Takamine guitars were first noticed in America in the late 1960s – or went unnoticed in many cases – for their resemblance to Martin guitars, right down to a logo that looked at first glance remarkably like C.F. Martin & Co.

They gained a much more respectable level of notoriety in the late 1970s, thanks to a pickup system that provided the truest acoustic sound of any guitar on the market at that time. Ovation’s parent company, they provided a traditional-looking complement to Ovation’s fiberglass bowl-back models, and they gave Kaman a lock on the acoustic/electric market. By the end of the 1970s, Takamine was introducing its own design features, such as the tapered, pointed-top headstock.

In the 1990s, Takamine followed Ovation’s lead in creating a series of limited edition models. The Takamine Santa Fe, introduced in 1993, featured turquoise inlay and ornamentation associated with the American Southwest.

This special version, with “Rio Grande Palisandro” (aka redwood) back and sides and moon-and-star inlays in the soundhole ring, was Takamine’s featured limited edition model for 1998.