1990s Takamine EG-40C Cutaway Acoustic/Electric Guitar

Acoustic-electric Takamines were everywhere in the 90s and this G-series EG-40C is one of their budget-minded, made-in-Taiwan models. Despite being an undersaddle-equipped acoustic-electric, the preamp gives it a very clean, balanced, natural sound. I was surprised when I plugged it in to test it out that it sounded as good as it does (a lot of current-production American-made undersaddle-equipped guitars just sound flat-out bad when plugged-in).

This is a customer's guitar and was just in for light work -- a fret level/dress, light bridge shave, and setup. He's obviously played the heck out of it as the pickwear has gone through the first layer of the top's lamination (yes, it's an all-lam guitar). The mini-jumbo body shape (16") gives the acoustic tone a lot of clarity and balance, so this makes it a great "band guitar." I still hold reservations about cutaways, but the owner obviously played up the neck to make use of it -- so fair enough!