Silence Kid
New member
I'm not posting much; a combination of web-averseness & work making me pass out. But I'm still playing, largely acoustic (to improve my rhythm/hand strength.) Never liked acoustic much, so might as well talk about the guitar that's responsible; the one I just dug out of my closet. In truth it's the guitar I learned to play on, but our history goes back further. My dad bought it new, and it's the first guitar I remember in general, from hearing him play when I was three; usually Eagles/Gordon Lightfoot/Cat Stevens. Still have the old case, with the pitch pipe stained by my own toddler slobber, and still-boxed capo and strap used maybe a handful of times.
He should have used the strap; he dropped it before I was born (I think,) and cracked the lower bout; not major enough to deal with... Till I decided to play at 14 and changed the strings for the first time in years. My grandma gave me a pack of Martin strings for my birthday, which were enough extra tension to cause the top to crack the rest of the way toward the neck along the binding
This is a laminate guitar, so although the subsequent repair has held (even when I used heavy gauge strings,) it does not look pretty. And I hate saying it... Nor does it sound great. I never thought so. About the same time time I "borrowed" the F340 from my dad he got a... G-430? Also laminate, but a MUCH better guitar (the sound, not the build quality... Made in Indonesia, with a sticky finish slathered all over the neck and side dots, but for a laminate guitar, THAT is a decent axe.
I don't know if it's the screw-adjustable bridge, the crack/repair, construction or etc. , but while the guitar has decent high end "ring," it's always just been rubbery on the bass strings, very fundamental and thumpy, too "round." It's not loud. I really disliked the neck; it's not TOO thick, but it's thicker than most modern acoustics that aren't supposed tobe, and has a rounded yet pointy profile that annoys my thumb. Probably why I moved on (though for more than a decade it was my only acoustic.) It's a "lawsuit" model, with the Martin-ish headstock. Weird, it's still on Takamine's website (though long discontinued.)
I never felt like I bonded with this guitar, but I guess I have; it feels like my playing just "hits" on it, and despite getting a thumb-ache from the awful (for me) neck profile it's just comfortable in a way few guitars can be for me; the only close second is my Jaguar, another guitar that ideally I could improve on if I tailored a guitar to my precise preferences... But where the idiosyncrasies are part of me and my playing. Even down to the smell; it smells like it did when I was three, even after long years and nights being hauled around by me in and out of its case to various places. My hands smell exactly the same way every time I play it; the way I remembered from all those years back.
So who even LIKES these? Maybe the solid top is better?
He should have used the strap; he dropped it before I was born (I think,) and cracked the lower bout; not major enough to deal with... Till I decided to play at 14 and changed the strings for the first time in years. My grandma gave me a pack of Martin strings for my birthday, which were enough extra tension to cause the top to crack the rest of the way toward the neck along the binding
This is a laminate guitar, so although the subsequent repair has held (even when I used heavy gauge strings,) it does not look pretty. And I hate saying it... Nor does it sound great. I never thought so. About the same time time I "borrowed" the F340 from my dad he got a... G-430? Also laminate, but a MUCH better guitar (the sound, not the build quality... Made in Indonesia, with a sticky finish slathered all over the neck and side dots, but for a laminate guitar, THAT is a decent axe.I don't know if it's the screw-adjustable bridge, the crack/repair, construction or etc. , but while the guitar has decent high end "ring," it's always just been rubbery on the bass strings, very fundamental and thumpy, too "round." It's not loud. I really disliked the neck; it's not TOO thick, but it's thicker than most modern acoustics that aren't supposed tobe, and has a rounded yet pointy profile that annoys my thumb. Probably why I moved on (though for more than a decade it was my only acoustic.) It's a "lawsuit" model, with the Martin-ish headstock. Weird, it's still on Takamine's website (though long discontinued.)
I never felt like I bonded with this guitar, but I guess I have; it feels like my playing just "hits" on it, and despite getting a thumb-ache from the awful (for me) neck profile it's just comfortable in a way few guitars can be for me; the only close second is my Jaguar, another guitar that ideally I could improve on if I tailored a guitar to my precise preferences... But where the idiosyncrasies are part of me and my playing. Even down to the smell; it smells like it did when I was three, even after long years and nights being hauled around by me in and out of its case to various places. My hands smell exactly the same way every time I play it; the way I remembered from all those years back.
So who even LIKES these? Maybe the solid top is better?
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Ordered new by my dad from the AAFES catalog when he was stationed overseas. It indeed has a thick neck but is quite a light guitar. The top is pretty bellied and the neck could probably use a reset; as a whole its on the barest margins of playable. I have the action dropped and the bridge very ramped. The top is SO lively though especially for a laminate. Sounds great.
