Takamine EG523SC Acoustic-Electric Guitar  

aesthetically brilliant. every time I look at this guitar, i cant help but smile and wonder how i got so lucky. the care takamine puts into this series is apparent and i am glad to have it in my living room for everyone to see. ive never seen one of the black ones but all the blonde ones i have seen including my own, are just beautiful

this guitar is stout. well put together, with high quality parts. tough and pretty.

you can go buy a gibson or taylor or martin and get a great great great guitar, but be broke and probably slightly bummed about it despite your new toy, or you can get as good or better a guitar for half the price with this thing. amazing piece of equipment. truly.

to put it simply, takamine is letting you steal from them a little bit. once you get it, you may feel bad about paying so little and getting so much. but you get over that pretty quick.

This guitar is incredible all around, bought this guitar about 2 years ago and it is still like it is brand new. Absolutey beautiful look and sound. These guitars are made to be plugged up so once you play it acoustic and then plug it up it will blow you away!!! YOu. Obviously Higher end Gibsons and Taylors will sound better but plugged in, This guitar is right with them.

It is worth the money

I've had this guitar for a couple months and I absolutely love it! I was just browsing in a music store one day, picked this thing up and walked out with it that day. What caught my eye was the beautiful design on the guitar. Not too flashy, but gorgeous inlays and natural finish. When I first played it, it was by far the best sounding guitar in the store. Beautiful deep lows and crispy highs, not to mention this guitar is loud acoustically. Fingerpicking sounds great on this Jumbo. I've played it at church through the PA and it sounds even better when the top of the line Takamine electronics kick in. For the price, you cannot beat this guitar. I gave it a 9 in quality just because it needed a little bit of setup (action raised, frets re-hammered) after a few months, but now it plays even better. Just buy this guitar, it will not disappoint!

I give this a relatively low score for value, as my current on going experience I am having to spend hundreds extra to have the bridge fixed, a complete set up, adjustment of saddle, re-routing of the saddle slot, and a fret dress.

Should play like a dream when I get it back.

I am on my second EG523SC guitar.     The first one I bought was a write off within a month because the neck warped and frets came up (and yes, I kept my guitar humidified).     It was replaced under warranty by the model I have now, which I've had for a year and a half.     Recently I decided to take the guitar to a service shop to get the fret ends filed, as from day one this guitar had sharp fret ends (I only had the time and money to deal with it now....).     After laying the guitar on the repair bench, the first thing that was pointed out to me was that my bridge was coming off!     Apparently when Takamine assembles these guitars, they mask off the area where the bridge is located before finishing.         To trim the excess masking, the factory takes a razor blade and traces out the footprint of the bridge...     HOWEVER, instead of lightly cutting the masking, they are cutting into the wood veneer!!!     Over time my guitar has dried out, because the shop that sold me the guitar also sold me a substandard guitar case humidifier.     The wood has shrunk, and my bridge is pulling loose AND pulling the wood veneer up with it!!!     You can clearly see where the factory guy cut into the wood!     Fortunately, the shop I am dealing with can fix the bridge.     Alternatively, I could have returned it to the shop I bought it at and tried to claim warranty, but I don't want the hassle of a potentially rejected warranty, and if it is covered, I don't want the guitar replaced by another sub-standard piece of imported garbage.

See above... quality is not that well regulated.     In addition to the above, there are numberous dead spots on the fret board.     Thoroughly play the instrument you plan to by (the actual one).