Takamine F340

Circa early 1980's.  I was in my early 20's having only been exposed to playing the organ for a few years.  I had always wanted to play guitar but didn't want to be one of the thousands (if not millions) of people who start the guitar but then put it down.  I knew it was a formidable instrument and I knew I had to be 'ready' to play.

At the time Neil Young was still a major influence on my Musical tastes as well as CSNY so  I decided that if I was going to learn the guitar, I might as well learn the acoustic.  I thought at the time that if I could play acoustic than electric would probably be easier.  So I went out and bought a mid-class (which I couldn't afford) guitar that was on sale for 50% off.  That guitar turned  out to be a Takamine F340.  At the time I had no earthly idea of what the key components were in a guitar.  But luckily for me it was built well.  A dreadnaught with mahogany back and sides, a solid spruce top, ebony bridge, rosewood fretboard.

This guitar has been with me on most of my life journies.  Many memories in this one.  Three kids, a divorce, being thrown out  a top floor window and many other cases of neglect.  But over 25 years later it is still in good shape, a little worse for wear but aren't we all?  You can see some of the dings in the picture, but there are probably a dozen or so major ones across the front of the guitar.

My main goal was to finish the acoustic guitar my son and I started (shown above getting a fingerboard glued on).  We should be set except for setting of the bridge and actually putting a finish on the guitar.  Two large and daunting tasks.  So I wanted some practice before I took that on.  I had loaned the Takamine to a friend for a couple of years so when I went to pick it up he also had an extremely cheap no-name acoustic that he didn't want.  My plan now is to practice on the first acoustic.  I would like to pop the fretboard off which is tricky on an acoustic because it is glued to the thin spruce top without much support.  A crack or tear here is going to be a large problem.  Then once I feel I can do that I will recondition the Takamine.  I would like to do a fretboard inlay (of course) and refinish the guitar in a French Polish.  If I can do that successfully than I think I am ready to take on the acoustic we were building.

After doing inventory, everything still looks good.  Like I mentioned before, there are several large dings and scratches across the face of the guitar.  I think most if not all of them I can get out by sanding, but one or two are fairly deep and it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Here you can see a number of marks from the closing of the case.  This is funny because I bought a case to protect it and kept it in the case whenever I wasn't using it.  I couldn't afford a good case however and got a cardboard one which warped and didn't close properly after...

The neck looks in good condition.  A couple nicks on the back of the neck here too.  Frets are worn, fingerboard is in fairly good shape with normal wear and tear.  I will be replacing all that anyway.  But all in all the neck looks fairly straight.  I did have some string buzz at some point which I think was due to some fret wear and slight warpage of the neck.  I wasn't knowledgeable enough about guitars then to think about adjusting the truss rod so I ended up putting a shim under the nut to raise the action a little which worked.  Since I am redoing the neck anyway, I will probably replace the tuner, nut and bridge so I am hoping that will fix any bridge issues.

The rest of the body is good, a couple of wear points that went through the finish but no real damage.  With a good sanding and finish it should look great.  Mahogany is a good wood but does need special treatment to receive a good finish.   Once I sand I will need to pore fill etc...  Getting the lacquer off will be a challenge though.  This guitar will have to endure a  lot of sanding.  So first things first, I will probably take the no-name guitar and pop the fingerboard, if that goes well I will plan on a new fretboard.

This is the pattern I would LIKE to use.  It comes with a matching headstock and rosette.  I am a little intimidated though :-).  In talking with Andy DePaul he did say this is one of his more intricate and difficult pieces, however I have done about a half dozen or more fingerboards, so...  will need to think this one out a little...