Takamine CT4-DX Preamp

Surprisingly good

I decided to remove the old Accuracoustic preamp stock on my vintage Japan made Takamine. I've worked hard through the years to figure out how to get such guitar playing like and acoustic guitar, when amplified. The onboard palathetic piezo pick up is top on the notch, but is a piezo. You need more than one only source to capture the real sound of an acoustic guitar, especially when you can't rely on a good condenser mic, performing on a noisy stage.

First impression is that the palathetic has a way more dynamic and natural response than before, through the CT4-DX. Its controls actually do shape the sound, but smoothly and in a consistent fashion in various settings. Piezo now sounds not harsh at all.

The icing on the cake, that is defitely the reason behind ny choice of this particular preamp, is that it can host a 2nd pick up. I'm matching it with a K&K pure mini, so that now I can rely on the piezo to capture bass frequencies and bridge stringy tones, but I can also count on the percussive mids of the soundboard. Guitar now blooms in a kind of a 3 dimensional image. And I can mix both sources at my pleasure, and set the overall volume once found the sweet(s) spot(s).

Both notch knobs, one for each source, are extremely helpful to shave off annoying frequencies and keep feedback under control. The onboard tuner looks reliable and extremely confortable, allowing you to bring the guitar on stage perfectly in tune, with no need for clip-on tuners. NB - dont forget to give the tuner a few seconds to start working. I was worried there was something wrong, as soon as I run the first check soon after having lit it on.

Last but not least - swapping the old stock preamp onboard of this 25 years old guitar, and easily sliding in the fresh new CT4-DX was a breeze! Like flying on a time machine... Fantastic job, Takamine!