Takamine GD30CE-12, 12-String Acoustic-Electric Guitar - Natural Reviews

What a breath of fresh air to get a such a great return for your investment; this guitar far exceeds what you might expect you'd get for the money. From the quality of workmanship and materials to the attention to detail, this guitar is a find. The beauty of the mahogany back and sides, the beautiful rosette, and the clear gloss finish make this a piece of art as well as a great sounding guitar. The preamp controls are nicely placed and the pickups deliver a clear and accurate tone. If you're wondering if it's worth taking a chance to go ahead and purchase this, I'll be honest and say that I prefer this guitar over a Taylor T-5 12 string I once owned.

This guitar is attractive visually, tactilely, and sonically. It is solidly built, comfortable to hold, and a pleasure to play. When I unboxed mine, most of its 12 strings were perfectly tuned, and the others required only slight tweaking. That was after traveling by FedEx trucks all the way from Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I couldn't be more pleased with this purchase. Thank you, Takamine and Sweetwater!

I've had this 12 string for a month now and can't put it down. The setup was great right out of the box. It has a rich sound of a more expensive guitar and plugged it's even better. The on board tuner is a great feature! For this price, you're getting an easy to play, great sounding instrument and the photos don't do the finish justice. Much thanks to Caleb Lowery for his suggestions and support. He always follows up on all of my questions and helps me make informed decisions. Sweetwater's service and products are tops!

I am very satisfied with the help that Sweetwater has given these last two years. Max, my sweetwater rep, has been excellent with getting me exactly what I need. If I have a question, he either knows the answer or finds the answer immediately. I love my 12 string takamine and the case I purchased at a later date. March 20th will be 1 year since it was ordered and I love more than I did when I first purchased it. Thank you again Max and Sweetwater for such great quality in the workmanship and kindness!

My new Takamine GD30CE 12 string, is just beautiful …it sounds great fits in my hands perfectly, comfortable to play and is really a special instrument… the electronics are great and it sounds great amplified… just really nice… at this price point a very well built solid feeling guitar…

This is my second guitar purchase through Sweetwater and while skeptical about buying a guitar on line their system for selling guitars online is solid… I asked questions with my sales engineer Mitch Dazey who is cool and on the level… I looked over professional photos of the same make and model, pick the one that wowed me, was told they do the 55 point check out once received from factory and packed my guitars for shipment very very well… very impressed with the two beautiful guitars I bought from them… the other an Epiphone Hummingbird 6 sting with an antique natural finish… very very nice all around… thinking I'd still like to get the same Epiphone Hummingbird 12string… don't really need it… the Tak is awesome… but… one is a cutaway the Epi a drought… I'll decide at some point soon…how many is too many??? Just one more!!!

Excellent sound, easy to fret and just a great guitar for the price.

First I want to thank my sales engineer( Jeff Bohan) and the Sweetwater team for their great service as always in getting my new Guitar to me. I purchased a 6 string Takamine(same model as the 12 string) a while back from Sweetwater and really loved the sound and set up. This Takamine GD30CE-12 string guitar plays even better and the Harmonic sound is beautiful. And of course the fretboard is a little wider(1/8"). I know that doesn't sound like no big deal. But with my short fingers I thought that would be a problem. But it was no problem at all. It took me awhile to give a review because I couldn't put it down. I was playing songs that a 6 string just didn't sound right without the 12 string sound. For the price of this Takamine you can't go wrong. I've played friends high dollar 12 strings and I'd have to say this Takamine sounds just as good. The electronics are good, but I prefer using a mic though my sound system. Great Guitar, thanks Sweetwater.

I bought mine at a local shop.( Still buy from Sweetwater they are amazing) It stays in tune very well and it is a solid axe. The electronics are wonderful it sounds amazing going through a PA system. The neck is solid and is very easy to play on. I recommend down tuning to relax string tension and you can play this axe until the cows come home. Takamine makes some of the best mid range acoustics on the market definitely try this one, you won't regret it

After speaking with Josh about what i8 was looking for he helped me pick this axe & a matching case Fast shipping VERY GOOD PACKING the AXE was flawless in tune & I will take good care of it for years too come ,I will be buying more from Sweet water ,Thanks Josh

I've wanted a 12-string forever. The sales engineer was helpful in telling me the neckwidth, which is good because I have small-ish hands. He compared it to my other guitar neck while we were speaking, using a magic box on his desk. A computer?
It sounds wonderful. The action is great. It isn't too high. It's easier to play than I thought—the strings press down easily enough.

So stoked! Thanks for the help!

Received this guitar in perfect working order. Full and tremendous sound with great quality.

Always a bonus to see the bag of candy. Thx for that.

Sweetwater on their A game as usual. TJ and the rest of the staff are the best as he always follows up with a call checking how I like my purchase and if I’m satisfied.

Great product, tremendous company.

Really good for a g series

This is my first Takamine 12 string and I am amazed at the sound of this guitar. I am very satisfied with my guitar. The tuner and electronics work perfect.

Overall, I'd say that I'm very happy with the guitar. It plays well, and it sounds great. I had to tweak it a bit, though. It had a respectable amount of bow in the neck when I received it. I've torqued most of it out, but I have the truss rod tightened as far as I dare to. The action is still a bit high at the 12th fret, but I'll take care of that when I change out the strings. It sounds very chimey and bright with no bottom end at all, hopefully a beefier set of strings will help with that. Skinny frets, I wish they were a bit more robust. String spacing (between pairs) isn't consistent between the nut and the bridge, I may notch the bridge a bit to eliminate that. Otherwise, it's a beautifully built guitar and a great value for the price. You won't be disappointed.

I've had this guitar for a couple of months now and just can't seem to put it down. I also have the Takamine P4DC that I love but the 12 string gets the attention now. Out of the box this guitar was ready to play just needed to tune it and play. The action is set up great and plays with ease and produces good sound. I would recommend this guitar to anybody looking for a good quality guitar in this price range. I gave it a 4 1/2 star rating because I'm constantly having to tune it but In my opinion that happens with all 12 string guitars. So if your in the market for a quality 12 string guitar give Sweetwater a call and go ahead and pull the trigger on this sweet deal you can't go wrong.

As usual, guitar arrived in perfect condition, build quality is flawless, this G series is a great value, I now have matching 6 and 12 strings; the tuner is especially accurate, helpful on a 12 string. One note, the hex wrench provided for truss rod adjustment comes with instructions that have nothing to do with this guitar; Takamine is still enclosing directions for their old style headstock location truss rod adjustment. Not a big deal, you can download correct document on their website. Thanks again Ben and staff.

I waited until I had played it for a few days before I gave it a rating. I wanted to experiment with 12 strings so I previously bought a cheap Ibanaz PF1512NT. I like Ibanez, but this is a low end, starter model and it was OK for my experimenting. I liked what I could do with a 12 string so I wanted to upgrade to a mid range replacement and chose the Takamine GD30CE-12. First off, the sound quality between the 2 was no comparison. The Takamine has a smoother, more harmonic tone. It made the Ibanez one sound like a toy guitar. It really is a great quality sound, just like the reviews videos I saw on YouTube. The fret board is a just little wider than the Ibanez and others I played, but I like it. It allows for better picking as the ones I've played previously tried to focus on keeping the fret board very small and it was just too tight. I think they have it set up perfectly and it's easy to play. The on board tuner is OK. It sounds great plugged in. It holds it tuning very well. I think if you're looking for a mid range 12 string, this is a great guitar. I give it 4 1/2 stars because if you read the ratings, it says "it's the best" for 5 stars. Is it the best? No, you can spend much more on a high end model and get an even better guitar. Does it have a better sound than what you'd expect from a model in this price range? I think it does. So, it's perfect for me.

Lastly, I spoke to the guys at Sweetwater before I purchased. I asked questions and they either had the answers or got me the answers quickly. The guitar arrived perfect and was packaged very well. I've ordered from other places, but Sweetwater is a head above in my book. They go the extra mile. Nothing worse than getting a guitar that you thought you saved a few bucks on and then having to take the guitar you bought online to the local shop to have it set up properly. It's a tad embarrassing and will cost you a few extra bucks. This is the second guitar I've gotten from Sweetwater out of the 7 I currently own. They've won me over.

I had a chance to play this guitar for a month now. I was really impressed about the quality of the build and finish. 12 strings shouldn't come in a dreadnought form. There is just to many complicated sounds with 12 stings that the sound box just can't handle properly, with that said I should of when with a full body but based on other reviews thought I would try the dreaded dreadnought. So I will try a variety of string sets until I get the sound everyone is raving about, I had Sweetwater do a full setup and adjust the action and they did a great job with that, for a 12 string it plays smooth up and down the neck. Now the sound through an amp is quit impressive and can be tweaked to sound like a full body would. So there is some saving grace there. The kicker for me is that the tuning hardware leaves much to be desired, out of all my instillments I own this is by far the cheepest of tuners I have, thus the ding on the rating, They do not hold tuning , in fact they make it very hard to tune , its like sometime they grab and other times you just turn and turn, so ill have to see about having them changed. Chris my sales person was very nice and very helpful and I have bought many things from Sweetwater and will continue too. This was only the second time I bought a guitar with out playing it first and will be my last , I'm a little to picky about the sound I want and have turned away from many top rated guitars because of the sound and the action just weren't right, if you are considering buying the model of Takamine I would go for a different model one with better hardware for sure. The neck width works well for my xx large hands and the electronics are well you get what you pay for but for the price in todays market 3 thumbs up.