Tagima invests in music and quality

The first Tagima guitars were born in the early 80's as a result of Mr. Seizi Tagima's work, a restless and inventive Japanese descendant who learned the skills of guitar manufacturing through observation, research and experimentation of famous brands. Stimulated by famous guitar players as Faiska and Joe Moghrabi, the idea of making his own guitars started to grow.

Throughout the decade, Tagima dove deeply into the exciting and complex market of musical instruments. The remarkable reputation of guitars conceived by him spread out in groups of the most influent guitar players in Brazil .

Tagima and Marutec met in 1996. Tagima was a successful brand, widely recognized in taylor-made guitar manufacturing. Marutec was an important importer of music equipment and electronics by the time, known for its structure and fast growth. Owner Ney Nakamura had a strong sense of enterpreneurship and large experience in business management allied to a deep knowledge of the music market.

Ney and Tagima found in each other great partners in affinity, foreseeing opportunities to grow together with the compromise to give Tagima a new personality: turn it into an industry with larger product lines and new business areas to achieve growing market demands. And so the investments began to take place.

Marutec Music acquired the rights to use the brand Tagima. In 1996 Ney and Tagima traveled to Korea , closing a deal to produce some products there, as the market's high demands could not be supplied anymore. Mr. Tagima directed the project technically, requiring the highest perfectionism that qualifies all the brand's products. Tagima also started to be in the largest international fairs like MusikMesse in Frankfurt , Germany to expand knowledge and the Tagima brand.

The product line Memphis by Tagima was launched along with the line of bass guitars and new guitar models. The “Instituto de Guitarra e Tecnologia (IG&T)” of Sao Paulo closed a deal to use Tagima's instruments in its classes, increasing the brand recognition. Marutec's presence in Sao Paulo 's annual ExpoMusic Fair is expected by hundreds of store owners and young consumers.

Inside the company a set of actions were taken to give it the desired profile: the industry moved from Barueri to Sao Paulo, invested in equipment to enlarge the production, improved working processes, widen the sales and distribution net, advertisement and marketing efforts, and many others which as a whole made the company grow larger and stronger at a national level.

What seemed like an adventure became a milestone in the history of national music industry, a revolution in all concepts of high quality manufacturing in Brazil . Tagima is reference in the market, competing in terms of equality with the greatest international brands. Tagima was responsible for ending a bias against Brazilian music instruments.

All prestige gained is a result of the effort, competence and persistence of many people: Tagima and his endless talent and passion for the art of tailoring perfect guitars; musicians as Kiko Loureiro (Angra), Edu Ardanuy (Dr.Sin), Joe Moghrabi, Mozart Mello, among others that recognized, supported and made public the product quality; sales stores that face consumers directly; but above all have lots of work and dedication from a team of employees that work daily in the production area, management and sales and who guarantee that a product of the highest quality reaches the hands of our clients, under a high-spirited sense of cooperation, friendship and professionalism.

Even with all accomplishments, there's not a sense of finished duty but of permanent evolution, perfectionism to make whatever is best in guitars. Through the brand Tagima Marutec invests in the Brazilian industry, in a clear relationship with the consumer, clients, partners and above all in music, and aims to be evident whenever the subject is musical instruments.

If you're looking for the instrument that matches your needs and taste, the “dream machine”, your search is over. You can find our instruments in the best stores in Brazil , best studios, best schools, best shows, and in the hands of the best musicians…

Tagima's Manufacturing Process

The final product you find in music stores is achieved through a long and elaborate process of handmade manufacturing personally directed by Mr. Seizi Tagima and a production team with the best professionals in the area.

It's widely known in Brazil the difficulty to find specialized professionals in a country with so little tradition in musical instruments manufacturing. But Mr. Seizi Tagima, as a genuine master, instructed his skills to a production team that now holds a complex know-how. Alongside Tagima also invests in high-precision equipment proper for carpentry, mechanics and finishing of the instrument parts.

The process of choosing the best wood comes first, which will bring out the instrument body. Tagima works only with the best distributors, a guarantee that the wood is dried nearly naturally.

After drying, the wood boards are cut in defined sizes, aiming the final size of the instrument's body. The shapes are drawn in these cut woods – which are shapes of each instrument with precise specifications. The guitar body takes its final shape to go to the finishing process.

After filing the body smooth, in machines first and then manually, it receives a sealant coating for wood and a polyester coating, being filed again after.

The next step is painting, a very hardworking process that guarantees high quality and resistant finishing. The finishing alternates painting with filing until a final coating of special gloss is applied. Up to this point the body has 5 layers of paint including gloss. The gloss layer is also filed to smooth the body surface as flat as possible, and the last step at this stage is polishing and applying silicone-based wax.

The Tagima guitar neck go through a similar process of choosing wood and cuts based on shapes. As Mr. Seizi Tagima dedicates special care to the guitar necks, they are paid much attention so that no future problems are found. The wood neck doesn't get a polyester coating, but go through meticulous filing and gloss coating.

The Tagima-made tensor (the metal bar that runs inside the neck and regulates it) is added, the positions of frets are precisely outlined and the frets are put on by hand.

The next step is to file and polish the neck, put stickers in the body and give the headstock (where the headmachines are) another gloss coating. Then the frets are filed – a close check-up to guarantee perfect scale – and a final polish is given.

From that moment on, body and neck are finally put together revealing the final shape of a genuine Tagima!

Hardware still has to be added and this step also gets much attention and care. The bridge, the headmachines, the inside mechanism and pick-ups are added to the body and each step is strictly reviewed so that the margin of error is practically zero.

With all parts checked in the body the production final phase begins by putting on the strings and giving the instrument to tuners, who tune it up, check sound quality and adjusts it.

After a complete set of check-up tests, the Tagima instrument is carefully stored in a special case and gets ready to reach and delight consumers around the world!

The whole manufacturing process of one single guitar lasts around 11 business days, going through carpentry, painting and drying of the body and the application of all parts. A customized Tagima, handmade by Mr. Seizi Tagima under placed orders only and using special components can take from 30 up to 60 days to be made, depending on the project complexity. Tagima is proud of having the right people and machinery to produce upper quality guitars and basses that can be compared to legendary and best brands in the world.

Get a closer look at a Tagima and test its efficiency in a store close to you. And whenever you play with a Tagima, remember its manufacturing process, which in the end has only one goal: delight you! And Tagima has a concern to evolve everyday in terms of product quality, people training, support to users, distribution, strategic partnerships, development of Brazilian industry.

Just like Pinocchio's Gepetto, Mr. Seizi Tagima reaches a larger scale in the search for perfection in his guitars, never dismissing the love and dedication that bring his “children” to life. All of us in Tagima are proud of what we have, and willing to always do our best, that's our goal and daily compromise.