Taku Sakashta Noupaul, Preowned 2009

I consider Taku Sakashta to be one of the truly great builders of the modern era, indeed of any era. He was also a friend and a very special person who generously shared his enormous talent and open spirit with everyone he met. It is bittersweet to have one of his instruments for sale at CR Guitars. As you may know, Taku was tragically, senselessly, murdered in 2010. It was truly a heartbreaking loss for those of us who knew him, a loss that reverberated across the guitar world. If he were alive CR Guitars would certainly have a standing order for his instruments, and he would be one of our core builders.

The guitar we have in the shop now is a pristine Noupaul model, his very individualistic take on the iconic Les Paul. Very few people over the years have made really good homages to the Les Paul, and Taku’s is in my opinion the very best. The essence of a homage is to bring into the world something that shows deep respect for what came before, and this instrument very much does that, but Taku’s show of love and reverence is singularly better than the original.

This wondrous and exceptionally rare guitar was built for the current owner and delivered in June of 2009. Per the owner’s request (it was a birthday present from his wife) it was made to the exact specifications of Robben Ford’s Noupaul. A huge fan of Ford, the owner fell in love with the design when Robben was touring with his Sakashta to support his 2007 record, Truth. This guitar is exactly like Robben’s instrument, with only three differences. First, it comes with a custom Calton case fashioned with a Sakashta logo (Calton cases are world renown and no case has a better reputation for protecting fine instruments). Second, an inlay was done on the back of the headstock—by master inlay artist Larry Robinson—of a heart pattern the owner’s wife designed. Included with the guitar, by the way, are a letter from the owner about the guitar and its provenance, a drawing of the heart motif, and a note from Taku from when the guitar was delivered.

The third difference is tonally very exciting, which is that Taku used his own custom hand wound pickups instead of the J. M. Rolph PAFs he used in the Ford guitar. He always preferred to use his own pickups because it gave him exacting control over a hugely important element of a guitar’s tone. Sakashata’s celebrated pickups were used by other guitar makers, and were known to work very well as replacements for Les Pauls, but in his own guitars they shine the brightest. It was the final element in a truly custom built guitar because he could tune the pickups to the vibrational characteristics and resonant frequency of the guitar itself.

There is something truly magical about every Sakashta guitar I have ever played, and this one is no different. When Taku built a guitar, he thought deeply about the arc of the entire process, and with his preternatural understanding of wood and sound, he matched the materials in each guitar with staggering precision, taking into careful account the density, stiffness, weight, specific gravity and grain of each element of the build. Nothing was left to chance in his luthiery, and his ears were legendary.

Les Paul’s are known for having great sustain, but Taku’s Noupaul brings a deeply satisfying balance to all the notes, with sustain, articulation, and sublime resonance. The notes have a three-dimensional quality—even a holographic quality—which you hear the minute you play the guitar acoustically, and through a good amp it is instantly and dynamically tied to your musical voice in a way that is indescribable. Taku strongly believed that instruments express not just a musician’s musical voice, but also their soul. I will steer clear of moving into esoteric language here, but there is definitely a sense that more is going on when you play this guitar than simply the vibrations of wood and strings.

The woods are, of course, super premium, mahogany body and neck with a figured maple cap and integrated burled maple pick guard and arm relief. The finish, like Ford’s guitar, is Taku’s trans black, and the neck was sanded to 320 grit and then finished with a lighter top coat, making it feel like a vintage instrument. I have heard that Robben Ford liked the neck finish so much he wanted the same technique applied to some of his other guitars.

As with Ford’s Noupaul, this guitar has a coil tap switch. Ford likes to use the single coil mode for rhythm playing, or for soloing when the band’s volume is lower. Being able to switch over to single coil sounds gives this guitar an astounding range of tonal colors. And from the most intimate clean finger picking all the way to screaming, dynamic soloing, the guitar maintains its holographic sound experience.

Taku’s guitars are manifestly brilliant, and I have yet to meet someone that owns a Sakashta who doesn’t believe their guitar is the best guitar they have ever played. I honestly don’t know how many Noupauls he made, but there are not many out there, and it is exceedingly rare to see one for sale. For the collector or player, this instrument will be the prize of your guitar life.

All artists begin with a vision, and then shoot for that ideal, knowing from the start they will forever fall short. That is, of course, the nature of the creative process. Still, as artists grow in their abilities and commitment to their work, they get closer. Taku was in his early 40s when he was killed and had worked with a tireless passion for more than 25 years to move the bar closer and closer to perfection. Indeed, his instruments come as close as any I have known to that ideal, and there are precious few opportunities to experience his masterful art now that he is gone. This guitar is one of those opportunities.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.