Takamine GS330S

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:43 am

Mine is a Taiwanese model. I have heard the newest ones are from Indonesia, but I have no reference to backup the "claim". The fit and finish is excellent on mine.

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:53 am

My daughter's Nov. 2004 G530SS was make in Korea, not China.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:50 pm

I can't date mine as all the sites just have it for the Japanese models. I suppose I could call. JIC anyone can the S/n is QKX287008

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:20 pm

Charly, I have the advantage of knowing her guitar was ordered directly from the Takamine (probably Kamen) warehouse - my salesman had to call about getting one in time for Christmas while I was standing there. And I was looking for the G530S which was all that was available at the time (only the top was solid, the back was 2 piece) and he said they now had the G530SS, explaining they went to solid back also. So that pretty much dates it to the last quarter of 2004 as the website didn't even show the G530SS for a while after we had it.

Don't know about their serial numbers.....

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:09 am

Oops, sorry. That's right. Japan and Korea.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:29 am

As near as I can figure, currently it is Japan for the Pro, Korea for the G Series, and Indonesia for the Jasmine. Although my GS330S is made in Taiwan?

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:01 am

OK, I called Takamine and they aren't even sure how mine got made in Taiwan! It looks like my guitar is about 5 years old ( they are saying mid 2000- 2002) and in the first year or so of the G, they may have used a Taiwan factory, thus my label. They are now made in Korea FWIW. The Jasmine is Indonesia.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:15 pm

OK, finally got the string thing figured out. I put on EXP 16s (12E) and the high notes all sounded super! Much better than with the DR 13s, but the bass notes were now getting lost and there was a weird, almost harmonic buzz if you hit the E real hard. Anyways, I got online and read about EXP 19s, which are a medium bottom and a light top, bluegrass string set. Bingo! Just what the dr ordered. They didn't have a set at Sam Ash tonight so I got a set of mediums and just changed the bottom three strings. The whole guitar just opened up! Wow! What a difference! I highly recommend EXP 19s!!!!!!

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:20 pm

Bump, just to see if anyone wanted to pipe in on strings. I am VERY happy with theseuns.......

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:57 pm

I put a set of Martin strings on my daughter's - great sounding across the spectrum.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:31 pm

I had Martins on the Yamaha and they sounded great. The idea of a medium bottom and thin top of the D'addario EXP19 sounded like it could work(which it did) and they may even help a plytop as they sometimes seem to lack bottom/richness, at least the two I have owned.

mfb · Post by **mfb** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:27 am

I have, and play, a Takamine PTU508N. Simply a pleasure to play and hear.

I use D'Addario EXP15.