Song: "Made in America"-Toby Keith- Takamine

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 30 Nov 2012 3:00 pm

It's apparently all been acknowledged and explained - he's "ironic", he's "self-assured." There is absolutely no limit of hypocrisy that can't breached for a buck. It's a song about spending a little more to buy American. This is not a left/right issue, this is not "politics" - this is simply disgusting.

I was looking at Takamine's artist list, and wondering just how much money they drop on Keith & Chesney & Montgomery Gentry and Garth Brooks and all... they've got Nashville sewed up tight.
http://www.takamine.com/artists/

After the first 10 million dollars, aren't you allowed to show your Martin again?

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 30 Nov 2012 10:51 pm

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, based in Scottsdale, Arizona USA, owns Takamine.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 1 Dec 2012 7:16 am

Wonder if the ones Garth used to smash during his shows were Takamine's...

Mark Butcher · Post by **Mark Butcher** » 1 Dec 2012 7:50 am

They were, cheap laminated ones.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 1 Dec 2012 5:15 pm

I wonder...are there any real guitar players on that list?

Anyhow, personally, I'm not impressed by brand names on instruments, or who the heck plays what make of guitar or amp. I know certain players go ga-ga over certain brands like a dog humpin' a leg. But that's childish, to me, anyway. You wanna impress me? Then you gotta play - mere buying stuff don't prove nothin'.

Lyle Bradford · Post by **Lyle Bradford** » 1 Dec 2012 6:45 pm

What Donny said! I have spent a small fortune and still need to practice just as much.

Michael Maddex · Post by **Michael Maddex** » 1 Dec 2012 6:55 pm

From Wikipedia:

"Takamine Co., Ltd. (高峰楽器製作所 Takamine Gakki Seisakusho) is a Japanese guitar manufacturer based in Nakatsugawa, Gifu, Japan. ... Takamine's US-American distributor is Kaman."

Takamine guitars website managed by Kaman: http://www.takamine.com/

HTH.

Mike Schwartzman · Post by **Mike Schwartzman** » 1 Dec 2012 7:46 pm

Michael is correct, and guess who is Kaman a subsidiary of? Yep...Fender.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 1 Dec 2012 8:57 pm

Fender bought out Kaman Music Corporation 5 years ago for $117 million.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 2 Dec 2012 2:19 pm

Do they get after these guys when they're young and sign them up to an unbreakable long-term contract, like backing 100 horses to get 5 winners? Or can they really spend so much to land a big star? I mean, I understand ghost-building, and that Keith's & Kenny's Takamine might not be exactly like the one in the store = but if Fender keeps spending much more, they're going to hit the same wall as Guitar Center (Musician's Friend, Brass & Woodwind etc). Yes you can buy up all the competition, but a 30% downturn in sales is still 30% less (even if you own 100% of it, if you know what I mean).

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 2 Dec 2012 4:59 pm

I'd imagine its mostly merchandise they get - free guitars, cases, strings, picks, amps, cords, and such.

Even rich people seldom turn down freebies, especially when all that's required is the use of their name.

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 2 Dec 2012 9:22 pm

Even the studio vocal pitch correctors are made over sea's.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 2 Dec 2012 11:40 pm

David Mason wrote:Do they get after these guys when they're young and sign them up to an unbreakable long-term contract, like backing 100 horses to get 5 winners? Or can they really spend so much to land a big star? I mean, I understand ghost-building, and that Keith's & Kenny's Takamine might not be exactly like the one in the store = but if Fender keeps spending much more, they're going to hit the same wall as Guitar Center (Musician's Friend, Brass & Woodwind etc). Yes you can buy up all the competition, but a 30% downturn in sales is still 30% less (even if you own 100% of it, if you know what I mean).

Fender is just about up against that wall. They have some big payments coming up on a couple of loans they got to buy all these companies. They talked about going public this year and selling stock to raise some capital, but after Facebook and a couple of others flopped this year they backed out of doing it.

John Rosett · Post by **John Rosett** » 3 Dec 2012 6:56 am

The same business plan that worked so well for Detroit. I guess that the business plan of "Doing one thing, and doing it well." is old fashioned. I wonder who will bail out the guitar companies.....

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 3 Dec 2012 10:29 am

Steve Wariner played a Takamine for the longest time

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 3 Dec 2012 11:08 am

Just for fun (business is slow for me right now), I called KMC Musical Corp. (Kaman - owned by Fender) and spoke to Sue in sales, my question being does Kaman under the Fender umbrella "own" Takamine or is KMC merely the distributor for Takamine, as in do they handle sales and distribution of these guitars?

The answer is, Takamine is independently owned by Takamine of Japan, and KMC is in fact in charge of sales and distribution of the product line in North America. Fender/Kaman does not own Takamine.

A couple other killer players known to play Tak acoustics: John Jorgenson and Brad Davis.

Of course this isn't the point of David's thread starting post about Toby Keith imploring folks to buy American while he strums a Takamine, but at least we got the ownership vs. distributorship angle straightened out.

Michael Maddex · Post by **Michael Maddex** » 3 Dec 2012 12:14 pm

so . . . who owns Fender? That is, who owns FMIC. Personally, I own Fender® products.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 3 Dec 2012 1:20 pm

So Fender paid almost $120 million and they don't even own anything?

Here is my favorite, new, Takamine player:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdWFMS6j8Z4

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 17 Dec 2012 6:56 am

I noticed they were made in Sakashita Japan..ironic isn't it.

maybe they outsell Martins but they are not Martins sound and quality to me...

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 17 Dec 2012 10:20 am

Joe Casey wrote:I noticed they were made in Sakashita Japan..ironic isn't it. maybe they outsell Martins but they are not Martins sound and quality to me...

I don't know if they outsell Martin or not. They do sound different, but then all Martins don't sound the same either, but some of the top line guitars Takamine builds are very high quality. I play with a couple of guys who have some very nice Takamines, with the tube pre-amp/pickup, and they sound incredible plugged in. One of the best sounding acoustic pickups I've ever heard.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 17 Dec 2012 10:39 am

Alvin Blaine wrote:So Fender paid almost $120 million and they don't even own anything?

No question Takamine makes some fine guitars, and IMO some of them are very good values.

Fender received a whole bunch of stuff when they purchased Kaman, but the ownership of Takamine was not part of it, because Takamine was not owned by Kaman.

Here is an excerpt from an article in American Songwriter at the time the transaction was in the works in 2007:

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is set to acquire Kaman Music Corporation for $117 million. The deal should close no later than January 1, 2008. The two powerhouse companies will unite in what will become the largest musical instrument and accessories provider in the world.

Kaman, which offers over 20,000 music products, owns Hamer Guitars, Ovation Guitars, Genz Benz Amplification, and is the exclusive worldwide distributor for Takamine Guitars and Gretsch Drums, just to name a few. FMIC isn’t too shabby in their bragging rights either, with renowned brands like Fender, Jackson, Squier, Gretsch, Guild, Charvel, SWR, EVH, Tacoma, Olympia and Brand X.