[4] Before the turn of the decade, the company had already established itself as a leading builder of mandolins and classical guitars at a national level, expanding its size to 60 employees.

[4][5][6] In 1977, guitarist Glenn Frey of Eagles famously used an EF400S 12-string model to record the iconic intro to the song "Hotel California", which instantly became one of the band's biggest hits.

[5] The pickup, which is still currently produced with essentially the same design as when it was introduced, has become a staple on its Japanese-made instruments that allowed the company to become an industry trailblazer, aiming to satisfy the need for musicians of the time to reliably amplify their acoustic guitars at arena concerts that were constantly growing in size and loudness.

In 1987, Takamine would introduce yet another staple of the company’s products, the "Limited Edition" series: A small yearly run of a few hundred meticulously crafted guitars by the most qualified in-house builders, these instruments are fitted with state-of-the-art electronics and exotic, intricate decorative inlays, each year sporting a different model, color, and overall theme, with motifs often based on nature or astronomical phenomena.

Though there is a somewhat limited amount of information about these products -compared to their acoustic counterparts-, it is known that some of these guitars had bodies that evoked the iconic shapes of Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Explorers, with some high-end models sporting DiMarzio-made pickups, Floyd Rose or Kahler tremolos, and Gotoh tuners.

The turn of the millennium saw the brand once again embracing both innovations, with the introduction of the CT ("Cool Tubes") tube-powered preamp family; and tradition, by opening a new main state-of-the-art factory and HQ in its hometown of Sakashita, where it currently resides since 2005.