Jooyoung Kim

Takamine Guitar Bodies and G Series Lineup

Hello, I’m Jooyoung Kim, an engineer and music producer. Today, I’d like to go over the body types and lineups of Takamine guitars.

Shall we begin?

Limited 2021 Blue Rose, which I really want… The 2020 model in olive was also great… The problem is always the wallet…

Body Types

Takamine guitars have seven body types: Dreadnought, FXC, NEX, Jumbo, New Yorker, OM, and Thinline.

The FXC is similar to a typical grand concert body, the NEX body is a small jumbo, and the New Yorker is a parlor body.

Most people are familiar with the Dreadnought and OM bodies, so you can use them as a reference to gauge the size of other bodies.

Thinline is a completely different body type, with a thinner body making it easier to play. This should cover the acoustic guitar bodies that use steel strings.

Now, let’s look at the lineup.

Takamine Guitar Lineup

Takamine guitars are broadly divided into the G Series and Pro Series.

Additionally, there are Thin Line, Limited Line, and Signature Line as special editions.

*Series*	*Description*
G Series	Guitars produced in other countries such as China, Korea, and Taiwan to provide affordable options.
Pro Series	Guitars produced at the main factory near Mount Takamine in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.
Thinline	Guitars with a thin body.
Limited Line	Limited edition guitars.
Singnature Line	Artist signature guitars.

Breakdown by Series

G Series:
– Improves in quality and price from 10, 20, 30, 50, 70 to 90 series.
– Even the highest value-for-money
– G90 series does not exceed $1000 overseas.
– Also includes acoustic basses, classical guitars, Takamine minis, and ukuleles.

Pro Series:
– Improves in quality and price from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 to 7 series.
-Even the lowest Pro 1 series is quite expensive as it is made in Japan.

Thin Line:
– A single line dedicated to thin body guitars.

Limited Line:
– As the name suggests, these are limited edition guitars and tend to be quite expensive due to their often flashy appearance.

Signature Line:
– No separate sub-categories, similar to the Thin Line.

Let’s first take a look at the specifications and features of the G Series.

G Series

GN30CE model from the G30 line of Takamine G Series

10 Series:
– Body: Laminate
– Top: Spruce (10), Mahogany (11)
– Sides/Back: Mahogany
– Nut Width: 42.5mm
– Nut/Saddle: Synthetic bone
– Split Saddle: Yes
– Remarks: Bridge pinless string change method

20 Series:
– Body: Top Solid
– Top: Solid Cedar
– Sides/Back: Mahogany
– Nut Width: 42.8mm
– Nut/Saddle: Synthetic bone
– Split Saddle: Yes

30 Series:
– Body: Top Solid
– Top: Solid Spruce
– Sides/Back: Mahogany
– Nut Width: 42.8mm
– Nut/Saddle: Synthetic bone
– Split Saddle: Yes
– Remarks: Available as 12-string guitar, 3-piece back option

50 Series:
– Body: Top Solid
– Top: Solid Spruce
– Sides/Back: Rosewood or Black Walnut
– Nut Width: 42.8mm
– Nut/Saddle: Synthetic bone
– Split Saddle: Yes

70 Series:
– Body: Top Solid
– Top: Solid Spruce
– Sides/Back: Quilted or Flame Maple, Black Walnut
– Nut Width: 42.5mm/42.8mm
– Nut/Saddle: Synthetic bone
– Split Saddle: Yes
– Remarks: 3-piece back option

90 Series:
– Body: Top Solid
– Top: Solid Spruce
– Sides/Back: 3-piece Black Walnut, Maple, Bocote, Madagascar Rosewood
– Nut Width: 42.8mm/43mm
– Nut/Saddle: Synthetic bone
– Split Saddle: Yes
– Remarks: Black Walnut sides/back standard, available as 12-string guitar, 3-piece back option

Naming Convention

The naming of G Series guitars follows the pattern G□△△○○-☆☆☆.

1) □: Body type (D-Dreadnought, N-NEX (small jumbo), F-FXC (grand concert), Y-New Yorker (parlor), J-Jumbo)
2) △△: Line and wood type
3) ○○: Cutaway and pickup presence
4) ☆☆☆: Color

For example, from the name GD93CE-NAT:
1) G Series
2) D: Dreadnought
3) 90 series
4) 3-piece back
5) CE: Cutaway with pickup
6) NAT: Natural color

However, older models seem to follow a different naming convention, which I’m not familiar with.

There are also classical guitars, acoustic basses, Takamine minis, and ukuleles, which I will organize separately if time allows.

Personally, I think the 20 and 30 series offer good value for money. Although I haven’t received demo units yet to hear their sound, I believe they could be recommended if they offer decent sound, intonation, pickup quality, and neck feel.

I will review and post about the demos as soon as I receive them.

I intended to cover the Pro Series, Thin Line, and Limited Line all at once, but it’s taking longer than expected.

I will organize the Pro Series and other lines in a separate post.

See you in the next post!

The History of Takamine Guitars

Hello, This is Jooyoung Kim, an engineer and music producer.

This post is a review-style article I wrote when I was working at Soop Records(Jan. 2023), where I had the opportunity to use Takamine guitars. I covered the history and lineups of Takamine guitars, including reviews of some mid-range models. Instead of letting this post remain only in Korean, I decided to translate it into English.

When I previously searched for information, I couldn’t find a comprehensive summary of how Takamine was established and what guitar lineups they offer.

Whether it’s due to my personality or not, I feel the need to organize these basic details before diving into more specific topics.

Let’s start with the history of Takamine guitars.

Takamine began in 1959.

Ohzone(大曽根), who worked at a musical instrument factory in the Nagoya region, decided to leave after the factory suffered severe damage from a typhoon and settled on Mount Takamine in Sakashita, Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture.

It started under the name Ohzone Musical Instruments(大曽根楽器製作所).

Mount Takamine in Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県高峯山)

In 1962, dissatisfied with the company name, they changed it to Takamine Gakki (Takamine Musical Instruments, 高峰楽器製作所), named after the mountain.

(Side note: There are many mountains named Takamine in Japan. It was quite challenging to find pictures… haha)

By 1968, nearly ten years after the company was founded, it had grown into a sizable company with 60 employees, gaining fame for its classical guitars and mandolins.

During this period, guitarist Hirade, who played a significant role in the company, joined Takamine.

With Hirade as the president, in the 1970s, they anticipated a growing demand for steel-string acoustics and entered the international market. At the time, the guitars were reasonably priced and well-made, which helped them gain a foothold in the market.

However, Takamine couldn’t escape the shadow of Martin copies during this period.

Martin even sent Takamine a letter asking them not to copy their headstock design exactly.

Although Martin didn’t sue, the story got slightly distorted, leading to old Takamine Martin-style guitars being called “Lawsuit guitars.”

Regardless, this marked a turning point for Takamine, leading them to create their iconic pointed headstock and develop unique split saddles for better intonation.

The iconic pointed headstock and split saddles commonly found in their guitars

In 1978, Takamine developed their renowned Palathetic pickup.

The Palathetic pickup, with six individual piezo transducers, one for each string, is still highly regarded today and has been widely copied by other manufacturers.

Even though the company name was Takamine Gakki, previous guitars had names like Elite and Nashville. After the introduction of the pickup, they started using the name Takamine exclusively.

This solidified Takamine’s place in the market. It’s said that the Eagles used a Takamine 12-string guitar for “Hotel California” during this period.

In 1988, Takamine introduced a parametric EQ to their preamps, and in 1989, they developed an external battery box and a replaceable preamp system, making their guitars more suitable for performances.

CoolTube – not just a name, it actually has a tube!

This innovation continued with the introduction of the CoolTube, the first onboard tube preamp, in 2004, along with other replaceable preamps.

Unfortunately, this feature is not available in the lower-priced G Series.

It would be great if these preamps could be swapped in lower-priced guitars, as they would be perfect as a second guitar for gigs, but it remains a bit of a drawback.

This covers the main points of Takamine’s history. In the next post, I will summarize Takamine’s lineup and price ranges.

See you in the next article!

Basics of Mixing – 2.2 Phase and Interference

Hi, This is Jooyoung Kim, mixing engineer and music producer.

Today, following our discussion on waves, I’d like to talk about phase and interference.

In the previous post, we talked about phase and how it represents the ‘position and state’ of a wave, which can be expressed in degrees.

When two different waves (sounds) meet, this is called interference. The concept of phase is very useful in explaining interference.

Let’s first look at the case where two waves with the same frequency and direction of travel interfere.

Left: Constructive Interference; Right: Destructive Interference

On the left, you see two waves with the same phase meeting, while on the right, you see two waves with opposite phases (180 degrees or π apart) meeting.

On the left, the amplitude doubles, and on the right, it becomes zero. This type of interference, where the amplitude increases, is called ‘constructive interference,’ and when the amplitude decreases, it is called ‘destructive interference.’

When the amplitude increases, the sound becomes louder, and when it decreases, the sound becomes softer. Therefore, when a sound with the opposite phase to the original sound is played together, the sound is canceled out.

Why should a mixing engineer know this?

Around April, I received a request for mixing for live recording at a small competition, and this is a photo of the drum recording setup.

When recording drums, multiple microphones are often used for the kick and snare, among other elements.

When these recorded sounds are combined, the recorded sources can interfere with each other, leading to destructive interference, which weakens the sound. Hence, it’s essential to align the phase of each track.

You can easily understand proper phase alignment by listening.

I’ve included a YouTube video because creating my own example would be too time-consuming. In the video, the initial sound you hear is a properly phase-aligned snare, while the subsequent sound shows a snare with phase misalignment resulting in destructive interference.

Therefore, when conducting multi-track recording, it’s crucial to check the phase of all tracks against a reference track.

In Cubase, you can change the phase in the mixer window using the Pre-phase button. In Logic, you use the Phase Invert button in the Gain plugin.

In Pro Tools, there’s a button (Φ) on the track itself to invert the phase. Other DAWs also have waveform editing functions to flip the phase.

That’s all for this post. See you in the next article!

Basics of Mixing – 2.1 Wave

Hello, This is Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer.

To effectively mix, it’s essential to understand the nature of sound. Today, I’d like to talk about waves.

What is a wave?

There are various ways to define it, but a wave is fundamentally a method of transferring energy. When energy is transferred, some ‘things’ that carries this energy vibrates, and those ‘things’ is called the “medium.”

There are two types of wave:
– Transverse Wave
– Longitudinal Wave

If the direction of the medium’s vibration and the direction of the energy’s travel are the same, it’s a longitudinal wave. If they are different, it’s a transverse wave.

Sound is a longitudinal wave with air as its medium. However, representing a longitudinal wave as a waveform can be complex, so in a DAW, it’s often converted into a transverse wave for simplicity.

From now on, when explaining waves, I’ll use the transverse wave model. Although sound is a longitudinal wave, think of it as being converted into a transverse wave for easier understanding.

Each Circles(Reds, Greens) have same ‘Phase’

The first concept you need to understand is ‘phase.’

When I first learned physics, this was a confusing concept. According to my high school physics teacher, phase represents the ‘position and state‘ of a wave.

Simply put, if the movement direction and position of the medium at a specific point are the same, the phases are said to be identical.

Phases are expressed in degrees, which relates to representing waves as simple harmonic motion.

If the image is confusing, think of it as: “Waves can be represented by rotational motion, and thus can be expressed in degrees.”

All waves can be expressed as a combination of simple harmonic motions. However, delving into this topic would be too lengthy, so I’ll skip it for now.

You might wonder why understanding phase is important. It’s because it helps define other terms related to waves.

The shortest distance between points with the same phase is called the ‘wavelength.’ The shortest time to reach the same phase again is called the ‘period.’ The number of times the phase changes per second at a given point is called the ‘frequency.’

For instance, if a sound has a frequency of 1000 Hz, it means the sound vibrates 1000 times per second, and it takes 0.001 seconds for one vibration.

In waves, if you divide the speed by the frequency, you can find the wavelength. The speed of sound at room temperature is roughly 340 m/s, so with a simple calculation, you can find the wavelength for a specific frequency. Conversely, if you know the wavelength, you can find the frequency.

Mixing engineers might wonder why they need to calculate wavelengths when they only need to know the frequency. This is related to studio resonance.

When the wavelength’s length matches the room dimensions in specific ways, resonance occurs. This is known as Room Modes.

There are lots of articles about Room Modes

If you notice resonance at a specific frequency while listening or mixing, you can calculate the wavelength and compare it to your room dimensions. This helps determine if the issue is with the recording or the room itself.

There are websites that calculate these for you, but understanding the principle allows you to make calculations even in irregular-shaped rooms or environments where you can’t use such tools.

Find your room’s room modes

Today, we covered the concepts of phase, wavelength, period, frequency, and room modes.

I’ll stop here for now. See you in the next post!

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