ellengtrgrl
08-27-2011, 11:04 PM
I've had the blahs for a while in the acoustic guitar department. I had to sell my Washburn WB400 mini jumbo during the Great Financial Fiasco of April. The Republic tricone resonator guitar I bought to replace it, ended up not being me sound-wise, and I found its metal body to be too heavy for my tastes.
Today, hopefully, the acoustic blahs are gone. I've been kind of stalled in my acoustic guitar search. The archtop acoustics either soudned kind of dead, or if they sounded good, cost quite a bit more than I was willing to spend. From past experience, I've found dreadnoughts to be too boomy sounding for my tastes. And the parlor, and concert/folk sized guitars I've tried,all seemed to not have enough bass response, and in many cases, sounded like a cardboard box, if they weren't played fingerstyle. I even tried out one of the new Wechter Nashville parlor guitars - it sounded pretty cool, but IMO, was a bit too bright sounding for solo playing. IN short, I was kind of at a loss for what to do, and was ready to just hang onto my tricone resonator guitar, and resign myself to only playing it once in a blue moon.
The last week or so, thought of possibly getting a 12-string, started working its way into my mind. Now, I've dabbled with them off and on over the past few years (I had a 12-string Danelectro for a brief time in early 2010, and I used to play an old friend of mine's 12 strings on occasion, when we'd jam [she's had 12-string acoustics for a long time]), and thought they were pretty cool, but never had felt very strongly about having a 12-string acoustic. But, figuring that I was stalled out in my search for another acoustic, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try them out. So today, I stopped off at my favorite guitar shop (Cream City Music), and tried out the 12-strings they have. The used Fender 12-string was a yawner. The Sigma 12-string, reminded me of my friend's 70s Ibanez Concord 699, 12-string (the one with the maple fingerboard) - nice, but not wow. But the Seagull Coastline Cedar 12, 12-string, THAT was a different story! It may have been a slope shouldered dreadnought, but man!! Nice bass response without being too boomy, and wonderful chime!! It played like butter too! I didn't want to stop playing it! I also tried out a 1979 Takamine 6-string, lawsuit guitar, feeling that maybe by being a 31 year old guitar, it's wood top would have opened up enough soundwise, for me to like it (I typically don't like Taks - I find them to be too muffled and middy sounding) - frankly it sound much different that the Washburn cutaway acoustic, I had from 1999 to 2006. Sort of bland and muffled. I went back to playing the Seagull. To make a long story a bit shorter, I ended up buying the Seagull. The price with sales tax, was $460. With the Republic tricone resonator guitar as a trade-in, my cost was $180. Wahoo!! I plan on spending some serious playing time with my new 12-string tonight!
Seagull Coastline Cedar 12 - not my guitar (I need to borrow the digital camera from work, since mine's bit the dust)
http://www.seagullguitars.com/gtrs12%2B.jpg
Today, hopefully, the acoustic blahs are gone. I've been kind of stalled in my acoustic guitar search. The archtop acoustics either soudned kind of dead, or if they sounded good, cost quite a bit more than I was willing to spend. From past experience, I've found dreadnoughts to be too boomy sounding for my tastes. And the parlor, and concert/folk sized guitars I've tried,all seemed to not have enough bass response, and in many cases, sounded like a cardboard box, if they weren't played fingerstyle. I even tried out one of the new Wechter Nashville parlor guitars - it sounded pretty cool, but IMO, was a bit too bright sounding for solo playing. IN short, I was kind of at a loss for what to do, and was ready to just hang onto my tricone resonator guitar, and resign myself to only playing it once in a blue moon.
The last week or so, thought of possibly getting a 12-string, started working its way into my mind. Now, I've dabbled with them off and on over the past few years (I had a 12-string Danelectro for a brief time in early 2010, and I used to play an old friend of mine's 12 strings on occasion, when we'd jam [she's had 12-string acoustics for a long time]), and thought they were pretty cool, but never had felt very strongly about having a 12-string acoustic. But, figuring that I was stalled out in my search for another acoustic, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try them out. So today, I stopped off at my favorite guitar shop (Cream City Music), and tried out the 12-strings they have. The used Fender 12-string was a yawner. The Sigma 12-string, reminded me of my friend's 70s Ibanez Concord 699, 12-string (the one with the maple fingerboard) - nice, but not wow. But the Seagull Coastline Cedar 12, 12-string, THAT was a different story! It may have been a slope shouldered dreadnought, but man!! Nice bass response without being too boomy, and wonderful chime!! It played like butter too! I didn't want to stop playing it! I also tried out a 1979 Takamine 6-string, lawsuit guitar, feeling that maybe by being a 31 year old guitar, it's wood top would have opened up enough soundwise, for me to like it (I typically don't like Taks - I find them to be too muffled and middy sounding) - frankly it sound much different that the Washburn cutaway acoustic, I had from 1999 to 2006. Sort of bland and muffled. I went back to playing the Seagull. To make a long story a bit shorter, I ended up buying the Seagull. The price with sales tax, was $460. With the Republic tricone resonator guitar as a trade-in, my cost was $180. Wahoo!! I plan on spending some serious playing time with my new 12-string tonight!
Seagull Coastline Cedar 12 - not my guitar (I need to borrow the digital camera from work, since mine's bit the dust)
http://www.seagullguitars.com/gtrs12%2B.jpg