All of the notes on the neck are true and clear, with perfect intonation and a good amount of sustain, and the natural harmonics at all locations are vivid.īecause of its balanced, transparent sound, the H8SS doesn’t recommend itself to any style or era of repertoire in particular. The registers are evenly balanced, from firm lows to solid mids to crystalline trebles. Overall, the H8SS’s voice is full and clear, with good projection, likely owing to its spruce-and-rosewood construction.

(Unlike on many classical guitars, this one has a truss rod, should adjustments be needed.) The neck is full, but not overly so, and I experienced no fret-hand fatigue when playing the guitar for a solid hour. It came perfectly set up with an easy action. With its 51-millimeter (just over two inches) nut, the H8SS has a traditional feel. With smoothly sanded bracing and kerfing and no evidence of excess glue, the interior is just as clean as the outside.

The thin polyurethane finish is flawlessly applied, rubbed to a uniform gloss. The frets are perfectly seated and smoothly polished, and the bone nut is precisely slotted. The review model feels solid and well-built. Engraved gold Gotoh tuners with pearl buttons are a classy touch, as is the multicolored marquetry pattern used for the rosette. With its simple but elegant appointments, the guitar cuts a nice figure. The quarter-sawn Indian rosewood has a beautiful deep-brown coloration and the Sitka spruce possesses tight, straight grains and no cosmetic anomalies the ebony is inky black. All of the woods on the test model appear to have been carefully chosen. The H8SS is built from the time-honored tonewood combination of a spruce soundboard and rosewood back and sides, all solid the neck is mahogany and the fretboard ebony. I auditioned the H8SS, a lovely concert-classical model. The line includes both traditional guitars and models with cutaways and electronics, all handmade at Takamine’s shop in Sakashita, Japan. Takamine’s Hirade series takes its name from Mass Hirade, the brilliant luthier who was assigned as head of production and design in 1968, and who in the 1970s oversaw the company as it expanded into the international market.

Takamine might be best known for pioneering the steel-string acoustic-electric guitar, but when the luthier Ohzone started the company in the Japanese Alps in the late 1950s, he and a small team of craftsmen made nylon-stringed instruments, and these instruments have been a part of the company’s lineup ever since.

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