Takamine HistoryEarlier Days

Earlier Days-Takamine History

In the Beginning

In 1959 Takamine made its start as a humble music instrument workshop at the foot of Mt. Takamine in Gifu, the central part of Japan. Gifu, then known as a wooden material production area, was a perfect place to employ skilled woodworking craftsmen.

With the booming folk music in late 60's, acoustic guitars were rapidly gaining popularity among Japanese youth and all guitar makers competed to produce the instruments. The basis for Takamine's success of today was gradually formed in these years.

To the World Music Scene

Mass Hirade, who joined the company in 1968, made great contribution to grading up the products' design and quality. To honor his contribution, the "Classical" family models come with "Hirade" name to this day. After Mr. Hirade assumed the presidency in mid 70's, he determined to launch the company's own brand "Takamine." Export to overseas market gained momentum by tying up with Kaman Music Corporation in the USA.

Around that time, as the size of concert venue was getting larger, professional guitarists were struggling to improve the reproduction of their guitar sounds through PA system. Starting from attaching a microphone to their guitars, they tried magnetic pickup and then contact pickup but the sound quality was far from what they wanted.

The Birth of Takamine Acoustic-electric Guitar

Takamine entered full-scale development of acoustic-electric guitars in late 1970s. For this project, engineers were allowed to pursue their own ideal sound without being bound by the traditional rules of guitar-making.

In the course of bringing the new acoustic-electric guitars into the market, Takamine invented several key components, one of which is its proprietary Palathetic pickup. By introducing this unique and innovative device that integrates transducers and bridge to minimize the feed back and between-strings crosstalk, Takamine successfully set the industry's standard of today's acoustic-electric guitar. The first commercial model of Takamine acoustic-electric guitar with Palathetic pickup was completed in 1978.

Takamine Made its Debut on U.S. Stages

In April 1979, Takamine launched its first acoustic-electric guitar in overseas market. It was not long before renowned American musicians including Ry Coodar, Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne came on stage with their own Takamine. The Eagles' Glenn Frey used a Takamine 12-string acoustic-electric for the intro of famous "Hotel California". The brand name, Takamine, quickly became known in the American music world.

PT-007S - Takamine's first acoustic-electric guitar

Ry Coodar is the first Takamine enthusiast and played an important role in fine-tuning and improving the prototype of PT-007S.
The preamp on the shoulder of the body is the very first version with gain and tone sliders known as "two-control".