Takamine G406S-VS New Yorker, Sunburst
 

I bought this little parlor guitar Saturday. It has a solid spruce top (with scalloped bracing) and a vintage sunburst over the spruce. The back and sides are rosewood. The back is 3 pieces like a D-35. But the center piece is quilted maple. This guitar took some setup. I took off the D'Adarrio stock strings that had probably been on there since it was made. Pulled out the bridge saddle and took out the thick shim, I left the thin one. Restrung it with Martin FX Silk and Phosphor Custom .011-.047 gauge strings. They're a little light, but boy do they sound good. I think I have another permanent addition to my growing stable of guitars. It has a bone saddle, but the nut is plastic. I'll take care of that one day this week. The cool thing is the bracing. It has scalloped x bracing, usually not found on anything but high end guitars. When this little guitar opens up, I believe it will sound as good as my D35. Just not as loud. The neck is thin. But I'm used to that. I have Ovations. It has abalone all over it and it's possibly the nicest looking guitar I own. It's got gold strap buttons and it's way more comfortable to lie on the bed, watch tv, and play. Here. Take a look at it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mymarti...n/photostream/
and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mymarti...in/photostream
Oh why not. Here's one more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mymarti...in/photostream Let me know what you think.

Takamine G406S-VS New Yorker, Sunburst
 

I think its sweet...

The just got one at my local GC. First time Id seen one. Typical great Tak neck and fit and finish.

I really liked it.

Hi mymartinD35,

Congrats on the new guitar. Wade Hampton Miller from Alaska started a couple of threads on his version of this guitar. He was pretty happy with his, so it makes sense that you are happy with yours. It seems like this guitar is a pretty good value. Here are links to Wade's threads...

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=272166

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=271279

- Glenn

After reading your post I checked my EG416s and it too has scalloped bracing. I only used the mirror to check the ball ends when changing strings and never really looked at the rest. Its pretty much the same except plain spruce top, maple binding and p/u installed. My action was a bit too low and had some buzz so I gave the neck some relief and added a thin ebony shim under the saddle. The neck is just about perfect and with John Pearse lights sounds good. I think it really sounds great in drop D or DADGAD tuning. For a small guitar it really sings nice.

This is definitely a neat little guitar. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the relatively thin nut...

Nice little guitar with the standard Takamine attention to detail. There are those that dismiss Takamine guitars as only sounding good plugged in but the fact is they are the best kept secrets out there. I own several Takamine pro series guitars and they hold their own with the Martin and Gibson crowd whether plugged or unplugged. The Takamine G series is an excellent guitar for the cash outlay. I'm glad you found this little Tak and I'm sure you will continue to enjoy the music she makes.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Blues

I measured the nut and it is 1 11/16 with 1/4" space btw the strings at the nut, same as on my Martin 000-15. I do not have a caliper handy to measure the cross section of the neck but it does feel similar to the Martin.

Does the string spacing feel cramp? Is it comfortable enough for fingerstyle?

I own a bunch of Ovations so I'm used to a thin neck. I'm a fingerstyle player and I love it. Mine has a "James Taylor" sound. This guitar has started to open up in just a few days. I can't wait to hear it in a few years. Thanks a lot for the congrats everyone. I used a Takamine on the road from '94-'96 and I never needed a backup. I never really even thought about it. They are tough. My old one has a lot of checking and dents but it still plays and sounds great. It survived 80 degrees below zero for over 4 hours. The bus broke down way up north and we had no heat for at least 4 hours. It didn't hurt it. The band we shared a stage with did. They knocked it off the stand several times. We shared a stage for 5 weeks and traded sets every other hour. "Karma" caught up with the offender. Lightning hit his guitar rig and fried about $2000 worth of rack-mounted effects.