MusicRadar

A comfortable workhorse guitar

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• Manufacturer's Description

Sounds

It's got a great jangle and plenty of sparkle, and it should power a small jam session along nicely without the need for accompaniment.

OK, so we can't pretend this guitar has the kind of heart-stopping raw tone that will breathe new life into your old riffs or make you sit in spellbound silence after pushing though an open G chord, but it's far more than competent and retains a hint of the more expensive Takamine models.

Plugging in always covers a multitude of sins, and in this case the TP-4 preamp can either be used to complement or combat the sonic properties of the woods.

To tart up the basic tone (which starts out as a louder version of what you get unplugged), TG soon found ourselves sprinkling reverb into the equation, easing up the mid-range, adding more bass and even exploring what it would sound like with just a hint of delay.

This is the real joy of the electro-acoustic format: you can have a bit of fun with your sound instead of being defined by your tonewoods and tied to one sound.

Of course, it also makes discussing the tone of the EG260C a slightly open-ended question. Whether it's jangly, bassy or thudding depends on where your amp and preamp dials are pointing.

Inevitably, the option of amping this guitar also makes the physical playing experience much more expressive.

With every squeak of every string relayed by individual piezo pickups beneath the bridge, you start to capture the kind of nuances (vibrato, for instance) that are lost in the mire when you play the EG260C au naturel.

It all serves to cement the impression that this guitar should be plugged in whenever humanly possible and only played without an amp during a power cut.