Takamine TSP178AC Flamed Maple Thinline Acoustic-Electric Guitar Transparent Blue Sunburst

AAAA flame maple top back and sides, arched top and back, ebony fingerboard, mother of pearl and abalone inlays, quarter sawn maple neck. Flawless build quality, nice finish ... It arrived with the action way higher than it needed to be and had heavy phos bronze strings. This is probably to compensate acoustically for the small body (~2" thick and 15" at the lower bout). I dropped the action 2mm at the bridge saddles and put light Martin Monel strings on it. Fantastic! It plays like a dream, very responsive, no buzz or rattle, and a very sweet resonance. This guitar cries out for Jazz, and that is why I bought it. I've wanted an all maple guitar like this for a long time. In a way it reminds me of a 49 Gibson Super 400 I had years ago, but much much smaller :-) The piezo system and pre-amp are unique and very versatile, surprisingly so. I use it with a Helix and it sounds great through a clean Archon guitar amp or a typical acoustic DI pre-amp setup. Adding acoustic IR's is not necessary!