I've been playing for 46 years and some of those years was on the road. I've had my share of 12 strings, including a Guild F12 that I regret letting go of to this day. Today I received this Takamine. I'm shocked. Truly a beautiful instrument. I have NEVER owned a Takamine. I'm a Martin guy and have had many over the top quality instruments. But I wanted a 12 string back in my arsenal and after laboring over many brands and reviews at this price point I chose this one.
PROS:
* The action is perfect out of the box. At all twelve frets.
* The finish is flawless.
* The neck is straight.
* The tuning keys are strong but not too stiff.
* The tone and ring is very very well balanced.
* The head stock with gold "colored" tuning pegs and ivoroid knobs is very attractive and solid quality. At least it's my kind of style.

CONS:
* The card board box it was shipped in is FAR less than adequate. There were a couple of tears and one end was opened and you could clearly see the instrument. The guitar itself was wrapped in ONE layer of foam sheeting and THAT'S IT. I'm actually truly surprised the instrument wasn't damaged. So much so that I photographed the box thoroughly expecting to see scratches on the finish.

This is my third 12-string guitar. (The other two were an old entry-level Martin Sigma and a $750 Washburn J28S12DL.) Of the three, this is by far the easiest to play (especially on the upper frets) and the most responsive to a light touch, even bare fingers; out of the box, the action (string height) was very low and even. (If you have a heavy hand, you might prefer to raise the action, but I like it as-is.)

The projection and intonation seem good, and the tone is quite "bright" (strong treble), possibly because of the maple sides and back. (My Washburn, also maple, was also quite bright.) If you like a bright "shimmering" 12-string tone that cuts through other instruments, this could be good for you. If you want a chunky, growly bass, buy a different guitar. I'm giving it four stars because, for me, the tone is *almost* too bright, although I'm still pretty happy with it. Small adjustments might be possible by playing with different strings "” it comes with D'Addario strings, and I've found in the past that Elixir strings seem to give a slightly warmer tone.

Visually, a very attractive guitar. Tone and playability comes first, but a nice-looking guitar is important to me too; it just begs me to pick it up. There are no fretboard markers (except for the inlay on the 12th fret), but there are the usual dots on the upper edge of the fretboard (which are all you should be using when you play anyway). (Contrary to the description on Amazon, the neck is maple, not mahogany. This is good. Visually, mahogany would clash with the sides/back of the guitar. Also, maple is a harder wood, and 12-strings put a lot of tension on the neck.)

I bought a Sierra SBAG04 Jumbo Acoustic Guitar Gig Bag to go with it, and it seems like a good pairing "” it's a snug fit because of the large headstock, but not uncomfortably so, and a well-made bag for the price.

I rarely write product reviews, but I am so pleased with this guitar that I needed to write one for others that may be looking at the same or similar guitar. After extensive research and trying to find a store where I could actually sit down and play this guitar, I ended up purchasing it from Amazon. Nobody within 50 miles had one in stock, they all could order it, but so could I. So I took a chance at ordering online without having first played it, which is something that I don't like to do (I like to touch and hear before buying). With Amazon Prime, the guitar was received exactly when expected and in perfect condition. After reading all of the reviews I could find and watching the u-tube video reviews, I knew I would probably like it. I was more than pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the reviews I read online through Amazon and other Sellers were 100% on the mark. The guitar is beautiful and the action is perfect, especially for a 12 string. I have another 12 string acoustic guitar (Suzuki Nagoya) that I paid quite a bit more for and it is not even close to the action and playability of the Takamine. The action on the Takamine is even better than my Martin HD-28. The headstock is absolutely beautiful with the gold tuners, and the grain on the body is, again perfect. I have another Jumbo Acoustic (Guild F-50 Blond) and the cutaway on this one compared to the Guild makes it a lot easier to play especially below the 12 fret. The built in tuner is also on the mark, although a little different form other tuners I have as it reflects the "D" and B" stings in lower case, but that's just from somebody used to upper case letters on a tuner. I have only played it for about a couple of hours now, after initial tuning but I am confident that I will continue to love the design and quality of this guitar. I would highly recommend this guitar for the money to anyone looking for a 12 string with great playability and a bright, full 12 string sound.

The Takamine guitar is great. I give it five stars. What I disliked was the false advertisement done by instrument pro. The picture shows both a guitar and a guitar case which is what I wanted . I saw the same guitar with case on Amazon for $742.99 . I went with instrumentpro because of the better deal. I would have bought 742.99 instead if I had known the guitar did not come with the case . Shame on you instrumentpro for manipulating the buyer. There is honest business men and women out there. Instrument pro is not one of them. Very disappointed in instrument-pro.

This is my 3rd 12 string, I have a 1972 Yamaki which I love but it is starting to show some stress after I have toted it around the world with me. I recently bought an Oscar Schmidt, not from Amazon but it was bought on Amazon. When I got it the bridge was loose, frets way to high, frets from 14 to 21 had to be sander down almost flat just to get the buzz out of it, the fret board was a little warped in the rear. I have it sounding good now but I just isn't right so I got this Takamine.
I have wanted a Takamine since the 70's but I had the Yamaki which was just as good but I didn't have electronics on the Yamaki. This Sun burst Takamine is beautiful sounding and to look at. Very well constructed guitar.
It came in playable but I like the strings almost flat, so I lowered them, it came with decent strings but I prefer Earthwood Silk and Steel on all my 12 strings. There are 2 shims under the saddle, a thick one and a thin one, I removed the thick one, put on the new strings and I am now playing on a near flat (1.25)at 12th fret. so easy to play now. If your wanting to go lower with the action the saddles are not like a normal guitar and can not be sanded on the bottom, only on the top, there are Forum on this from Takamine, The electronics are a little different than any other guitar I have ever seen, U tube has some videos on how to do it.
If you want a beautiful sounding and look guitar than this is the one.