1970s Takamine F307 00-Size Guitar

Takamine guitars of this era are pretty collectible these days. They're well-made and have handling and sound that's fairly similar to the comparable Martin models they emulate. The most popular ones are the solid top models with the S designation after their model names, but the normal all-ply models (like this guy) are very well-respected, too.

This particular guitar surprises me a lot, actually -- its neck is spot-on for period Martins, though the fretboard radius is kinder than the almost-flat Martins of the time (late '70s). It also sounds quite a lot like a 00-18 but with maybe a bit more of a uniform push in the mids (rather than mids-scooped like most Martins). The high-end doesn't sound "zippy" like I usually expect from ply-top guitars -- it's a sure-footed sound and makes playing flatpicked lead lines actually fun. I'm used to nicer-grade ply-top guitars sounding great as strummers or fingerpickers but always falling short with flatpicked melody.

Aside from the light bridge shave work (done by myself), the rest of the work was done by our new deckhand Jose, and it's now playing spot-on and is ready to go.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, bridge and saddle shave, and setup.

Weight: 3 lbs 13 oz

Scale length: 25"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: medium C

Board radius: 12"

Body width: 14 3/8"

Body depth: 4 1/8"

Top wood: ply spruce

Back & sides wood: ply mahogany

Bracing type: x

Bridge: rosewood (ebonized)

Fretboard: rosewood (ebonized)

Neck wood: mahogany or similar

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-modern

Condition notes: while the guitar is overall in pretty good shape, it has a lot of strange, long, deep scratches/clearcoat lines on the top. I wonder if the ones with the grain and long are a result of the finish getting weather-damaged somehow, but there are cross-grain scratches on the upper bout that are definitely the result of it getting scratched in storage or by accident. Suffice to say, the finish everywhere other than the top looks great but the top has these odd scratches (which I've taken hard-light photos of). During setup, we did have to shave the bridge a bit and take down the saddle to get it playing spot-on. I didn't want to get into a neck reset on these because they can be a bit chancy (they're doweled joints) and we only had to take a little under 1/16" off to get it to a solid player. We "re-ebonized" it even though it's rosewood as the factory "ebonized" both the board and bridge when this was new.

It comes with: a nice old hard case.

Consignor tag: A26