Takamine

DECEMBER 2006 115
TAKAMINE EF340SCO
PRICE: £749 (inc case)
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Cutaway
dreadnought electro-
acoustic
TOP: Solid spruce
BACK/SIDES: Laminated
ovangkol
MAX RIM DEPTH:
125mm
MAX BODY WIDTH:
400mm
NECK: Mahogany, one-
piece plus heel
SCALE LENGTH:
644mm
TUNERS: Chrome
diecast
NUT/WIDTH: Bone/
42.5mm
FINGERBOARD: Bound
rosewood, 279mm (11-
inch) radius
FRETS: 20, thin
BRIDGE/SPACING:
Rosewood with bone
saddle/52mm
ELECTRICS: Palathetic
under-saddle pickup;
CT4BII preamp with
volume, low, mid, high,
auto chromatic tuner and
quick-release battery
cover
WEIGHT (kg/lb):
2.68/5.9
OPTIONS: Natural Series
TAN10C (£ 8 9 9) – solid
cedar top, solid
mahogany back, CTP1
CoolTube preamp
LEFT HANDERS: Not as
EF340. Try the Advanced
Natural Series TAN10C-
LH at £1,019
FINISH: Satin natural
Korg UK
01908 857100
www.takamine.co.uk
too. The all-over satin fi nish feels
especially smooth to the touch, and the
multi-ply top binding and soundhole
rings are very precisely lined. In fact,
the only conceivable (very subjective)
reservation is that the adornments are
rather staid. But this is designed as a
workhorse instrument and not one to
be dripping in abalone.
Aside from very minor variations in
low-position depth, the 644mm-scale
mahogany necks on all three guitars are
fashioned to a similar profi le. This
means Takamine’s usual, quite slender
span and a tightish string spacing at the
bridge, and a pretty-much evenly
rounded grip – although this
dreadnought has a little more wood
along the shouldering than the other
two. A depth of 24.5mm up near the
start of the heel turn is fairly full, but it
doesn’t feel too chunky thanks to the
modest width. Fretting on the bound
rosewood fi ngerboard is very well
fi tted, nicely polished and with
smoothly rounded ends. It’s good to
fi nd a second strap button at the heel
too, which all review models came
fi tted with.
Something else our trio share in
common is the powering combination
of Takamine’s palathetic under-saddle
pickup and CT4BII preamp. One of the
company’s interchangeable slot-in
units, the CT4BII provides slider-based
volume and three-band EQ, and
includes a versatile auto-chromatic
tuner that can be calibrated between
438Hz and 445Hz to allow for
accompanying, say, dodgy acoustic
pianos or other slightly ‘off-key’
instruments. When activated the tuner
usefully mutes the output, it can be
used whether or not the guitar is
plugged in, and is generally very easy to
use and accurate. The preamp’s only
drawback – applicable to all other slot-
in Takamine systems too – is that its
shoulder mounting gives an annoyingly
oblique view of the controls. We always
raise this point, but probably in vain,
since the company isn’t likely to
completely redesign or relocate a
housing arrangement that is so well
established. Still, you never know.
SOUNDS: As dreadnoughts go, the
EF340SCO isn’t the ultimate bruiser,
but it’s not meek either. The tone is
pleasantly and quite neutrally poised
between brightness and warmth, and
though a little more low-end gusto
might be desirable in purely acoustic
terms, that could run the risk of
skewing the balance electro-wise.
Indeed, when powered up the CT4BII
supplies plenty of low-end range as
things stand, even though each of the
EQ bands offers only a modest +/-5dB
of boost and cut. There’s an advantage
to this: it’s pretty much impossible to
set up a duff sound, because you can’t
take things to daft extremes. So what
we fi nd is a mid-range that’s never
going to sound too meagre or nastily
honky, and a top end that can either be
relatively muted or sparkling but never
too dull or too brittle. It’s an
arrangement that works well.
EF444S-TBS
Takamine’s NEX body shape, fi rst seen
on Santa Fe guitars in the early
nineties, in effect defi ned what we now
call the mini-jumbo (or grand
auditorium if you’re that way inclined).
Over the years, however, most such
models – particular the electros – have
been cutaway NEXC versions, so it’s
refreshing to welcome this non-cut
EF444S-TBS.
Without the cutaway, the design
assumes a quite different persona to
the obviously stage electro personality
of the NEXCs. It more clearly shows its
vintage-like folk roots, which Takamine
emphasises on the EF444S, courtesy of
a tobacco sunburst top that nicely
evokes an old Gibson picker. The
lighter central area is a little patchy in
colour here and there on the solid
spruce top (you often don’t know how
stains will take to a piece of wood until
you actually do it), but the general
appearance is mightily attractive, and
the body’s gloss lacquering comes very
well buffed. The laminated mahogany
back and sides – the latter a relatively
capacious 110mm deep at their
maximum point – aren’t bursted, but
stained to a reddish brown that’s fairly
dark but still light enough for you to
appreciate the graining of the timber.
There was early talk that the UK model
would come with cheaper nato back
and sides, but be assured this is
genuine mahogany. And so it should be
at the price.
Given the guitar’s traditional styling,
one perhaps might have expected to
fi nd a fi ngerstyle neck, but as we’ve
EF340SCO
Breedlove Atlas
AD25/SM £650
Cort Parkwood PW630M
£699
Guild GAD40CE £599
Breedlove’s Korean-
sourced Atlas
dreadnought is solid
spruce/mahogany and
features a pinless
bridge, the JLD
internal bridge trussing
system and a Fishman
Classic 4 preamp. The
PW630M is one of
a new all-solid-wood
series from Cort, with a
spruce/mahogany body,
light-coat open-pore
fi nish and a Fishman
Prefi x Premium Stereo
Onboard Blender.
Guild’s Chinese-made
GAD-40CE is also all-
solid spruce/mahogany,
and includes wood
bindings and a Fishman
Matrix active endpin
system. All three guitars
are cutaways.
The rivals
TAKAMINE EF340SCO, EF444S-TBS & EF508KC £749, £799 & £899
ELECTRO-ACOUSTICS
The CT4BII preamp
provides only the most
useable of tones
GIT284.rev_takamine 115 7/11/06 13:48:47