GGJaguar
Reverential Member
A while back I stupidly sold my G-312 thinking I wouldn’t need it since I had the F-412 and Martin Grand J40-12. Those two guitars could keep anyone happy, but they are jumbos and have a jumbo sound. I missed having a dreadnaught 12er. They sound more like a double-tracked 6-string guitar and it’s a useful sound. The one thing I definitely didn’t like about the G-312 was the large profile, double truss-rod neck. The modern, single truss rod Guild 12-string neck really has me spoiled.
I didn’t want to break the bank on a 12-string that I knew would get less playing time than the jumbos. The only current offerings by Guild are the Westerly D-1212 (solid African mahogany body and top, non-cutaway, no electronics) and the D-2612CE (laminated Maccassar ebony archback, solid spruce top, cutaway, electronics). I think the only American-made Guild that is in this price range is a used D4-12, but those don’t show up often and they have the chunky, double truss rod neck. I didn’t want a cutaway or electronics so the D-2612CE was out. I generally don’t like the sound of mahogany-topped guitars (Martin 000-15SM and D-15SM are exceptions), but the D-1212 has gotten some love on LTG. The sound bites on YouTube were decent, too, so that was enough for me to take the plunge on a used model. It’s definitely an attractive guitar!
The D-1212 took over for the short-lived GAD D-125-12 in 2015. It’s an all-mahogany dreadnaught made from solid woods, in this case, African mahogany (khaya, sapele, sipo aka utile, okoume). Ever inquisitive, I contacted Guild and got the following response: “After reaching out to my products team, I can confirm the African Mahogany that we use is, in fact, Khaya wood.” So there you have it. Khaya is an excellent substitute for Honduran mahogany (they are in the same family) and has many of the same properties. When it’s quarter sawn, it has the ribbon grain as on the D-1212.
The top bracing is scalloped Sitka spruce which is unusual for a 12-string. There are two tone bars and they are scalloped as well. Normally, 12ers are stoutly braced due to the extra string tension and I have to wonder about how the guitar will hold up over time with the lighter bracing. The neck is African mahogany (probably khaya) with a rosewood fingerboard. A rosewood bridge (and maple bridge plate) with compensated bone saddle and a bone nut complete the package. The finish is gloss polyurethane.
There was some tweaking of details since 2015 and you can check them out in the table below. There are two specifications to note. The first may just be an error, but if you believe Guild, the D-1515 was fitted with “twin single action” truss rods from 2015 to 2019. This implies the neck has two truss rods. In 2020, the spec changed to “Dual-Action” which implies a single, double action truss rod. My guitar has a single truss rod. I’m skeptical that two truss rods were used on earlier versions mainly because the GAD D-125-12 had a single truss rod. Why totally redesign the neck and then go back to the original version? Maybe the spec should have been written “Single, twin-action” rather than “twin single action”?
The second and perhaps most important, is a change in the body dimensions. Again, if you believe Guild’s literature, this took place in 2019 when the depth at the lower bout increased by 1/4” (6.4mm) with a corresponding decrease of 1/4” at the upper bout. The overall length of the guitar decreased by 1” (25.4mm). Why did Guild do this? Was it to “improve” the tone of the guitar? Or was it a mistake in the specs and the deeper lower bout was in use all along? Maybe @Cougar can measure the body depth of his D-125-12 to confirm if the Guild specs are correct or not.
