Gear Reviews

New 2025 Takamine G-series guitars!

For 2025 Takamine have released a bunch of very interesting models for their made-in-China G-series guitars. I went down to Davis Guitar, my local Takamine dealer, and tried out some of them. Here are my first impressions:

GN73CE SB

The things that immediately jump out to you about this NEX model are the block inlays (previously only available on the Toby Keith Signature model) and the satin black (SB) finish. This is not quite the same as the satin finish found on the pro series 3 and the old natural series: it has more texture to it, being paint rather than a clear finish. The guitar also has a very unusually-shaped pickguard, and matt-finished, gunmetal grey mini tuners. The wood combination is solid spruce over laminate maple back and sides.
Likes: Killer looks, and the low action from the factory! Takamine seem to be paying more attention to the factory setup on the G-series this year, and are making an effort to use a lower set of saddles on the non-Dreadnought guitars. The sound is exactly what you would expect from Spruce/Maple – bright and articulate with a focused low end and well-controlled overtones. A perfect band guitar that would also work fine on its own.
Dislikes: The tuners were hard to turn and the small size made them difficult for me to get a grip on. They do look cool, but could prove to be frustrating at the gig.
This guitar is also available in a VERY handsome all-white version, the GN37CE PW. That model has a different set of tuners, which are full-sized and look like they may be easier to use.

GF49CE CB

Ok, I love FXC-sized guitars! One of my all-time favourites from Takamine is the EF261SAN. There is something about the small body that works really well when amplified – these guitars sound massive plugged in, similar to the New-Yorkers, but without the parlor guitar looks. This model has screaming red binding everywhere and a rocking Cosmic Black SPARKLE finish! The sparkle is quite well-controlled and does not come across as gaudy or blingy, although I’m sure it would look awesome under stage lights.
Likes: The small body, the black mini-tuners that compliment both the look and size of the guitar, the plugged in sound.
Dislikes: This is an all-laminate guitar: Spruce top, Sapele back and sides – no solid wood at all, and the acoustic sound reflects that: it has very little depth to it, and this probably will not improve with time, unlike a guitar with a solid top. So this guitar is probably best for those who will play it plugged in most of the time. An ideal stage guitar for the front-man in a pop or rock band. The Laurel fingerboard also looks rather low-rent compared to the rosewood on the other models.

GY21E SM

Another model with absolutely classic looks, this one has the Satin Molasses (SM) color over a solid Spruce top with laminate Sapele back and sides. In person this finish is a really dark brown, and I suspect the grain would only be visible under strong lighting. Still, it stands out like nobody’s business, especially with the cream purfling on the body and the simple black and white rosette.
Likes: Solid headstock – I personally do not like slotted headstocks on steel-string guitars, and I’m glad that Takamine went with a standard headstock and full-sized tuners on this model. They are also using the more streamlined shape usually reserved for the Japanese-made models.
Dislikes: Nothing really on this model! Everything works together so well as a package, and the guitar sounds great, both acoustically and plugged in. The action is really low from the factory, which might be a factor for you if you are a hard-hitter.
I also played the Dreadnought guitar with this colour and wood combination, the GD21CE SM.

One final notable mention is the relatively new TP-3G preamp:

This preamp has been around for a couple of years now, and these 2025 models are all equipped with it. It is obviously the G-series version of the pro-series CT4-BII preamp, which I love for its simplicity and clarity. Same here – there is no doubting what your EQ settings are, and the chromatic tuner is responsive and very easy to read, with two red arrows that change to green when you are in tune. Also, this preamp gets a a proper pull-out battery tray, rather than the small and very easy to lose battery compartment cover. Small but important details!

To sum up, I really like these new 2025 models. They sound good, and the fit and finish is excellent – I did not find a single sharp fret end, misaligned tuner or badly cut nut in all of the guitars I tried. I would have no hesitation recommending any of these guitars to a beginner or intermediate player, or to any player for that matter. I must confess, the plugged in sound of these models is getting rather close to the Japanese guitars! The Palathetic pickup still has an edge: it has better string to string balance and a more robust sound, especially in the low midrange, but we are talking marginal gains here. Well done Takamine, may these guitars bring many more new players to the brand.

D’Addario Silk & Steel strings review

A couple of years ago I transitioned my beloved Takamine CP7MO-TT from light to custom light strings, mostly to make it easier to play as it aged. One side effect of the lighter gauge strings on this guitar has been a slight brightening of the tone and a loss of some bass. Acoustically, this has not been an issue for me, as OMs are supposed to have a chime and shimmer. Plugged in on the other hand… you see, I have never loved the sound of this guitar plugged in – there is something about the wood/pickup/preamp combination on this guitar that gives it a really bright sound, verging on harsh. I find myself constantly cutting the treble on my preamp or amp, and have been tempted to extract the line driver preamp in order to do the same. This however, is easier said than done, as there is not enough slack in the internal cabling connecting the battery to the preamp to fully remove the preamp without undoing some of the metal cable clips inside the guitar. Perhaps one day, but for now enter D’Addario Silk & Steel strings:

According to D’Addario these are “uniquely designed to be (their) warmest, mellowest acoustic guitar string” and feature silver plated copper windings over a combination silk and steel core. Having started out on classical guitar, these struck me as basically a hybrid between steel and nylon strings, so I thought I would give them a go. A couple of days later I had some in hand:

My initial impression of these strings was that they feel very much like classical guitar strings, with the obvious exception of the plain steel 1st and 2nd strings. The wound strings both look and feel very much like nylon strings, of which I have changed hundreds of sets in the course of restringing my father’s guitars. They are very flexible and the windings have a completely different texture to that of typical steel guitar strings. They are available in only one gauge, light, in both six and twelve string sets. No coated version of these strings is available at time of writing.

Installation of the strings was straightforward and actually a little easier than I was accustomed to, due to the lower tension of the strings themselves. Tuning them up for the first time I had to be careful to check my pitch constantly to avoid over-tensioning the strings: reviews I had read online had indicated that these strings are prone to breakage if tuned higher than standard, especially that .011 high E string. I found that they did need more finesse as they approached target pitch, tending to go flat much in the same way as classical guitar strings do. I have found that in use these do not hold their tuning as well as normal steel strings, tending to go flat between sessions when the guitar is put away. They are however, quite stable when the guitar is actually being played.

And what about the sound? Here’s a before and after video that shows the change in tone, recorded both direct and with a microphone:


I was actually quite surprised: although these strings feel like classical guitar strings, they sound very much like steel strings! Especially when strumming with a pick, they have almost as much top end as the set they replaced. Granted, we are comparing brand new uncoated strings to three-month old coated strings, but still, the difference is much less, in my opinion, than D’Addario’s marketing copy would make it out to be. To summarise:

Likes:

  • Lower tension makes guitar easier to play, especially when it comes to barre and complex chords. One problem solved!
  • Sound is, in my opinion, almost as bright as the phosphor bronze set the replaced.
  • Lower tension has actually made the action on the guitar come down slightly!
  • Strings work well with the guitar’s pickup/preamp system – output is balanced across the six strings, without any significant loss of level.
  • The silver color of the windings makes them immediately distinguishable from a normal phosphor bronze set.

Dislikes:

  • The low A, and especially the low E string, have a somewhat ‘rubbery’ sound to them – I know that word describes a texture and not a tonality, but I don’t have a better adjective for this. It’s almost as though the hybrid nylon/steel construction has a disproportionately greater effect on the tone of these two strings than on the others. Other words that could be possibly be used are ‘thwacky’ or ‘boingy’…
  • The strings seem rather ‘dirty’ – wiping with a clean cloth produced many black streaks, even when the strings were brand new. Perhaps this is leftover from the manufacturing process?

At time of writing the strings have been on the guitar for ten days or so and are performing well. The guitar is much easier to play than with a normal (12-53) set of light gauge phosphor bronze strings, and the sound is eminently suited to fingerstyle playing. I have found that using a pick one gauge lighter than usual (in my case, 0.53mm instead of 0.67mm) to be helpful in preventing over-strumming of the strings.

In conclusion, I would say definitely give these a try if you have a guitar that seems hard to play, overly bright sounding, or just for a change of scene. They are reasonably priced for what they are, and seem to be made with D’Addario’s usual care and attention to detail.

Click here to buy these strings on Amazon (affiliate link, supports my work).

TC Electronic BodyRez Pedal Review

Released in 2015, the TC Electronic (TC-E) BodyRez Acoustic Pickup Enhancer is, according to the manufacturer: “Designed to restore the natural acoustic resonance of your instrument when using under-saddle pickups.” The name is clearly an amalgamation of the words body and resonance and pretty much sums up the mission of this pedal: to restore these qualities to the sound of an undersaddle pickup on an acoustic instrument. Continuing in the marketing copy, it apparently does this through “…a vast amount of pre-configured filters combined with subtle quick compression in order to bring your amplified tone back to life.” More on that later. At time of writing the full user manual (as opposed to the quick start guide) is not available on the TC Electronic website; however, I managed to track down a copy on manualslib.

Let’s start with the basics: the pedal measures (as in, I actually measured it) 44mm/1.74″ in width, 94mm/3.70″ in length and 45mm/1.77″ in height, from the base of the pedal to the top of the single control knob. It is thus quite a small pedal and readily disappears into the string pocket of a gigbag or guitar case. Here it is alongside my MXR bass preamp and one of the newish Fishman pedals:

Size Comparison: MXR Bass Preamp, TC-E BodyRez, Fishman Acoustiverb

As expected, a pedal of this size cannot accommodate an internal battery: there is a power input on the right side for any standard pedal power supply, i.e. 9-volts, center-negative, 100 milliamps minimum. A simple power supply is included with the pedal. Above the DC input is located a mini (not micro) USB connector for firmware updates. As of September 2023, TC-E have not released any for this pedal. And no, you cannot power the pedal using a USB power supply connected to the USB port; I’ve tried. The input and output sockets are on the right and left sides of the pedal respectively and are not labelled at all – this could be confusing for pedal newbies. On the plus side, the sockets are offset to allow for closer pedal spacing with other TC-E mini pedals such as the polytune mini or hypergravity. Thoughtful!

Continue reading

MXR M81 Bass Preamp part deux, or Further adventures in going direct!

In October of last year I wrote a post about my experiences with the MXR M81 bass preamp pedal, in which I said that it had given me the confidence to leave my bass amp at home for the first time since I started playing bass in 2000. Since then, I’ve had a few more experiences with this amp-less setup and have more specific things to share, both as a bass player and as a sound engineer. Let’s start with a picture:

My amp-less setup with the MXR M81 Bass Preamp, Fender American Standard Precision bass, Android tablet with the SQ MixPad app and Community MX10 floor monitor.

Specific things that I like about this setup after five months of use:

Continue reading

Blackstar Sonnet 60 review

As a live sound engineer I’ve encountered and used all sorts of amplification systems for acoustic instruments, from powered PA speakers to Roland keyboard amps to various dedicated ‘acoustic’ amplifiers. When I first started out in the early 2000s these usually resembled electric guitar amplifiers, but with fullrange drivers, perhaps a tweeter or two and a control panel that included a microphone input. Typical of these was the Marshall AS50D, which was good and loud but definitely on the heavy side at 16 kilos/35 pounds. As time has gone by, live sound equipment and instrument amplifiers have both become more compact and lighter in weight, and in May 2022 I decided to purchase a Blackstar Sonnet 60 to see what the state of the art was.

Blackstar Sonnet 60 (blackstaramps.com)

Coming from old-school acoustic amps, a couple of things that impressed me from the outset were the size (345mm wide x 310mm high x 250mm deep, or roughly a 1-foot cube) and the weight of 7.7 kilos/16.9 lbs. This was significantly less than the 10.5 kilos/23.1 lbs of the Boss Acoustic Singer pro, another amp I was considering. When you are carrying guitar, microphone stand, cables, power extension etc every kilo makes a difference, especially in Singapore, where load-ins often involve stairs and narrow doorways.

Continue reading

MXR M81 Bass Preamp: First Impressions and an adventure in going direct.

Since taking up bass guitar in 2000, I can trace a gradual evolution in my attitude towards the bass amp. In the beginning, I saw it as an integral part of my tone, and was reluctant to even connect to the PA system, believing that bass and drums should come directly from the stage. During this period I had some fairly massive bass rigs, including a Gallien Kreuger 700RB-II 2×10 combo which was 700 watts and about 30 kilos/66 lbs, and a truly spectacular preamp/power amp/cabinet combination consisting of an Acme Low B4, an SWR Grand Prix and a Crown CE1000 running in bridge mode for 1,100 watts. In hindsight, this was a time when I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

As time passed and I grew as both an amateur musician and a professional sound engineer, I learned the hard truth that the best way for musicians to serve their engineer and audience is to keep the stage levels reasonable, especially in small venues. I can’t remember who it was who wrote that the hardest assignments for sound guys are the loud gigs in small clubs, not the ones in stadiums! This, combined with the advances in PA systems over the past 20 years have led me to seek out smaller and smaller bass amplifiers, culminating in my recent purchase of a Hartke HD25 – just 25 watts into an 8″ speaker!

Continue reading

Adventures in Bass Amplifier Buying.

So I haven’t bought a new bass amp in more than 10 years. I’ve been playing bass for a couple of decades now, and in that time I’ve owned a variety of “boom boxes”: a Peavey Microbass (which went back almost immediately due to a rattling front grill), Marshall Bass State combos (a B30 and B65), an Acoustic Image Clarus head paired with an Acme Low B1 cab, and an incredibly heavy Gallien-Krueger 2×10 combo. I’ve seen the transition from class A/B to class D, being a very early adopter of class D with the AI Clarus, and I’ve also tried many, many pedals and preamps along the way. With electric bass, as with electric guitar, the amplifier is an integral part of the voice of the instrument – even though bass is completely comfortable with being DI’ed, you still need something to hear yourself on stage, and most stage monitors just will not cut it. Even if they have the necessary frequency response, the voicing is often not suited for bass and gives a rather flat, lackluster sound. This can be remedied through using something like a Sansamp bass driver DI… or a bass amp!

As a sound engineer, I’m very conscious of the impact that loud backline has on the front of house (FOH) sound. In fact, many club setups rely on the backline to carry the majority of the instrumental sound, with the house PA being responsible mainly for vocals, acoustic guitar, and maybe keyboards. This of course, means that the sound engineer has less than complete control of the mix, and needs to work with the musicians to achieve a workable balance. This can be fine, especially if the musicians are professionals, but I have vivid memories of just how loud something like a full Marshall stack (100 watts, two 4×12 cabinets) can be – with something like that cranked in a small space, you can pretty much forget about hearing anything else. Duncan Fry, whom I regard as a mentor, wrote in one of his books that the hardest gigs are the loud shows in small clubs, not the arena or stadium shows! Loud guitar amps are a large contributor to this. Now I’m not saying that loud amps are bad… but the fact that I turn 45 this year and still have normal, undamaged hearing is a testament to me keeping a healthy distance from these devices.

My main playing out amp for the last 12 years has been a Hartke A25 – a 25-watt, solid state kickback combo built like a brick outhouse:

Hartke A25 (source)

I can’t quite remember how I ended up with this amp, but I recall that I needed something relatively light and small to act as a personal monitor, and this amp was the best-sounding one I could find at the time. I don’t play with loud drummers and put the amp as close to me as I possibly can. The A25 is noticeably heavy (11 kilos/24 pounds) for its size (8″ driver, no horn) and has never let me down, the only sonic problem with it being that the XLR output is rather noisy and as a result never gets used. It also has a number of features that I rarely use such as the bright control and adjustable limiter. I also do not like the carpet covering, which is a lint & dirt magnet and in my opinion an indication of cost-cutting – professional PA speakers, for example, are always either painted or made of moulded plastic. My single biggest gripe though, is the top strap handle: it’s so small that I can’t get my knuckles through it, which makes carrying the amp a rather painful affair. So I decided it was time for a upgrade.

Continue reading

Light vs. Custom Light strings on my Takamine CP7MO TT

Takamine CP7MO TT bridge

I’ve owned this lovely guitar since February 2017 – seems like only a few months ago that I bought it. I guess the past two years have been a bit of a black hole for many of us. I was really excited to get this instrument – it’s one of the relatively few Takamine models with the 45mm (1-3/4″) nut that is relatively affordable, priced at around US$2,000 at time of writing. Since the bluegrass series was discontinued, these wider-nut guitars have been largely restricted to the very top of the pro series and limited edition guitars such as the EF75M TT, EF7M-LS etc. I like to play a combination of strumming and fingerstyle, so this combination of features: OM body style, thermal spruce top with ovangkol back and sides (a variation on rosewood), and 45mm nut is ideal.

Having said that, this guitar has always felt a bit “hard to play” with the stock light (12-53) strings. I’m not sure if this is a function of the way the guitar was set up from the factory but whenever I switch to this instrument from one of my other Taks the strings feel comparatively hard to press down, especially the two unwound strings, especially when playing barre chords. So this has always prevented me from fully enjoying the instrument. It’s not a big deal, maybe the difference between 90% and 100% satisfaction.

Continue reading

Adventures in one-mic recording

Sometimes new gear can inspire! I recently decided to refresh my microphone stable and realised that I have not purchased a large diaphragm condenser (LDC) mic for almost two decades. Well, that’s not strictly true, seeing that my Audio-Technica AE5100s and AE3000s are technically LDCs, but many purists do not regard these as such since, a) the 5100s are end-address and, b) neither model is externally-biased. So in that sense the last LDC that I purchased was my Rode NT1-A, which I think I got way back in 2003 or 2004, when the then-distributor of Rode in Singapore was closing shop. I also have one of the original Rode NT1s, in its ‘hospital grey’ paint. Side note – the AE3000 is actually quite a competent side-address condenser microphone – I used it for my Breedlove Atlas Retro OM/SMe review, shot in 2017, seems like a lifetime ago now.

So after perusing the Audio-Technica catalog and getting some prices I decided to purchase an AT4040, the single-diaphragm, cardioid-only cousin of the AT4050. It was either that or the AT4047/SV, which in Singapore at least is more than twice the price of the 4040! Just goes to show how much output transformers cost… and yes it does have a different diaphragm and different circuitry. Anyway, no money right now blah, blah, blah…

Continue reading