American Songwriter » Musical Instruments

A Close Look At Toby Keith’s Signature Takamine

Rick Moore — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:34:54 +0000

Toby Keith is a man of many hats. From humble beginnings singing wherever he could while working in the oil fields of Oklahoma, Keith has been playing music since he was a boy. Though he made it in Nashville relatively late in life compared to some, he hit it bigger than most country acts in recent memory, and has maintained that success for two strong decades. These days, in addition to being a multi-platinum artist who writes or co-writes nearly all of his own songs, he’s a restaurant owner, a product endorser, the owner of his own line of mezcal, and more. But strip away the number one hits, the business ventures, and the controversy he occasionally finds himself embroiled in because of his sometimes-outspoken nature, and you have a man who is first and foremost a songwriter. Keith has pretty much played Takamine guitars for his entire professional career. In recognition of his obvious affinity for the brand, Takamine recently issued its new EF250TK Toby Keith Signature Model acoustic-electric guitar, built to Keith's own specs and based on the Takamine he himself has played for years. David Vincent, Artist Relations Manager for Takamine, says that the guitar has been in the works for a while. “The idea of designing a Toby Keith signature model Takamine came up in a conversation with Toby’s manager,” Vincent says. “Toby had been playing Taks for his entire career, and his manager’s relationship with the brand dated back to the ’80s when he also managed the great Steve Wariner, who was Takamine’s very first signature model artist. So the idea of a Toby Keith signature model Takamine made perfect sense to everyone.” This new guitar has a spruce top and flame maple back and sides, a mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard, bone nut, and gold tuners. The bridge is pinless and has a cutaway, allowing lead players to reach the upper frets more easily. It features the CT4B II preamp, with three easily accessible bands of graphic EQ, volume slider and built-in chromatic tuner. “The base model for Toby’s signature model was the sunburst jumbo TF250SMCSB that Toby had been playing for the last six or seven years,” Vincent says. “Toby didn’t want to stray too far from that classic look. He requested an oval logo badge on the peghead, his signature on the neck’s heel cap, and a custom label inside. Toby’s guitar tech, Ripp Mayes, worked on Toby’s behalf to dial it all in.” Mayes has worked as Keith’s guitar tech for “seven or eight years,” and even though he was involved in the signature model’s creation, he says there really wasn’t a lot of planning or revisions of specs that had to be done. “The neck (of the new signature model) is just a hair bigger than the 250 that Toby uses,” Mayes says. “Toby wanted it just a little bigger and they bumped it up. But that’s the main difference, besides things like the label and Toby’s signature. Being a jumbo it’s a pretty big guitar, though it doesn’t look that big on Toby.” Mayes says that Keith’s relationship with Takamine pre-dates him, but that the guitars are well- suited to Keith and what he does. “I wasn’t there in the beginning,” Mayes says, “but Takamine took good care of him back in the day and he’s pretty much been with them ever since. On the road we take two of the jumbos and one of the red, white and blue guitars, an EF-341C Takamine that was custom-made for the last couple songs of the night.” As might be expected given his down-home roots, “Toby's pretty much a pull-it-off-the-wall and play it guy,” Mayes says. “He does use heavier strings though. We use a .13 to a .56 because he plays pretty hard, beats it up pretty good. He uses a thin pick. I’ve never had a problem with any of his Takamines, they’re pretty road-worthy guitars." Vincent says that the new Toby Keith signature guitar fits right in with the Takamine reputation of an axe that’s meant to be used. “Takamine guitars have a reputation as a great sounding workingman’s guitar, thus the handle ‘Hardest Working Guitar,’” he says. “That’s the main reason that perennial tour dogs like Bruce Springsteen, Glen Hansard and Jon Bon Jovi (whom Mayes also once worked for) have become so associated with the brand. Toby’s story is no different. As he was recently quoted as saying, ‘I can afford any guitar I want. Takamines are what I need.’”

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Martin CEO-6 Black “CEO’s Choice” Acoustic-Electric

Rick Moore — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:18:34 +0000

Martin CEO-6 Black "CEO's Choice" Acoustic-Electric Guitar Built with significant input from Martin CEO Chris Martin, it's easy to see why this slope-shoulder dreadnought would be the choice of a lot of people besides him. It's a gorgeous axe that sounds pretty much as good as it looks. There are a few things about it that are a little out of the box for Martin, maybe for any guitar, but those aren't necessarily bad things, just a matter of taste. Sonically, the guitar we played (the interior label, signed by the CEO himself, said it was #9) was very good but not earth-shattering. But the oscillation of the chords as they sustained was absolutely top shelf, just perfect. The action and intonation were also great, as should be expected. I was very happy to see a strap button on the inside bottom of the neck. The neck was a little bigger than I had expected, and took a couple minutes to adjust to in terms of comfortably wrapping my pretty-much average-size hand around it, especially after just playing my own smaller Larrivee. But I got used to it in a minute or two. Something I might not get as easily used to, though, is the new Martin decal on the headstock, with a font that, frankly, almost looks cheap. It has nothing in common with the traditional Martin decals, either the vertical or horizontal ones, and isn't really cool enough, in my opinion, to project the progressive 21st-century vibe that the designers may have been looking for, if that was the intention. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like it. The top is Sitka spruce, with East Indian rosewood sides and back. The fingerboard and the bridge are ebony and the nut and bridge pins are bone. The burgundy six-latch Geib-style case was a little offputting at first, as the color is maybe a little, well, unusual. But then again, everybody and his brother has a black case, so this is actually kind of cool. And you'll spot it quicker at the airport. The guitar is outfitted with Fishman F1 Analog electronics. The multi-colored Style 45 Golden Era back purfling is gorgeous against the black body, and the single-ring rosette and Ivoroid binding also help make for an attractive axe. Be sure to keep a soft cloth handy though, as this black polished gloss finish needs wiping down after every play because the fingerprints and hand oil will make a mess of it under the lights, as is often the case with black guitars. Luckily there's a cloth included in the case, so Martin obviously anticipated the need. List price is $3,999.00 but you can find it for a grand less. So go check one out for yourself and see if you like what the CEO has done.

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Review: Cort Sunset 1 Electric Guitar

Jake Kelly — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:53:41 +0000

MSRP: $1,195 Players seeking a new guitar with vintage vibe have been lucky as there have been many offerings from many manufacturers. The downside is the more affordable imports, while having “the look,” often need costly replacement parts to move these guitars into the professional realm. Cort’s new Sunset l removes these concerns by equipping this cost friendly guitar with actual name-brand parts straight from the factory: no upgrades are necessary. These parts include a TonePros bridge, Grover tuning gears, TV Jones Classic and Classic Plus pickups, Graphtech NuBone nut, and a Bigsby vibrato. All of these parts are fitted on the thinline single cutaway body that is shaped somewhat like a vintage single cutaway Epiphone with a slight squatty lower bout. The body is formed in the manner which is favored today by routing the back and sides from a piece of mahogany which is then capped with a top of maple (which is flat on the Sunset with no carve or arch). The set neck is also made of mahogany and features a rosewood fingerboard with distinctive 3D block inlays. Our review model is finished in Candy Apple Red (Black is also available) and features a Ric style slash soundhole. The finish is beautifully applied with nary a ripple or orange peal dimple to be found and absolutely zero run over on the top’s multi-ply binding. The vintage vibe is carried through with a pair of chicken head knob for the volume and tone control. Two back plates hide access to the 3-way toggle switch and the volume and tone controls. It might have been a nice touch to have full-size potentiometers and vintage-style oilcan type capacitors to complete the vintage aspect of the package. The tone of the Sunset 1 is twangy and bright, with a substantial amount of Telecaster style spank despite the Sunset’s shorter 24.75” scale length. The TV Jones pickups sound great with a complex midrange and sweet top end. The polepieces on the neck pickup are spaced closer together than those on the bridge pickup so strings align perfectly with both – nice touch, guys. The Bigsby functions as a Bigsby should, providing subtle dives and a nice warble giving notes and chords nice warmth and/or surf and rockabilly character. Even with substantial Bigsby wanking, the Sunset stays in tune, thanks to both the TonePros roller bridge and nicely cut Graphtech nut. The Sunset l would look completely at home on any Rockabilly stage and fits the Mersey Beat bill as well, delivering deliciously twangy Gretsch tones thanks largely to the TV Jones Classic and Classic Plus pickups which as reputed to be wound the same as ‘50s Gretsch Filtertrons. While the Cort Sunset l contains elements of the classic guitar companies from the golden era, it comes in more like an “influenced by” than a mashup of models: It is its own beast with its own vibe and it is stage-ready for the pro at a price accessible for those without the pro paycheck.

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Seth Avett On His Custom Martin D-35 Guitar

Rick Moore — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:43:21 +0000

This article appears in our upcoming May/June “country” issue. Subscribe here. READ OUR REVIEW OF THE GUITAR For more than a decade, Scott and Seth Avett have slowly built a career as The Avett Brothers – progressing from playing for anyone who would listen to them in their native North Carolina to recording best-selling albums, including 2012’s Grammy-nominated The Carpenter. Readers of American Songwriter are no strangers to these hard-working siblings, who’ve helped usher in the modern Americana movement with their unique instrumentation and a prolific song output. Now, as if he needed any more confirmation of his living the dream, Seth Avett has become the latest in a prestigious line of artists to have a Martin D-35 signature guitar designed to his specs and named for him (others include David Gray, Del McCoury and Beck); The Martin D-35 Seth Avett Custom Signature Edition. For Seth, his choice of the D-35 and his loyalty to it are more of a matter of the guitar picking him than the other way around. “The D-35 was sort of an accident because that’s what my dad had, a 1977,” he says. “And in Christmas 2001 he gave it to me, wanted to give me something he knew I’d use, and I just sort of built my taste around it. I leave that one at home now, I don’t take it on the road with me anymore.” “(Martin Vice President/General Manager of Guitars) Fred Greene made it very clear very early that we were able to do whatever I wanted (for the signature D-35),” Avett says, “and that we weren’t going to rush. We wanted to make sure that we were both really proud of the guitar, that we would have no regrets about anything.” Greene says that the object was to help Avett create a guitar that he, and the buyer, would be comfortable with in any setting. “The guitar that Seth has used throughout his career has been one of our most popular, the D-35,” Greene said. “We thought the perfect way to collaborate with him on his first custom model was to let him create his dream version of this guitar, adding in all of the elements he would want in the ultimate Martin dreadnought, something that would play as easily on stage as in the studio.” Avett says that he happily spent time at the Martin factory exploring all the options that could go into building the guitar. “We looked at different materials, and I was able to put my hands on everything and see exactly what everything felt like,” he says. “I really wanted something that fell squarely in between the solid, functional foundation of the D-35 and some of the flamboyance and showmanship type of stuff that I value in a guitar.”

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Review: Martin GPCPA1 Plus Acoustic/Electric Guitar

Rick Moore — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:07:09 +0000

Old dogs like me are often reluctant to try new things when it comes to our tried-and-true guitar tastes. Acoustic guitars today aren’t always made of the materials we grew up with, and we don’t have to put them in front of a mic today for people to hear them. So it can be hard for older players, or even younger players who are into the old ways, to buddy up to something like Martin’s GPCPA1 Plus guitar. The body is the Grand Performance body Martin introduced a few years ago, good-sized but a little different than a full dreadnought with a cutaway allowing easy playability to the 14th fret. Where the 21st century part comes in is with the electronics and the materials. This guitar features the innovative Fishman F1 Aura+ electronics system, allowing a player to choose between the modeled sounds of several mics and to blend in the amount of mic imaging desired. Included with the guitar is a DVD that explains how to use the system, as well as a list of mics that are modeled in it. But it can take some time, and a real desire to use it, to figure out how to run it, as well as a pair of patient ears to find the best mic sounds to use for strumming, fingerpicking, etc. It can be worth it, but again, it’s a little more work than just turning a tone knob. Something else that might be foreign to some pickers is the use of Richlite for the fingerboard. Richlite is a paper-based fiber composite made from one version or another of partially recycled paper and phenolic resin. Which isn’t that much of a stretch because, when you think about it, paper comes from trees, so that means it’s wood. The Richlite fingerboard on the GPCPA1 Plus is perfectly fine, it’s smooth and allows for quick fretting. But for those who prefer ebony or even rosewood for their fingering, it’s just, well, different. But then, this is Martin, and these guys haven’t made a seriously bad move in 180 years. So we have to assume the folks in Nazareth know what they’re doing. As should be expected, the GPCPA1 Plus model that I tested played great and sounded great acoustically and had no bad points whatsoever. And in one of the best moves I’ve seen lately, and one that other guitar companies might do well to follow given the relatively small cost, the guitar has a strap button (gold, matching the tuners) on the treble side of the neck heel. So give the Richlite fingerboard a try if you haven’t, and check out the Aura+ system as well. They’re here to stay so we may as well embrace them. List price for this guitar is $3,999, but you can find it for up to a grand less than that.

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Review: Gibson LG-2 American Eagle Acoustic-Electric

Rick Moore — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:43:32 +0000

Smaller-bodied acoustic guitars can sometimes be surprisingly loud, and that's the case with Gibson's new LG-2 American Eagle acoustic-electric. Gibson has revived a guitar that was first made in the early 1940s and was replaced in the early '60s by the B-25, basically the same guitar with a few changes. One surmises that the American Eagle name may be the company's way of combining something legendary with some modern sentimentality. Whatever the case, this smaller guitar (think Martin 00 size or thereabouts) has a lot going for it. For starters, in addition to the great volume and nice projection as well, it has the smaller guitar advantage of being easy to handle no matter how big the player is. It has a short-scale, 19-fret neck, and, similar to Gibson's new J-35, has the antique natural hand-sprayed nitrocellulose lacquer finish, Sitka spruce top, dovetail neck-to-body joint and mahogany neck, back and sides. It's equipped with the L.R. Baggs Element pickup with easy volume access just inside the top of the soundhole, and has a traditional belly-up rosewood bridge with a Tusq saddle, rosette binding, and a single-action truss rod housed under a black and white truss rod cover on the peghead. The tuners are 15:1 white button vintage, and the iconic Gibson decal (think the Les Paul logo) is on the headstock. It comes with a black hardshell case with blue fabric inside. Extremely well-balanced, with nice uniform action all the way up, this guitar is fun to play, not just because of its size but because of the confidence a player can have with it. Let's face it, nothing is more distracting than trying to play an instrument (especially in public) that doesn't stay or play in tune or has a buzz when you don't need it. None of this applies here; the LG-2 American Eagle is a well-crafted instrument that recalls the LG-2/B-25 of old with a modern attitude. And while the world becomes a smaller place every day and some players are leery of foreign guitars, this axe is American-made in Gibson's Bozeman, Montana acoustic shop, where the nearly-dead Gibson acoustic business was taken off life support in the late 1980s. The MSRP for this guitar is $2,449, but it can be had for $1,899. Give this one a look if you're in the market for a smaller guitar.

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Review: Gibson J-35 Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Rick Moore — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:09:22 +0000

The Gibson J-35, so named for its $35 price tag, was originally introduced in the mid-1930s but was discontinued a few years later in favor of the J-45, which was only slightly different and carried the wartime "Only a Gibson Is Good Enough" slogan on the headstock. Now the J-35 is back, featuring that old headstock slogan and a retro pickguard design. The 2013 J-35 round-shoulder dreadnought has a short-scale 19-fret neck with a Sitka spruce top. The back, sides and neck are all mahogany, and the tuners are nickel-plated white vintage button tuners. It has an attractive antique natural finish and comes with a standard black hardshell case with four gold latches and blue interior fabric. The electronics are the deservedly-lauded L.R. Baggs Element system, and the guitar has a Tusq nut and rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The most prominent feature is the '40s-style firestripe pickguard, sort of a tiger-stripe thing that some players will find attractive or cool, while others will find gaudy and distracting. This writer happens to think it rocks. The new J-35 we checked out had great balance, with a surprisingly deep and sustain-y bottom end that was just perfect on the lower strings when they were fretted, holding its own beautifully against open strings on the open chords. A little more bite on the treble wouldn't have hurt anything, but it was all good. If there's any one thing missing on this guitar that's hard to understand, it's why Gibson - and all guitar manufacturers, for that matter - find it so difficult to routinely install a $2 strap button on the treble side of the neck heel, or somewhere on or around the neck heel, of their guitars. I'm convinced that one reason so many singer-songwriters play sitting down is because they don't want to wrap a shoelace or a piece of twine around their headstocks to be able to use their straps. With a guitar this big especially, standing up is a great option to have. And it's so much more rock and roll. Maybe the nicest thing about this guitar is its relative affordability. With an MSRP of $2,190, it can be had for $1,699 from some sources. While that may not seem cheap, it's almost a steal when compared to some arguably-overpriced guitars in the $5,000-$6,000 range. It sounds and plays great and the Baggs pickup is also a fine piece of equipment. Check one out, if for no other reason than to see the cool pickguard.

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Review: Eastman Mandolin 915

Rick Moore — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:40:28 +0000

The Eastman MD915 is an F-style mandolin that has gained a reputation as a dependable top-of-the-line mando that isn’t a Gibson and, compared to many, is reasonably priced. We recently tried one out and were impressed with some of the instrument’s features, though maybe not all. The MD915 we played had pretty good action and a normal amount of sustain. It was relatively loud and held its own in the volume department, especially in the mid-ranges. This MD915 had good tone and a decent chop, though maybe not necessarily as much bark as one would hope for in a good bluegrass mando, and one would wish for more bark as the instrument ages. At the same time, its overall tone made it good for more than just bluegrass, which is fine considering how widely the mandolin is used in other forms of music. The instrument has 23 frets (on the high E) on an extended fingerboard that is scooped on the end to avoid pick noise. It comes with an Adirondack spruce top, highly-flamed maple back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge, maple neck and curly maple binding and is a pretty axe to be sure. With vintage Schaller tuners, abalone inlay and a split tailpiece, it comes in classic and vintage sunburst finishes. While MSRP is $3,100, it can be found for less, which is good, as this writer doesn’t feel the one we tested quite lives up to that price. At the same time, used MD915s are fetching a good amount, a sign that the instrument ages well and is dependable over time. The company also makes several other F models that come in at gradually lower MSRPs than this one. So the final verdict is that, while the MD915 is a good axe which may or may not be worth the money depending on your own ear, the company definitely makes formidable instruments and has a variety of mandos that might suit your taste and pocketbook if this one doesn’t. So check out the MD915 as well as its siblings. Even though Eastman has been known for its mandolins for a while now, the company scored big-time when it got the collaborative nod from mando giant David Grisman, who works with the company on its “Dawg Series” mandolins. Eastman, which began as a violin and bow maker in China only two decades ago, has built an operation that has expanded into brass and woodwinds, and bought renowned Haynes Flutes in 2004. The company also makes mandolas, mandocellos and impressive guitars.

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Review: Eastman E10D Acoustic Dreadnought Guitar

Rick Moore — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:55:33 +0000

Eastman E10D Acoustic Dreadnought MSRP: $1,250 Eastman certainly isn't as well-known a name among guitar players as legends like Martin or Gibson, even though the company offers a pretty impressive line of both acoustic and electric guitars. We checked out one of the company's E10D flattops and were pleasantly surprised, if not almost shocked. The first thing we noticed about this guitar was its volume. Dreadnoughts are supposed to be loud anyway, but the open chords on this one were just short of spectacular in terms of volume, and the tone was great too considering the price range (around a grand at the right store). The barre chords were maybe not quite as impressive, but overall this guitar was a surprise from the beginning. The tone wasn't up to the level of a guitar that is several thousand dollars more, but it isn't expected to be. The company advertises "Glorious full-bodied tone and room-filling volume," and there's not a lot of hyperbole there. It's basically as good as advertised, which is a rare thing. To this writer, one of the marks of a well-constructed guitar is how well the harmonics resonate at the 5th fret. Sometimes the harmonics at the 5th fret can be lousy even on an expensive guitar, indicating that something, somewhere, is off by the tiniest increment. But on this E10D they rang loud and crisp compared to many guitars. And then, in another test to make sure that it wasn't too good to be true, we tried the same harmonics over the soundhole about 1 1/4" past the bottom of the neck. Not only were they fairly loud, but they were perfectly in tune with the identical harmonics at the 5th fret. A very well put-together axe to be sure. With an Adirondack spruce top and mahogany back, sides and neck, an ebony fingerboard and natural finish, nothing really sets this guitar apart aesthetically, but if you're buying a guitar with the intention of playing it then that really shouldn't matter. We did get a buzz at one of the frets on the D string, and the latches on the black hardshell case weren't very tight, popping open too easily. But one buzz on a guitar whose wood hasn't quite settled in isn't unusual, and the case may have been a fluke. If you're in the market for a new acoustic, the Eastman E10D is definitely a guitar worth checking out.

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Review: Takamine EF250TK Toby Keith Signature Model

Rick Moore — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 20:52:00 +0000

Takamine first began production of acoustic guitars in Japan around the beginning of the British invasion, and didn't have much of an impact against established American brands like Martin and Gibson until the company pioneered the production of acoustic-electrics. In little more than a decade after that, stars from Jon Bon Jovi to Garth Brooks were playing the guitar, and today several music legends have their own signature Takamines. The latest of those is country singer Toby Keith. Keith, a longtime Takamine player, is celebrating his 20th year of chart successes with the release of Takamine's EF250TK Toby Keith Signature Model Acoustic-Electric. This jumbo has the feel of a real workhorse, of a working musician's stage guitar. It has a cutaway that allows for easy access to the upper frets, something Keith himself isn't noted for, but something that will no doubt be attractive to those of us who play lead, or who capo high up the neck and want to have room to maneuver without feeling pinched for space. The guitar is loud, with a spruce top and flame maple back and sides, a mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard, bone nut, and gold tuners. The guitar is pinless, a nice touch. The case is a dark brown archtop hardshell with a Durahyde exterior that's softer to the touch than most hardshells, with five latches and a strap that attaches on top of the case so it can be carried over the shoulder, though not many people will be using this feature unless they're Toby Keith's linebacker size. The guitar uses the CT4B II preamp, with three easily accessible bands of graphic EQ, volume slider and built-in chromatic tuner. Aesthetic touches include abalone and mother-of-pearl inlays, with Keith's signature on the heel cap and his silhouette stage image on a special headstock medallion. But appearance is secondary here. This is a real player's guitar. Takamine has often been used by a different type of player than, say, Martin or Gibson, maybe someone who is a little rougher on guitars or maybe as much into energy and showmanship as much as the music, ala Takamine users like Brooks or Springsteen. But then, Takamine (though not this model) also fills the bill for a nuance player like John Jorgenson, so go figure. In any case, this Toby Keith model will no doubt be strapped on a lot of guys with cowboy hats in bars and at county fairs in the near future.

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