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So, What the heck is a Takamine EF75 guitar?

In 2005 Takamine set out to build a very special limited edition guitar. The company had been sitting on a stock of coveted Brazilian rosewood, sufficient quantity for the back and sides of about 100 guitars. Sorting the wood and discarding those that did not meet stringent standards for tonewood, the yield was about 85 sets. The decision was made to design the guitar as an OM size. Overall dimensions are very similar to OM models from other makers. The nutwidth would be a wide 1-3/4 inch to appeal to fingerpickers as well as strummers. And the guitar would have sufficient cosmetic treatment, such as inlaid abalone and maple trim, to compliment the rare Brazilian wood.

The EF75 was built in the Takamine factory located in Sakashita, Japan. A point of clarification regarding the model number. You may see this guitar listed as either EF75J or EF75S. There is no difference. The J and S are different designations between Takamine and it's U.S. distributor, Kaman Music Corp.

The heart of any guitar is the soundboard.   As one of the worlds largest manufacturers of acoustic guitars, Takamine has an extensive inventory of select tonewoods. From its very conception the EF75 was targeted to be a very special and elite instrument, hence only the finest AAA grade spruce tops were chosen. The 15+ year old stock of rare Brazilian Rosewood was perfectly sized for OM body back and sides. Joined together with figured maple binding and the soundboard trimmed in detailed abalone. Bracing is a scalloped X design. The neck is choice mahogany, supporting an ebony fretboard bound in maple with mother Of pearl and abalone inlays. The beautiful headstock is also faced in Brazilian rosewood and trimmed in figured maple with a Takamine logo inlay of Koa. Tuning is handled by vintage style Gotoh open gear tuners.

Visually, the EF75 appears to be an acoustic-only guitar. But deep inside is a Class A-G line driver preamp coupled to the undersaddle pickup and feeding out through the end pin jack. The plugged in tone rivals anything you can buy. Excellence in simplicity. But acoustically is where this guitar really shines. Bright and crisp, but with wonderful mellow woody overtones. To say it rivals other Brazilian Rosewood guitars costing three times as much is almost an insult. In so many ways the EF75 is in a class by itself. If you are an owner of an EF75, consider yourself lucky. These rare guitars will certainly turn into highly coveted collectors instruments.

Thank you to my friend Jerome for THIS description of the EF75 taken from the French Guitarist Magazine.

For a complete product line tour please visit the official website of Takamine Guitars.

Specifications
Body style	OM 14 fret
Neck joint	Dovetail
Top material	Hand selected AAA spruce gloss finished
Top bracing	Scalloped X bracing pattern
Top binding	Figured maple and inlaid abalone
Soundhole rosette	Inlaid abalone
Back and sides material	Brazilian rosewood
Back and sides finish	Gloss
Back and sides binding	Figured maple
Back center purfling	Multi wood inlay of wenge, abalone and koa
Scale length	25.4 "
Neck material	Mahogany
Neck shape	Soft C
Neck finish	Satin
Neck binding	Figured maple
Heel cap	Figured maple
Fretboard material	Ebony
Fretboard radius	Variable
Fretboard side dot markers	Inlaid dots
Frets total	20 frets
Frets clear of body	14 frets
Fretboard inlays	Mother of pearl and abalone
Nut material	Bone
Nutwidth	1.75 "
Headstock facing	Brazilian rosewood
Headstock binding	Figured maple
Headstock logo	Inlaid koa
Headstock finish	Gloss
Tuners	Gotoh gold open gear with vintage buttons
Tuner ratio	14 : 1
Bridge material	Ebony
Saddle type	Compensated split drop in
Saddle material	Bone
Bridge pins material	Ebony
Pickguard	Tortoise shell design
Interior label	Hand numbered
Pickup	Undersaddle Palethetic Pickup
Preamp	TLD direct out line driver

Dimensions
Overall length	41 "
Width at lower bout	15 - 3/8 "
Width at upper bout	11 "
Width at waist	9 - 3/8 "
Body length	19 - 5/8 "
Body depth at neck	3 - 5/8 "
Body depth at endpin	4 - 1/4 "

Official Press Release from Takamine ...

June 25, 2005
TAKAMINE INTRODUCES NEW BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD OM

Takamine introduces the EF75S OM style guitar made with an AAA Sitka Spruce top with solid Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. This new and very limited model is another example of the superb art and craft of guitar making for which Takamine is well known for.

This collector level guitar is also stage and studio ready, as it is equipped with a new electronic system that matches the Takamine Palathetic pickup with an on-board class A G line driver mounted discreetly to the heel block inside the guitar. “We chose to power our exotic tonewood models without cutting the preamp mounting port in the side by using our new line driver mounted internally for fully active output,” explained Mike Markure, Takamine product manager.