1977 Takamine F360S Dreadnought Guitar

The Takamine F360 model is a Martin D-28 lookalike (made in Japan) but made out of ply throughout the body (ply spruce over ply rosewood). The F360S model, as seen here, makes that a solid spruce top but keeps the rest ply. Looks-wise and bracing-wise, it's actually a pretty convincing clone of "the real thing." It does have the look, feel, and style and even has the diamond "volute" at the back of the headstock -- something you see on Daion and Yamaki products as well.

It's not really the same as buying a big rosewood-backed dreadnought of the Martin variety, however. Because the back and sides are ply they have more of a sonic "bounce" similar to maple -- the tone is more D-18-like overall, with an emphasis on upper mids and highs and a good, punchy sound in the lows.

These are nicely-built guitars, too, but they do have the issue of having doweled neck joints. That makes them a bit of a pain in the butt to reset the necks, but I have done a reset on this guy. I overshot it just a bit, unfortunately, which means that I have an over-tall saddle on the guitar. Still, however, it appears to be holding-up just swell and plays the biz.