Takamine EN-20
Guitar type: acoustic
Manufacturer: Takamine
Model: EN-20
Serial number: 92111794
Color: Natural
Year: 1994
Other notes: Wide body. Cedar body and top.
This was my second acoustic guitar I ever owned, but my first great quality guitar. It is a Takemine jumbo EN20 built around 1994. I bought it because I saw David Wilcox playing a Takemine acoustic and I thought it would make me a better player. In a way I guess it did. The story behind this guitar was that I wanted to try and play at a local open mic night that was happening every Saturday evening at the Loft Coffehouse. Never performing in front of an audience before I thought I would need to work on a couple songs, but more importantly purchase a serious guitar with a built in pickup so I could plug in at the open mic event. I went to Daddy’s Junkie Music in Boston to check out what was available. Having just purchased my first home, I was low on cash and living pay check to pay check so I was trying to not get my hopes up. I found this guitar on the rack with a tag which was only a few hundred dollars. It was all I had in my pocket. I brought it up to the clerk at the register who rang it up and said that the price tag was incorrect and the real price was a lot more. He called the manager of the store who said since it was tagged incorrectly they would have to honor the price. I was so excited about my new guitar that I ran out of the store thinking I better leave before they may change their mind and forgot to ask about the case.
The action on this guitar is amazing and has never shifted. It has a rich deep sound and sustain. I played that guitar every day, sometimes falling asleep with it in my arms at night. I think the best melodies and song lyrics happen at that moment in time when you start to drift off while playing. I often regret not recording those moments only to try and reproduce the next day what I was noodling with the day before and never finding it again. It’s funny, but time just seemed to slip away. It would be more than twenty years later that I would play my first open mic, but it was this guitar that got me there.
Barry is a singer/songwriter in New Hampshire and lead guitar player in the Watts Up Band. Barry can often be found attending guitar shows, songwriting camps and jam camps. Barry hosts his own monthly guitar jams in New Hampshire.