Takamine G Series EG523SC Jumbo Acoustic Electric Guitar, Natural

First off, I ordered The guitar on a Saturday night it showed up on my door step Thursday morning, delivery was to be between 5-14 days. It is very important to understand, Guitars are sensitive to drying conditions, must be kept in a sweet humidity range, frets will pop, warping and other tell-tail signs of drying were not apparent. I opened the box, tuned her and she's stayed in tune since. She's a boomer, sorry neighbors (without plugging in), all the tonal qualities you'd ask for in a higher priced guitar, plus the beauty, I might need to take her in for fine tuning, finding where I need my action but that's with any new guitar, but it's working well so far, bending notes just great no flat spots. Out of the Box no imperfections, no defects, not even a finger print, still in the factory wrapping. Making cords and notes are a dream, with no flat spots, D'Addario EXP strings and sounds great Amp'd (played w/ the Eq. but not the notch filter). Other reviews compare this guitar to a Gibson, Taylor and even the Martin, yes it is as great sounding I've played on some of those before choosing the Takamine, but more important is the shipping and handling. I purchased the Takamine G series Jumbo from Amazon vender FretWorld, and they must store things properly, showing great service and product knowledge! They were not the least expensive but a great price non the less (About $480 for a guitar that lists at about $1000) but bottom line, the guitar arrived in great shape and that's what you want in a mail order/online shopping experience. (I'd give FretWorld 5 Star +) I have read other guitar reviews where the vendors have not stored properly and the reviewers had to do major repairs to get the guitar's playable, something to consider with a vendor, cheep for a reason, a non-humidity controlled warehouse in Arizona not a good place for an instrument.

Beautiful looking guitar, came strung with D'Addario strings but I find them to be very thin sounding and tinny.Action is great, but it is not playable "right out of the box", The 5th string buzzes on 3rd fret and up, so I will need to bring it in and SPEND MONEY to have it professionally adjusted. I'm hoping with some different strings it won't sound so "bright"Sounds a lot better amplified. If I had the $$ I would have bought a Taylor or Martin.I might amend this review once I've fixed the above issues.

Just bought one the other day. Sounds great & very nice looking, but like most economically priced guitars, it needed some help, called a "SETUP" by most techs(I have 3 Epiphone's; a Special, Les Paul PRO, & a Sheraton 2 & they all needed the same Setup). I.E.: Straighten neck, file frets(7 high & rattling), remove/adjust shimming for bridge to get the strings low enough to play comfortably. The biggest complaint I read, & found it to be true with mine, is the bridge & mine was totally FUBAR & took a lot of time, by a very good tech, to fix it. Also have 1 string that the pickup seems weak on. I have a '87 E Series Contemporary Srat & a 80 Guild D40C which are great, & have owned many Gibson's. This is a very nice inexpensive guitar that I haven't been able to put down, since I got home with it..

I bought this guitar to take lessons on, and it has served me very well. It sounds and looks great. Its a beauty. I much prefer the light color of the wood on this guitar to the darker wood models I looked at, and it sounds much better than the cheaper models I considered. The tuner makes keeping it sounding great very easy. The strings are not that far above the neck, so its not as hard on the fingertips as other guitars I tried... although the strings that come on it are very stiff.It is an acoustic-electric guitar, meaning it can be played with or without an electric amplifier setup. I have never used the electric plug ins yet, so I can't comment on the plugged in sound, but the unplugged sound is great.Overall a great guitar given the price I paid. I bought it for 499 dollars in November of 2010, a fairly expensive learner guitar, but one that wouldn't need to be replaced right away as a mere "beginner" guitar. My comments are based upon the price I paid, if it is significantly more than that, it may be priced beyond beginner range...Check out YouTube for in depth reviews and examples of the great sound.

It looks very nice guitar but it came with significant neck overbow. If I knew I could not tune it by myself, I would not buy it.

I just got this Monday and so far it's been a blast. I've owned many guitars over the years and none have compared to this for the price. This guitar is amazing, I have the natural one and the pictures on here do not give it justice. This guitar is so beautiful and the sound is so sweet plugged in or unplugged. If I had a complaint it would be the pick up system. But that would be a very small complaint. It sounds good but I was expecting it to be a little louder than what it is. But the action and sound makes up for that. It came ready to play right out of the box. Tuned it up Monday evening played it for about 4 hours. Took it out of the case Tuesday checked the strings had one string out, played it for about another 4 hours. Haven't tuned it since. If you want a beautiful guitar and a great sounding one for a decent price this ones for you. I've had a Gibson that cost 2 as much and not sound as good.