Count, I really don't know. I'm scratching my head on that because it's a very good question. The F-50 shape with a rosewood box just makes for the most responsive and harmonic-rich sound I know of in a 12-string. I've played a lot of 12s too, but that combination really does it for me. Martin just this year came out with a competing product (Grand J12-40E Special) which is an F-512 clone. I really want to try one of these and compare it. It is strikingly similar.count savage said:I totally concur. It has an almost unbelievable richness of tone that at the same time is immediately identifiable and completely unique sounding. Although it has taken some personal adjustment on my part playing it, the sound of medium gauge strings tuned down to standard D tuning on this guitar is something to behold, simply amazing. The low end on this guitar really gives you a chill. The whole guitar vibrates and vibrates your body.
Chazmo, what do you think it is about this guitar that makes it so special sounding? I mean, is it the construction, the design? Or is it very similar to most of the Guild 12 strings you have, meaning is it distinctively Guild -- the Guild magic -- you called it, or is there something distinctively magical to the F 512? What's your theory?
As for the Guild sound, I haven't played enough of the Guild 12s to be sure if there's really a family sound going on. I'm not sure how much I buy into that kind of thing anyway as it's pretty vague... IMO, an F-30 doesn't sound like an F-50. And, for that matter, a D-50 doesn't sound like a D-55 -- and the specs there are pretty darn close. Guild "magic" though simply means to me that they've hit on some fantastic designs, chief among them being the jumbo F body.