I have been playing for 30 years, but it has been all classical and jazz. I own two very, very high end classicals, a Takamine Bear Claw Spruce supernatural steel string acoustic, a Miranda classical travel guitar, and a Gretch Hollow Body Electromatic. I wanted a cutaway classical guitar for knocking around. jamming, open mike, and occasional band stuff, but am loath to take my two classical beauties with me for fear of putting a ding in them. Besides, I never felt that any acoustic pick up could do justice to a classical. One needs a high end mike to bring out the full tonality of the instruments.

My Taki Supernatural has a fabulous tone, especially plugged in. The cool tube is unbelievable. I will and have matched it against Martins, Gibsons, and Taylors, especially plugged in. It is also a gorgeous instrument to look at. Of course, it listed at $3,500 at the time.

Back to the cutaway. I did not want to spend a lot of money, and looked at several classical cutaway instruments from Cordoba, Ibanez, Alvarez in the $500-$900 range and they just did not cut it. Their thinner bodied models and non classical necks made them neither fish nor fowl. These hybrids just plain stink in terms of playability and sound, especially if one is coming from a classical background. They would be ok if one were playing just a few chords for accompaniment with a capo. In the end, it was a toss up between the Yamaha and the Taki, and I went with the Takimine. For the money, it is a great instrument, and the workmanship is impeccable.

Of course, there were set up issues, but I have yet to pick up any guitar, even my Ruck or Camillo, and not have to fiddle with the action to suit my playing.

I also think that any comparison to a steel string dreadnought is ludicrous. It would be like comparing a Steinway Grand Piano to a harpsichord. They are different instruments designed to do different things.

My only gripe is that the ET electronics are no match for the CT, but they are to be found only in the higher end Takamine guitars. I still think that the ET is better than anything else in that price range.

Some day, I may upgrade. For now, I still think it is the best nylon cutaway in this price range, and is better than most that cost hundreds more.

I have owned this guitar for the past three years.

I really dig this guitar. Unplugged: It is a real worker. The tone is warm and full. It is well made (mine is a second so there are some cosmetic issues, no biggy to me me) Great projection. (I have been playing since 78 by the way.) I play jazz (bosa), and rock, country, pretty much anything on this baby. I really love the bass depth that I get. Plugged in: Amazing pickup system. Very full, warm sound. This is a great product. Really worth the money. I play mine all the time. And, other folks that I play with have mentioned that they would like to get one too. It surprised me. I guess that I took it for granted, but my bandmates did not. Good stuff.

I've been playing an Epiphone EO-2 for the past 16-years. So I thought it would be a great time to get a classical cutaway electric. I looked around for months for the perfect one to get and I always came back to this model. I compared it to Ramirez, Yamaha, Ibanez, Cordoba and this one just seemed to be far better to me. The only guitar that was better was a Manuel Contreras C5 cutaway my Uncle owns.

This guitar is awsome, I don't understand what people are talking about with it not being very good acoustically. My twin brother plays his Strat and 335 through his Line6 HD-147 through a Genz Benz G Flex 212 ported cabinet which gives your guitar enormous power and volume and you can clearly hear this guitar being played, oh and it is unplugged, plugging it in amplifies the tone even more. It is very natural, warmly powerful, not synthetic and thin sounding. About the fret markers, this is a Classical Guitar. No Classical Guitar in existance has fret markers, so to knock a this guitar because it does not have fret markers is redundant.

Ignore any and everything negative you may hear about this guitar it is perfect. It has everything you need. The craftsmanship is excellent even down to the simple yet elegant bridge. I have only one recommendation, Go Buy It, NOW!!

I had a few more guitars, needed a cutaway classical with pickup with least cost and preferably solid top, this one was my choice. When I got it I was pretty upset, it is made in china, even the inlay on the bridge is piece of white plastic, which is not evenly cut!! And there are some white plastic shreds around!! I was shocked, since all my previous mid/low price guitar at least looked good with nice inlays on bridge (this one has no inlay just a piece of white plastic! )...but still it is good price, I will do my best to make the best out of it.

I have been playing steel string for forty years, and to tell the truth my style is getting stale. I decided to "go to the source" and learn theory, and that means classical training, and a classical guitar. I'm not made of money, and did a lot of cost concious shopping, and Yairi almost had me sold, but this Takamine was just the warmest most friendly guitar I had ever held and played on the first try. What is the exception? No fretboard markers of any kind. I know that is petty, and my hands know where the frets are, but my eyes are used to seeing marks, and it's a bit of a disconnect. So, I let my hands do their part, and jsu listen to the tone of that beautiful solid spruce top. I'm a very happy camper. ;-P