalizer features simple sliders to control the bass, mid, and treble (lows, mids, and highs), and there’s even an EQ bypass that allows the user to turn the EQ on and off easily without changing settings. The notch filter makes it easy to dial in any frequency that is causing annoying feedback and cut it out almost completely, making this an ideal guitar for use in the studio or on stage, where quick fixes are better made by the player in a moment than through trial and error by the person handling the sound. Overall, the high-quality and specific design make this one of the best preamps available on a stock acoustic-electric guitar.

A realistic price tag

Takamine is known for creating guitars and then putting relatively fair prices on them, and the EG535SC is no exception. The MSRP is listed as $999, but it’s realistic to expect a $600-700 price tag for a brand new Takamine EG535SC. Considering the high attention to detail, abalone inlays, impressive active pickups and electronics, the pricing is extremely reasonable.

Compare it!

When compared with many Martins and Taylors, which easily run twice as much if not more, the Takamine EG535SC holds up extremely well in quality of sound and navigation of the fret board. Die-hard brand lovers may disagree, but when you don’t have three grand for a guitar, you can still get three grand worth of sound.