Takamine HistoryEarlier Days

In Pursuit of the Ultimate Acoustic Sound

Takamine Plugged Sound Technology

Soon after the introduction of its acoustic-electric guitar to the U.S. market, Takamine designers/engineers team tackled with further improvement for better overall performance. In 1988, Takamine released their first single unit preamp, which realized interchangeability of preamps by integrating preamp and battery case in one housing unit and also by unifying the top panel size. Replacing preamps freely depending on the type of music and the size of stage was quite a unique idea and welcomed by a number of stage musicians. This substantially contributes to the improvement of maintainability as well.

In 1998, Takamine developed the two-way truss rod jointly with G-GOTOH. In the same year Takamine released the DSP, the world's first on-board full digital preamp, and received strong support from many professional guitar players around the world.

Nearly ten years after releasing the DSP, Takamine introduced the Cool Tube (CTP-1), a vacuum-tube-based preamp that outputs more natural and warm sound. This preamp has been ingeniously designed with low-voltage tube driver circuit to eliminate concerns over the heat generated by the tube.

In Pursuit of the Ultimate Acoustic Sound

It is without question that Takamine owes its recognition greatly to its acoustic-electric guitars. However, it is also true that if our acoustic guitar does not sound good unplugged, it will not be saved by a great set of pickup and preamp.
The basics of Takamine instruments lie in making excellent acoustic guitars. And, we know there's no shortcut to excellence. Pursuing genuine acoustic sound – that's our challenge now and it will be in the future.