I mentioned in another article my love/hate relationship with a Martin 0-16NY guitar that I once owned. It was a beautiful instrument but must not have been set up properly at the factory. It would never play in tune. After returning it to the Nazareth factory twice with no results, I traded it. Ever since I have searched for something similar.
I eventually found a guitar that resembled it but played so much better. This was a Takamine guitar that had a small parlor style body, slightly wide fretboard, and a slotted head. Plus I didn't have to use silk and steel strings like I did on the Martin. Unfortunately the seller was asking much more than I was willing to pay.
I had heard about Takamine (tah-kah-mee-nee), but only knew they were a Japanese guitar manufacturer. Within a few years I saw that a lot of well-known guitar players that were using Takamine guitars instead of Martins. The brand became quite popular in the 1980's due to their unique acoustic pickup system.
Takamine started in 1959 as a small family-run instrument workshop with only five employees. It is located in the town of Sakashita, at the foot of Mount Takamine in central Japan. Hence the company name.
In 1970, Mr. Hirade became Takamine’s president. His vision was to expand the company’s audience to a wider international market. One of his first accomplishments was to have Takamine partner with American distributor KMCMusicorp. This was the company that founded and made Ovation Guitars, (Karman Music).
In 1977, guitarist Glenn Frey of Eagles used an F-400S 12-string model to record the iconic intro to the song "Hotel California". This garnered some serious attention for the brand.
Perhaps Takamine’s biggest improvement was the development of the under-saddle Palathetic™ pickup. This piezo based design produced a more natural acoustic sound than prior piezo guitar pickups. The proprietary under-saddle piece composed of six separate, fully shielded piezo transducers, one for each string. The piezos are outfitted under the bridge plate and make contact with the saddle via metal cylinders.
It is no small wonder that these instruments allowed the company to become an industry leader and the preferable artist instrument aiming to satisfy the need for musicians of the time by reliably amplifying their acoustic guitars at arena concerts that were constantly growing in size and loudness.
Guitarist Ry Cooder was one of the first musicians to get a hold of the earliest prototypes of the product, which continued to be developed following Cooder's personal feedback.
The first instrument officially offered to the public with the pickup was model PT-007S in 1979.
During the late 1980’s into the ‘90’s Takamine introduced the AccuAcoustic preamp with parametric equalization with digital signal processing. This system was designed by the Korg Company.
Takamine also introduced a Limited-Edition series. This was a small production of meticulously crafted guitars built by the company’s most talented builders and aimed at the high-end guitar market.
Garth Brooks Signature
During the ‘90’s Takamine collaborated with well-known personalities to create guitars built to the artist’s specifications and needs.
The Garth Brooks model first appeared in 1995, followed by The John Jorgenson model in 1999.
The G-Series models was introduced, aiming to offer more affordable instruments.
These guitars were manufactured outside of Japan using cheaper labor. An offshoot of Takamine’s budget line are Jasmine Guitars, which are made to Takamine's specifications in Indo-Asian countries using lesser grade materials.
Since March 2015, Takamine's US-North American distribution has been handled by fellow Japanese guitar company ESP Guitars. This same company also became responsible for Takamine's distribution in Mexico starting October 2024.
As a follow up to my article about Levin/Goya, you may recall that in 1968 C.F. Martin acquired the Swedish guitar manufacturer Levin to set up a European distribution center. In doing this Martin established a less expensive line of guitars sold under their Sigma brand. Some sources site Takamine as a company beginning to manufacture Sigma instruments. However Dick Boak of Martin Guitars states Sigma Guitars were exclusively manufactured by Tokai Gakki. Competing company, Kaman Guitars (Ovation), became the exclusive United States distributor for Takamine.
Apparently Takamine had produced some guitars that looked spot-on like a Martin guitar. This practice was nothing new. Asian guitar builders considered these to be "tribute" instruments. A letter sent by CF Martin threatened the Japanese company, so Takamine changed their designs to avoid litigation. However there are "Martin-like" Takamine guitars that exist. This may account for the Takamine O-16NY style instrument that I mentioned at the beginning of this article.
A few days ago my friend Randy sent me a video of the amazing Stanley Jordan tapping out Autumn Leaves on two guitars. In discussing the video I told Randy that one of the guitars was a Travis Bean TB1000S. I recalled what fine and heavy instruments those Travis Bean guitars were. Most of the guitars weighed on average 10.5 pounds.
In the late 1970's another friend, Tim Keller, owned a music store near my town. Tim invited me over to check out anything new. He had just received a Travis Bean guitar and asked my opinion. I was totally blown away.
That instrument looked slightly like a double cutaway solid-body Gibson Melody Marker. The body was fashioned of beautiful Koa wood. The guitar's shape was larger from Gibson’s iconic Melody Maker design.
That Travis Bean guitar had twin humbucking pickups, each with aluminum covers. I later learned that the company designed and built these alnico pickups in house. Each cover was stamped with the name “Travis Bean”.
The guitar’s finish was exquisite. The finish was highly polished with several coats of lacquer. At the time I mainly concentrating on the aluminum neck of this instrument. I had never seen anything like it.
I was so engrossed in playing the guitar that I really did not notice the instrument’s back side. Had I looked at it I would have saw beneath the distal end of the neck was a long flat section of aluminum that ran halfway inside the back of the guitar. The company referred to this as “the pan”. That pan also housed the guitar's pickups.
The lower portion had six drilled holes which held the strings in place. This was a similar arrangement to Fender’s Telecaster or hard tailed Stratocaster.
The guitar's bridge/saddle was like Fender’s design with six adjustable pieces. The guitar’s headstock was milled into the instrument in the shape of the letter “T”. There was no identification sticker. The "T" was all that was necessary.
Again the neck was very comfortable, although it was polished aluminum, I hardly noticed.
This unique arrangement of the aluminum neck and the pan, housed the pickups, and the string anchors resulted in a complete vibration connection with better sustain than wooden instruments. All of the hardware, including pickguard, the nut, and the back plate were made of aluminum.
The neck had been hollowed out to reduce its weight. There was no need for a truss rod. That neck was never going to bend or bow. The initial complaint about the guitars was that the neck felt cold. To solve this later models received a coating of Imron paint.
As I recall the Travis Bean TB1000S was an expensive instrument, retailing at about $1000, but it sure was a joy to play.
I later learned a little about Travis Bean. He had been a Motocross racer and worked at a car dealership. Bean was later was employed at a music store.
t was at the music store he met guitar repairman Marc McElwee. They struck up a friendship. Travis Bean had come up with the concept of a guitar with an aluminum neck. He had built a concept model at his home. Since the most frequent repair that McElwee dealt with were issues with guitar necks. Bean believed this would be THE solution.
Bean's friend Gary Kramer, who had given Travis Bean his job at the car dealership, was interested in the concept. Kramer was more into the marketing aspect of the venture. The three set up business in Sun Valley, California.
Kramer marketed the guitar at NAMM and guitar stores across the country, while Bean and McElwee produced the instruments and managed the company.
The initial demand for the guitars was much more than any of the men ever expected. They struggled to keep up with production. According to Kramer, the business deal was soured when Travis Bean applied for the patent in his own name rather than the name of the company. Travis Bean also put his name on the guitars, as he came up with the unique metal neck concept, however the bodies and features were actually designed by Marc McElwee. Bean came up with the unique metal neck concept.
Gary Kramer soon became disillusioned with the partnership and left the company to start Kramer Guitars, which also began by making aluminum necked instruments.
Three years into production the Travis Bean Company was in financial trouble.
The company shut down in December of 1977 to "reorganize". The employees were laid off.
But the company was back in business by July of 1978 when an investor, Sashi Patel, sunk money into the company keeping them afloat for the last 12 more months.
During the first six months of 1978, limited "unofficial" production continued with a partial production crew who often took guitars in lieu of wages.
Later the guitars were sold through Rothchild Distribution. Rothchild began as a wine production entity, but branched out and is now one of Europe's largest financial organizations.
This companies involvement meant the end o the reorganization. When the company shuttered in August of 1979 all of the company assets, including remaining stock, were auctioned off.
During it existence The Travis Bean Company had produced 3652 instruments from 1974 to 1979 when the company folded.
The Travis Bean TB500 was the least expensive model. It featured a Strat-type flat-top body with two single coil pickups with plastic covers. The bodies of these guitars were often made of magnolia, Koa, or poplar.
The 1976 Travis Bean TB500JG had a similar body shape, and it was designed for Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead. Although the body and neck were just like the TB500, but the electronics included three single coil pickups. Each pickup was wired to an individual on/off switch. The instrument had potentiometers for volume, and tone, and included an effects loop circuit. It was a remarkable guitar. Garcia's personal model was auctioned off for $75,000.
The TB1000S (Standard) was the first built for production This was the model I played at Keller Music. It had a flat body made of highly polished magnolia wood, or Koa. The guitar sported twin humbucking Alnico pickups, manufactured in house, with "Travis Bean" stamped on one of both of them. 1422 of these guitars were produced.
The TB1000A (Artist) was the company's deluxe model, and it featured the same humbucking pickups and electronics as the TB1000S, but came with a carved Koa top, and block inlays on the fretboard. Only 755 of these were ever produced. This guitar was top-of-the-line and sold new in 1975 for $1395.00.
The TB2000S (Standard Bass) were typically made with Koa wood bodies and sometimes were custom built as short-scale or fretless. There were 1020 of these instruments produced.
The TB4000 (Wedge Bass) was a bass version of the Flying V. Only 36 of these bass guitars were produced. The bodies were always made of wood typically Koa or magnolia.
The TB3000S was a six string guitar version of The Wedge. It featured the same body style, and came with twin Travis Bean humbucking pickups, and two volume, and two tone controls. The aluminum neck and plate were coated with black Imron paint. Due to the length of the guitar and bass, the strap button was placed in the back center of these instruments to balance them.
The guitars all featured a 24.75″ scale and fixed bridges. The headstock shape has a cutout in the middle in the shape of a “T”. They most commonly sported black or natural finishes but were also offered in rarer colours like white.
In 1997 Travis Bean decided that he would like to revisit making is uniquely designed guitars and basses. Along with his wife, Rita, they came up with a new company, Travis Bean Designs.
After tweaking his design to make the instruments using semi-hollow body construction to lighten the instruments Bean produced 18 prototypes . Sadly financing fell through and the venture never got off the ground.
In 2011, Travis Bean passed away at age 63. Rita Bean was later introduced to Kevin Burkett of The Electrical Guitar Company. Burkett was a fan of the Bean instruments and had already purchased 4 of the new prototypes. Kevin got started by making a few changes to the design. He sent his new versions to Rita, who passed the instruments on to Marc McElwee, Bean's original partner. McElwee approved.
In 1964 there was a huge interest in the electric guitar mostly due to The British Invasion of the popular music acts. The median US income that year was $6,000 with many adults earning much less. With that in mind understand that leisure spending was tough on a budget for most families.
To accommodate budding rockstars many parents turned to the cheaper offerings from catalog stores such as Sear, Montgomery Ward, or J.C. Penny. There were plenty of guitars offered by all of these companies.
These guitar, basses, and other instruments were imported from Japan by broker/distribution companies such as Jack Westheimer, and his Chicago company W.M.I.,or Bugeleisen and Jacobson of New York. In the U.K. Rose Morris Music did the same. Lots of these instruments were then wholesaled to one of the aforementioned retailers.
One of the Japanese manufacturers was a company which eventually became known as Teisco. This acronym loosely translates to Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company. It sounded different in Japanese, but according to the company founder he simply liked the name Teisco.
The original company shipped countless low cost, low quality guitars and bass guitars worldwide, especially to the United States where most instruments were rebranded with a different ‘badge’ that the retailer chose such as Silvertone, Kent, Duke, Cameo, Encore, Hy Lo, Kimberly, Kingston, Norma, Sonatone, Zim-Gar, Kay, and Audition.
In 1967 the Kawai Musical Instrument Company purchased Teisco and its assets. Kawai discontinued the Teisco name for guitars using it only on electronic keyboards. The brand name chosen for guitars would now be known as Teisco Del Rey (Teisco the king).
At the time many Japanese manufacturers believed that Spanish sounding names seemed to promote an image of quality in their guitars.
Most of these imported budget instruments, though playable, were still of poor quality. However, Teisco did hit upon one gem. But it was expensive.
Introduced around late 1966, the Spectrum 5 was a seriously ambitious guitar that carried a whopping retail price of $375 in the 1967. That price kept this guitar out of reach of most players. Especially when a band new Fender Stratocaster retailed for $289.
The Spectrum 5 was one of the first designs built by Kawai after they bought Teisco and moved production to their plant in Hamamatsu, Japan.
The catalogs spoke of a durable finish using seven coats of lacquer and a strong, thin neck made of laminated ebony, the same wood also featured on the fretboard.
This guitar included intricate electronics for its stereo sound. There were three split pickups (six really) allowing a player to use two amplifiers. Each guitar had two jacks. The bass strings would go to one amp, while the treble strings go to another.
Aside from the single tone and volume controls, these guitars had five push switches for different sound combinations. The switches were spring loaded, so the player could only choose one at a time. Hence the name Spectrum 5.
The guitars tremolo bridge was also a brand-new endeavor, and the model’s tremolo cover is as rare and sought-after as the guitar itself. This instrument included a “Fender” inspired adjustable bridge/saddle.
This guitars solid mahogany body was thin and featured a unique shape with a sculpted German carved top. The ebony neck with odd inlays, that appear to be parachutes and was heavily lacquered. Perhaps the company was going for a Rickenbacker vibe. The literature at the time stated they used seven coats of lacquer on the guitars 22 fret neck (which included the zero fret). The binding on the neck is herringbone style with four thin parallel lines in black and white.
The unusual headstock had a 4 by 2 arrangements for the tuning keys. It is said that the slim neck. Kawai/Teisco used five pieces of ebony wood for the neck on some of these guitars, the same wood they used for the fretboard. Many of the necks were Maple with a Rosewood fretboard. It is said that these guitars had wonderful necks, and an unusually bright sound. They were well balanced guitars.
These guitars are scarce due to the original price. Kawai made perfect reissues in the early ’90s, but they’re as hard to find as the originals. They are selling in the $3,000 price range for an original 1966 model.
The good people at Silvertone World recently posted an advertisement for Teisco Guitars from a Teisco catalog on their Facebook page. The ad shows the Spectrum 5 being offered at only $159.95 with a plush case selling for $41.95. Now there was an affordable deal!
Eastwood replica guitars offered a Spectrum 5 model in the past with a different tremolo system, a border surrounding the body, and a six-on-a-side headstock.
I worked for a large financial company for 12 years. One of my bosses, Joe, was a straight button-down sort of guy. He came to work with freshly pressed shirts, a tie, khakis, and Johnson & Murphy dress shoes. He had been at the company for 20 plus years. But on the weekends Joe was a “Deadhead”.
He would take a plane to wherever the Grateful Dead or the “Dead” were playing and party returning to his job on Monday morning.
So I have to think about Joe as I remember Bob Weir, who recently succumbed to his cancer diagnosis. As a child young Robert had a troubled life. His parents gave him up for adoption.
He was raised by his adoptive parents in the stable town of Atherton, California, and took their surname "Weir" in place of his birthname "Parber".
Bob experienced difficulties in school probably due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and he was expelled from nearly every school he attended, In the early 1950’s dyslexia was unknown and not understood.
In 1963 on New Years Eve Weir and friends were wandering the streets of Palo Alto and heard banjo music coming from a local music store. Inside was a young guy named Jerry Garcia. Jerry was teaching music there. Garcia, totally oblivious to the fact it was New Years Eve, and the fact his students weren't coming in that day.
Jerry and Weir hit it off, spending the rest of the night playing music. That is where they got the idea to form a band. After going through a few name changes and recruiting members, they eventually became The Grateful Dead.
Weir played rhythm guitar and sang a large portion of the lead vocals throughout all of the Dead's 30-year career. In the late 1970s, Weir began to experiment with slide guitar techniques and perform certain songs during Dead shows using the slide.
Weir was in integral part of the band since it's inception, though he was briefly dismissed when bass player, Phil Lesh felt that he and keyboard player Pigpen (Ron) McKernan were not playing up to standard. However that did not last long.
Shortly before Garcia's death in 1995, Weir had formed another band that he called RatDog Revue, later shortened to RatDog. In this band Weir performed covers of songs by various artists, including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, and Willie Dixon while also performing many Grateful Dead songs. The Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995 following Garcia's demise.
Ratdog performed many of their own originals, most of which were released on the album Evening Moods.
Weir also played guitar and sang in the various reformations of the Grateful Dead's members, including 1998, 2000, and 2002 stints as the Other Ones and in 2003, 2004 and 2009 as The Dead.
In 2008 he performed in the two Deadheads for Obama concerts. In 2009 Bob Weir and Phil Lesh formed a new band called "Furthur". This band was named in honor of Ken Kesey's famous psychedelically painted bus.
In 2011, Weir founded the Tamalpais Research Institute, also known as TRI Studios. TRI is a high-tech recording studio and virtual music venue, used to stream live concerts over the internet in high definition.
In June 2016 Weir received the first ever Les Paul Spirit Award, from the Les Paul Foundation. In 2018, Weir formed a band called Wolf Bros. Billed as Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros, the group initially was a trio, with Weir on guitar and vocals, Don Was on upright bass, and Jay Lane on drums.
The Wolf Brothers continued for several years. In September of 2023 they performed at Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival. In 2024 appearances included a show with the String Cheese Incident, billed as "The Bob Weir Incident", and a New Year's Eve run in Fort Lauderdale.
Unfortunately by the summer of 2025, Weir was diagnosed with cancer. Despite beating the cancer, he died from underlying lung issues on January 10, 2026, at the age of 78.
Throughout Bob Weir's career he favored many different guitars. I am told that in the early days of the Grateful Dead, Weir played a 1953 Black Gretsch Duo Jet. This guitar was similar to the one that George Harrison played early on with The Beatles. I can find no images of Weir playing this guitar.
In 1974, Weir began working with Jeff Hasselberger at Ibanez to develop a custom instrument. Hasselberger is one of the men that helped Ibanez become the powerhouse it is today.
Weir began using a Modulus Blackknife at that point, and continued to play the Blackknife,in Dead concerts. Modulus Guitars is known as one of the first companies building guitar necks, and guitars our of carbon fiber.
From 2017 onwards, Weir collaborated with D'Angelico Guitars based in Manhattan, New York, to produce several signature model instruments. The Premier, a semi-hollow guitar, was released in 2017.
