Christopher Tart
October 7, 2008

Rating: 5/10

So I ordered this Takamine EG523SC 12 string acoustic guitar for use in my local church from Dolphin. I have several other guitars, my favorite being my Dean exotica 6 string. I have to say from opening the box the quality of this guitar stood out as something pretty special.

It took several weeks to receive due to high quality control at Fender, but it was worth the wait. The guitar was spotless. There are a couple of changes you need to make when you get one of these. The action is really quite high, and this needs to be lowered, however this is very easy to do as the packing under both bridges can be removed. I also changed the tuners for some Grover rotomatics, and I found the tuning to jump up in steps. Finally the strings. This was my personal preference, but I whipped the XPS 12 gauge strings off and replaced with some elixir 10 gauge. All these are fairly minor, and the result is spectacular. The bass is deep and you get that gorgeous bright 12 string sound without any rattle and a lovely deep bass. Plugged into an acoustic amp or PA system, the guitar sounds spectacular. An orchestra on its own. The split pickups really do a great job of separating the high and low frequencies.

The built in amp is wonderful, the on board tuning proves very useful and the screen is very clear and responsive. Once tuned the guitar seems to settle down very quickly, and only minor tuning is needed.

The guitar has beautiful fret decoration with abalone and pearl blocks, and the frets are finished immaculately. The guitar is stunning, with flamed maple sides and back, a strip on the back and base, and a high gloss solid spruce top. Matching abalone inlay surrounds the sound hole. it looks far more beautiful than photos can show.

The only negative would have to say is it is quite a big bodied guitar, and is definitely for the male player, It will not fit in Hiscox jumbo cases. However the size provides the beautiful sound so it is a trade off.

Verdict: If you want a really high quality 12 string acoustic with a limited budget, and are a male guitarist buy this and you will not be disappointed. With a few tweaks this can become spectacular.

Quality/Finish 10/10

Sound 9/10

Ease of play 7/10

Features 10/10

GRAHAM HAWKINS
November 26, 2007

Rating: 8/10

This is an awesome guitar.
It has a warm and appealing look that it looks great in any room. Certainly not to be stored in a cupboard or in it's case (only when travelling of course!)
The sound is bright crisp and clear and it could probably fill the Albert Hall with it's big mammouth sound with no problem.
The onboard EQ produces excellent output and will give a varied sound for what ever style of playing.
I have had this guitar for about 4 months and I love it.
Only critism is the action maybe a tadge high as you work up the scale but all in all a great instrument to play. You won't need all that backing stuff to sound good with this.