Hi to all,
I got my first Guild 12 string, the chosen one was F1512. It was B-stock mail order from Thomann, got really good deal and paid a little bit more than 700 Euros. The guitar had couple of small knot traces on soundboard (cosmetic issue and gives more character for me, resembling a little bit of birdseye maple) and small finish crack at the heel. No structural problems whatsoever, nicely setup and plays well. So I was really happy about the deal and if not considering those small cosmetical issues, I am really amazed about the craftmanship and quality of the instrument.
The reason why I ordered the F1512 were actually reviews - almost all were mentioning deep bass and lush trebles. Thought that it is jumbo, has rosewood back and sides, so what can go wrong and pulled the trigger. But... at the moment I am quite disappointed with the sound - the guitar sounds more treble heavy than I believe rosewood jumbo should be. Bass is there but it is quite weak and overall sound is not well balanced, I would say. It almost sounds like it's over braced, but that seems not to be case - using 10-47 strings in standard tuning, there is small belly already behind the bridge. When I compare it with my solid rosewood/Adirondack dread, it is considerably quieter and does not have the deep bass, that I imagine the large body should have. Interesting is, that I don't feel the back resonating at all - both that dread and my 000 size laminated back Martin have quite strong resonances from back that can be felt with my body. When looking back bracing, the braces of F1512 are really slim and tall so probably back is much stiffer than the backs of other guitars that I have. I think this could be one of the reason for lacking the bass.
Has anybody else found that F1512 sounds a bit too thin? Any ideas what could be the reason? Or do I have unrealistic expectations and this is actually normal?
I got my first Guild 12 string, the chosen one was F1512. It was B-stock mail order from Thomann, got really good deal and paid a little bit more than 700 Euros. The guitar had couple of small knot traces on soundboard (cosmetic issue and gives more character for me, resembling a little bit of birdseye maple) and small finish crack at the heel. No structural problems whatsoever, nicely setup and plays well. So I was really happy about the deal and if not considering those small cosmetical issues, I am really amazed about the craftmanship and quality of the instrument.
The reason why I ordered the F1512 were actually reviews - almost all were mentioning deep bass and lush trebles. Thought that it is jumbo, has rosewood back and sides, so what can go wrong and pulled the trigger. But... at the moment I am quite disappointed with the sound - the guitar sounds more treble heavy than I believe rosewood jumbo should be. Bass is there but it is quite weak and overall sound is not well balanced, I would say. It almost sounds like it's over braced, but that seems not to be case - using 10-47 strings in standard tuning, there is small belly already behind the bridge. When I compare it with my solid rosewood/Adirondack dread, it is considerably quieter and does not have the deep bass, that I imagine the large body should have. Interesting is, that I don't feel the back resonating at all - both that dread and my 000 size laminated back Martin have quite strong resonances from back that can be felt with my body. When looking back bracing, the braces of F1512 are really slim and tall so probably back is much stiffer than the backs of other guitars that I have. I think this could be one of the reason for lacking the bass.
Has anybody else found that F1512 sounds a bit too thin? Any ideas what could be the reason? Or do I have unrealistic expectations and this is actually normal?
Sadly I cannot play any F512 here to compare the guitars side by side.
