In1982 my dad bought me this 381 m Takamine guitar. I was in seventh grade, this was my first guitar, and I had to have it because I saw Don Williams playing one and I loved his music and his songs. Still do. My question is, it has an odd white pick guard mounted to it. It was on the guitar when we bought it and I have not seen any others like it. Was this an after market add on? Generic or from Takamine? I have several other acoustic guitars of different brands, but this Tak will always be part of our family. Passed it to my daughter several years ago, now she is playing and in college. Still beautiful guitar and sounds better than ever, we have never had any issues with it. Best $450 ever spent. Just curious.

I Have one of these since New I bought it at Ted Good Music in Brandon around 1981 .. mine however also has Two pick-ups The Parathetic & a Humbucking pick-up built into the fret board … I think it’s one of a kind ( I’ve never seen another one like it) I paid 1800.00 including the case (in 1981) best guitar I ever owned ( even better than my Martin D35) I have always gotten compliments on how great it sounds over the PA … Always been my “work horse” for 30 yrs

Hi this is an e-mail I got from takamine on the one I have. "Wow! Very cool. Very rare! That was our jazz guitar offering just below the J15 from 1982. laminated maple with a laminated spruce top. The guitar retailed for $695 back in 1982. " The guys e-mail at takamine is [email protected] ——————

Holy crap! you have one too! Hard to find information on these eh! It took me 2 emails to takamine to get this response: "The EF381M 8is a maple "jazz" guitar that we made in the early ’80s. $695USD back then. The top is probably solid, but not the back and sides. They are a laminate. " thats it…. It’s lines like "the top is probably solid" that make me giggle, I guess people just weren’t keeping track. I bought it for the feel! man it plays nice( and sounds crazy good to me plugged in) I kept making fun of it, calling it a ‘wanna-be archtop’, Imagine my surprise when they called it a jazz guitar 🙂 Is yours REALLY heavy for an acoustic too?

: Hi all. Just picked up a takamine EF381M maple guitar from a pawn shop. I can’t believe how well this thing plays. I play accoustincs mostly – Martins and mossmans. I was amazed at how well this thing plays. Is there anyone out there who might know anything about this guitar? I know it was built in 1982 and i think it was a copy of some jazz guitar or something, but I can’t find anything else about it. How much its worth, are there any others out there playing them etc. : Peace, : Bert check kamanmusic.com they are the us distributor for the line