Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was watering the dampits for my acoustics and when I opened up my Takamine six-string, I found that the EXP D string had broken. But look how it broke. I've never seen that happen before.

Weird to say the least. Whats the story on the tube in the sound hole Todd? How does it sound?

Wow! What are the odds on that?

Google is amazing at times. http://www.takamine.com/electronics/cool_tube_preamp

I've seen the winding fail around the loop. And I've seen the string break at the loop, but I've never seen the ball actually break. All I can say is "Wow.....far out!"
JimK

That's never happened. Interesting, and weird.

I'm with Brian, what's the tube in the soundhole? A pre-amp?

Yes, the guitar is a model "TAN16C", with one of their tube pre-amps. I spent about three days in a local store playing various Martins, Taylors and Takamines before I decided on this particular guitar, though I never plugged any of them in. The acoustic sound was what I was after. I told my wife that if an acoustic six string sounds good when I'm playing it, then you can be pretty sure that it's a good one. As it turned out, it's pretty good plugged in as well and the tube circuit is kind of like a gain boost, plus you have pretty sophisticated EQ controls on the pre-amp. To be honest, I plug it in mostly on days when I'm either too lazy to use a mic or I'm having trouble getting the sound I want with a mic, but it seems to be a pretty decent system.

Sound sample when plugged directly into the recorder, EQed to be pretty bright.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/M ... 20clip.mp3

Thanks Todd. I have an early 70's Takamine that I bought brand new, literally right out of the box. I just love the sound of the guitar. It also beat out a Martin that I was considering buying at the time.

Certain colors of the ball ends on D'Addario strings will fail like this. Their so-called platinum color was the bigger offender.