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Takamine Co., Ltd. is a Japanese guitar manufacturer based in Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan. Takamine is known for its steel-string acoustic guitars. The company was founded in May 1962; in 1978 they were one of the first companies to introduce acoustic-electric models, where they pioneered the design of the preamplifier-equalizer component. The company name is often pronounced /ˈtækəmaɪn/ in English.
While known primarily for their acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars, Takamine produced a limited run of very high quality solid body electric guitars in the early 1980s. These are the GX100 (Gibson Explorer body style), GX200 (proprietary type body style similar to a Stratocaster, stop tailpiece bridge), GX200-T or TB, (same as GX200 only with a tremolo bridge) GZ300 (proprietary design) and GZ340 (proprietary design). The GX200 and GZ340 contain factory DiMarzio made pickups. The Takamine F-340 was the cause of a letter from Martin Guitars in the early 1980s because Takamine's acoustic guitars including the logo design were supposedly nearly identical to Martin Models[citation needed]. According to Chris F. Martin IV, CEO of CF Martin and Company in a speech given to the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum members on August 8, 2005, no lawsuit was ever actually filed, and Takamine did change the appearance of their guitars. Every year since 1987 Takamine presents a Limited Edition Guitar model, which gets produced in very limited quantities up to a few hundred guitars for the world wide distribution. These guitars always come with the latest pickup/preamplifier combination available and artful inlays, often with motifs focusing on nature or astronomical phenomena. As of March 2015, Takamine's US-American distributor is ESP Guitars.