Hello there, back again with another acoustic guitar review for you! This time we will be looking at a Takamine GN51CE which is an acoustic-electric guitar with NEX style body shape.
As most of you know, there are many types of acoustic guitar body forms such as dreadnought, concert, jumbo and parlour…etc
Among all of these designs, the jumbo acoustic guitars are the biggest in sound and body volume. However, it has some downsides as the body is pretty difficult to hold and control for some guitar players. Thomann's 70th Anniversary Offers
Takamine has done an excellent job with an alternative solution with its NEX body design. Takamine GN51CE features a NEX body with a cutaway and offers you the jumbo vibe and timbre while keeping the body size manageable.
According to the company, this unique body design is a scaled-down jumbo body form and guarantees a balanced tone that supports vocalists in the most elegant way.
Takamine GN51CE Review & Sound Demo (no talking)
Before I provide tech specs of the instrument, let’s have a quick listen to our demo. We played sample tunes to demonstrate the instrument and captured the audio with a Rode VideoMic Pro.
Takamine GN51CE Tech Specs
| Design | NEX with Cutaway |
| Top | Solid Spruce |
| Bracing | Quartersawn x Bracing |
| Back and Sides | Walnut |
| Neck | Mahogany |
| Fretboard | Ovangkol (*Laurel: According to Takamine's website) |
| Number of Frets | 20 Frets |
| Scale | 643 mm |
| Nut Width | 42.8 mm |
| Tuners | Die-cast |
| Bridge | Ovangkol |
| Pickup System | Takamine TP-4TD w/ tuner |
| Rosette | Abalone |
| Hardware | Gold-plated |
| Strings | D'Addario EXP16 .012 - .053 |
| Colour | Natural High Gloss |
As you may have already known from my articles here, I’m a big fan of Takamine acoustic guitars and during my countless encounters with many models, I always enjoyed how they felt and played.
The quality assurance of Takamine company is top-notch! There are not many companies out there that can come to close them in terms of consistency. The build quality always offers a higher value than you pay. Check out the best guitar pickup company, Seymour Duncan here!
Even shipping their instruments with D’Addario coated strings is always a nice gesture so when you open the guitar box, you know what you will discover: No rusty strings 🙂
The preamp system used on Takamine GN51CE carries all the goodness of their design, placed towards the neck side rather than in between the body. If you are to record your acoustic guitars directly into your audio interface, I’m pretty sure it will never let you down.
On top of this, when you check the tech specs of this instrument, you will notice that they use solid tonewoods on the top, back and sides. This is something you will only see on a good-quality instrument. The term “solid”, generally speaking, is an important word that indicates the manufacturer uses real wood rather than compressed wood. Music Plugin Deals at Pluginboutique.com
Last but not least, the price tag! As you can see, it’s been very well priced and filling an important gap for acoustic guitarists that consider purchasing a well-built instrument rather than the very entry-level guitars that don’t offer much but a lower price.
I personally don’t really like jumbo acoustic guitars as an average-sized human being. I always found them very big to handle and I felt like I was not able to control the instrument.
In my Chicken Picks review video, I had the chance to play with a Fender CD290 SCE jumbo acoustic guitar and I remember struggling every time I tried to record the guitar parts. Martinic Plugins - Precisely Modeled Vintage Instruments and FX Plugins
However, Takamine GN51CE never feels that way, NEX body design is a really unique and scaled-down version of a regular jumbo body design.
If you also love the jumbo acoustic guitar tones but are not into one because of the body form, I would definitely recommend you to check out Takamine GN51CE as an alternative solution to this need.
I hope this article has been helpful for you in your acoustic guitar purchases. Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!
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