Sweet vintage Martin copy, a little beat up, but all original
These Takamine lawsuit models have been an interest of mine for a while and I've finally found a couple at good prices. As luck would have it, I've ended up with possibly some of the first and last of these Martin copies that the company made.
Takamine experts state that 1984 was the year that the lawsuit was threatened, so 1984-85 should have been the cutoff. The first model that I picked up was a 1987. The history also shows that 1975 was the first year of major distribution to the US, so this one predates those models.
My first guess would be that both of these guitars were not only built in Japan, but also purchased there and then somehow made their way here to So. Cal.
This one does have some issues, the frets show major wear, the last owner said it was mainly used as a beach guitar, so the salt in the air probably caused the tarnishing. There is also some slight warping by the bridge, but I filed the saddle down real low and that helped the action alot.
It stays in tune so far and there isn't any buzz, so it works for me.
Just set her up with some D'Addario Custom Light strings last night, plays and sounds great.
Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.
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