Tagima K1 Signature Kiko Loureiro

I use to jam with a Brazilian guitar player and he was a big Kiko Loureiro fan. He had one of these guitars. I had never heard of it then but I remebered the guitar well. Now I know that these are some really high end guitars out of Brazil. Tagima is a Brazilian guitar maker well known there but not very well known outside of Brazil. With this guitar you Cedro wood body with a 27 fret bolt on neck. The fretboard is rosewood and the neck is maple. The frets are very big so you can really use all 27 frets. I dont know if the pickups were stock but his had a Parallel Axis Trembucker in the bridge and a Hot Rail in the neck. The neck pickup is slanted to allow room for the 27 frets. The controls are a master volume with a master tone. The tone has a push pull pot that can split the pickups. There is a 3 way blade to switch them.

UTILIZATION

The body has super deep cutaways that allow access to all 27 frets. The bottom cutaway goes beyond the fretboard. The 27th fret has a bit of a slant to it. The top of the fret is cut off to allow room for the slanted neck pickup. The neck has a very very shall D feel to it. The fretboard is super flat. The action on these guitars can be set very very low. The Gotoh Floyd Rose stays in tune well with the locking nut. One thing I do remember is that the body is very heavy Cedro wood is a type of mahogany that has a bit of a brighter sound. This wood also felt heavier than mahogany. The super angular body gives it a kind of strange feel although the cutaways are well placed.

SOUNDS

The Parallel Axis Duncan in the bridge of the guitar is a very hot old school sounding pickup. It has a very bright distortion sound. This matches well with the Cedro body. The trembucker name is used on other pickups that are designed to be used with Floyd Rose systems. The bridge is super hot and clear. The neck pickup has a nice smooth sound that still retains clarity under high gain. Because the neck pickup is placed so far back it has more of a trebly sound then what you would expect from a neck pickup. This extra high end gives you more clarity when you are shredding on those 27 frets.

OVERALL OPINION

I havent seen another one of these guitars since I jammed with the Brazilian guy. If you come across one you should check it out because the quality on these guitars are top notch and the price is not too bad either. Apparently you can get one of these for about 1500 USD but you have to deal with the Tagima company directly.