12 string advice

[W.S. McTier]

i'm desperately wanting to add a 12 string to my collection. i play primarily folk, country blues, etc. my 6 string guitar is a gibson j45 rosewood that i love. i always thought i wanted a guild 12 string but recently played a breedlove that was great. anybody have any ideas? i would also appreciate ideas in the moderately priced area as i'm not sure i can justify two $2000+ guitars in the same decade.

[FourStrongWinds]

im having almost the same problem at the minute, i really wanted a Guild 12 aswell, to match my 6 string, their 12s really are magical but they're super expensive over here so that was a no no

 

Yamaha are a good bet, if you can find an older FG...the new ones are ok and great deal but they do feel a bit cheap

tried a red label FG that had the most amazing tone but really hurt to play you gotta watch out for the action on them

 

I went to denmark street the other week and played about 20 odd 12-strings and after tuning that many 12-strings in one day the novelty really wore off

 

buy a chorus pedal maybe?

[anodyne]

i had a cheap epiphone. within a few weeks, you could shoot arrows with it the neck bent so badly.

 

i'm strongly considering a carvin 12 string. i've never been let down by carvin products before.

[FourStrongWinds]

what alot of people do anodyne is tune them to Eb or D and use a capo, to prevent what happened to yours, but still...its usually over a few years that would happen

 

the guild ones have a duel truss rods, so they take the strain a little better, i think Taylor do it to

[W.S. McTier]

the guild ones have a duel truss rods, so they take the strain a little better, i think Taylor do it to

 

do these age well even with the dual truss rods? given the history of warpage (kind of a word i guess) with cheaper models, i'm kind of leaning towards saving up for a while and buying one with some better reliability. i'm kind of looking for heirloom guitars that i can pass down to my kids and their kids. in my own bizzaro fantasy land i kind of envision my great grandkids inheriting something like a pre-war martin. i know it won't happen but i'm not interested in trading in guitars every so often. i like the idea of one aging with me while i get better. so, does that exclude the more moderately priced ones. thanks for the input so far.

[FourStrongWinds]

im exactly the same mate, i wont buy anything if i cant keep it forever

 

you can get the GAD ones, Fender's chinese made Guild's but to be honest there is nothing like a US built westerly guild

the fender ones are ok, but i reckon you could pick up a second hand westerly for a good price if you hunt around

try slightly newer ones, like 80s-90s before the fender takeover but still not old enough to be 'vintage' prices

[Reflectedinthemoon]

not exactly cheap, but i have the model Neptune 12string Nels has... and its fantastic

 

check it out.

[Lance]

I'd look for a late 60's or early 70's Martin D-12-20. It won't depreciate. May need a neck set eventually, but that would be a small price to pay and your grandchildren will be grateful. You could probably find a nice one for ~$1,200 or a clunky one for less than a grand.

[anodyne]

carvin also uses dual trusses. the epi i had was $129 shipped and was glued pretty poorly. it was a POS out of box.

[rockinrob]

For the most part, I dont like Taylor guitars. I like that big fat Martin sound. But the absolute best sounding 12 string I have ever played was a Taylor 655 or an 855. The 6 has maple back and sides, and the 8 has rosewood. It was close to a heavenly experience. The sound is big and fat, but it has that wonderful jangly sparkle sound. They are truly awesome, and I have seen both of them used for 2 grand or less. I would say at least dont buy anything else until you have played one of those guitars. Why spend 1,000 or 1500 on a decent guitar, when you could get "freakin' awesome" for 2000?

[egoidealmusic]

I've got an old epiphone (from the 70s) that is absolutely amazing. It's a pr-650 12 string. Body like a J-45. Full, big sound. I got it off of ebay for about a hundred bucks, but I've seen them recently (when they are there--pretty rare) go for 300 and up.

 

Even for that, a great investment.