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I picked up a Takamine 12 string through a trade and the action is prettyh high, and not a lot of saddle to work with. Thinking I might have to remove the neck and reset. Wondering if anyone has experience with Takamine. It is not a bolted neck so assuming it is a dovetail. Any advice?

what i done to figure out if its a dovetail or dowel is
i made what should be called a dovetail detector

I loosened the fretboard extension and got a really thin bit of metal around 0.5 thick x 1/2" wide
i bent a wee catch on the end and grinded a taper to one side so i could get the catch in and out of
the dovetail pocket
it worked for me altough i have only used it twice
and it did a get a bit mangled aswell

As myself being a novice im saying listen to what someone else says about this first
this method could be risky because its a tight fit to get your detector in there
it does scratch the top under the extension and could possibly damage your f/b
but it saves pullin a fret and drillin holes if you dont need to

im sure someone else does this method ...mabye frank ford or someone
hope this helps tomas

.5 is a half inch do you mean 5 thousandths

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I haven't mess with any Tak's other than minor stuff, but I was told the ones made in Japan had Dovetails, and the ones made other places had dowel. Again, this is just hearsay.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

If you have any friends that are X Ray techs or docs sneak your guitar in and X Ray the joint. That will tell you exactly what is going on.
TJK

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I seem to recall that those are epoxied dovetails. Sorry.

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

Thanks all for your input. I was reasearching Takamine and discovered thy are owned or serviced by Kaman who makes Ovation. Hope Im right - I have a friend who has a friend at Kaman in CT and he is going to check and see if they might make an exception and cover under warranty. The guitar is only a year old and warranty is limited to original owner. The guy I got it from received it as a gift and didnt have any paperwork. Will see how it goes.

I was considering the J Doctor device that bolts to the bridge and if I recall it lifts the belly some. It looks like the pressure from the string tension has bellied the top behind the bridge so the front of the bridge is down - not collapsed by any stretch but enough that I think this is what is going on. I can see the rise behind the bridge.

I recently had to reglue one of the x-braces on a Jasmine (made by Takamine), the upper part of the brace by the waist was loose and caused the top to belly in front of the bridge, but the action on that one was lowered. Check out all the braces, maybe the braces behind the bridge are loose. Just a thought.