Dang!

I've seen badly battered 1970s (post-lawsuit) Takamines that were manufactured and sold without pickguards ~ the big gaping hole is normally right where the pickguard should have been placed. (Glen Hansard's guitar, as seen in the movie Once, is a prime example.)

But Brad Thompson's Tak has a pickguard, but still has holes in a couple of other adjacent areas of the top ~ the same general areas where my guitar-top is darkened with multiple scratches, but is not nearly worn all the way through.

Were those guitars made with some even-softer variety of wood than the several species of spruce most commonly used used by Martin, Gibson, etc.?