12-String GAS

[RadioElectric]

I went to Manchester yesterday...

I was looking for an acoustic 12-string. My parents and grandparents gave me some money towards one for my 21st birthday. I tried Dawson's first and found nothing I wanted to try. I then went on to Forsyth's where I played all of the 12-strings they had. There was a Guild that sounded nice and rich but was impossible to fingerpick, a Seagull that sounded like it was made out of plastic (the bad kind), and two Martins which both lay between the two. There were a few more up there but none stand out in my memory. The most playable instrument (and one of the two best-sounding, along with the Guild) was this Breedlove.



(Can you tell I ended up buying it yet?)

I did take the time to run over to Hobgoblin and see what they had in the 12-string department (very little). On the way back I went into a music shop that had a Lakewood 12-string (pretty poor, especially considering it was the most expensive guitar I'd tried that day!). I got back to Forsyth's about 10 minutes before they closed to make the purchase. The clincher for me was getting the Ross-Noble-lookalike guy in the shop to play it for me while I sat in front of him. I needed to know what it sounded like to an audience as the sound you get sat behind the guitar is usually different.

It came with a semi-rigid gig-bag thing. I didn't think I'd ever be able to trust one of those but this one seems sturdy enough.



Now all I have to do is practise enough that my playing will do it justice.

[RadioElectric]

More pictures!

[Niallmo]

Superb. I love my Vintage 12. That does look ace. I like the Breedlove shape.

[TheTwit]

That 12-String looks really nice.

I played a Brunswick 12-String Electro-Acoustic the other day and it sounded really nice.

How much dd you pay for it?

[OllyHolditch]

Originally Posted by TheTwit

That 12-String looks really nice.

I played a Brunswick 12-String Electro-Acoustic the other day and it sounded really nice.

How much dd you pay for it?

+1 on the Brunswick, I have an electro acoustic 12-string, standard 12-string and a 6 string electro acoustic, and they all play and sound brilliant.

Nice looking Breedlove too.

[sam_m]

Didn't realise you were Manchester-based. I like Forsyths a lot.

[mattj]

Very Nice. I've been gassing after a 12-string for some time. What's the string spacing like?

[RadioElectric]

Originally Posted by TheTwit

That 12-String looks really nice.

I played a Brunswick 12-String Electro-Acoustic the other day and it sounded really nice.

How much dd you pay for it?

£989 with the case, get free setups for a year too (and their guitar tech used to work for Breedlove). Steep, especially when I've since seen there was a time when you could get one online for £700 apparently. The guitars I played ranged from £600 to just over a grand though and this was by far the best one I picked up so I guess I have to look at what it's "worth" as opposed to what it cost...

...or something like that. **shrugs**

Originally Posted by sam_m

Didn't realise you were Manchester-based. I like Forsyths a lot.

I'm Stoke-on-Trent based, studying at Keele University. Manchester is only a short train journey and £11 (return) away though. I hadn't been before Saturday but I'll try to go more often now.

Originally Posted by mattj

Very Nice. I've been gassing after a 12-string for some time. What's the string spacing like?

String spacing is comfortable, I can fingerpick it just fine. The neck is wide but flat, of all the other 12-strings I've played it reminds me the most of my Dad's Ovation. That's only from memory though.

Only change I might make to it for now is to put a heavier low-low-E on it for downtuning. It came with some Daddario EXP .010s on it. I guess I could alternatively try switching up to 0.011s. I'm not sure whether I'm likely to run into a problem doing either though.