Acoustic 12 Strings - What are your favorites?

[Unicorn Warrior]

Check out new Guild 12s too.

I've tried a few now, the most recent of which was incredible.

I've always wanted to try a Guild acoustic. Never had any experience with them. Come to think of it, I've never played one of their electrics either.

I've always admired both, visually at least. Any particular model to look for?

[cmatthes]

My wife got this one for me (before we were married), and it is an absolute CANNON. All the top-end shimmer and jangle, but it is just a lively and loud guitar. I had a buddy at the New Hartford Guild shop put a DTAR system in it, and it still sounds amazing.

It's a '91 Westerly, R.I.-made JF-65-12.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

A few people have mentioned Seagull as a 12-string option. I owned one for a number of years with a cedar top and cherry back and sides - a very bright-sounding instrument indeed.

BUT....the neck was horrendous (for me). It wasn't a case of wrestling with impossible action or anything - I could play it okay - but it gave me callouses on my left hand for some reason (and this was probably the point in my life when my hands were at their toughest). I eventually wised up and sold it, and since then I've kind of drifted away from the whole idea of playing 12-string, which was my core instrument through my 20s and early 30s.

I occasionally find myself hankering after another Eko Ranger XII - the Seagull's predecessor, and definitely the best acoustic 12-string neck I've ever got to know intimately - but at this point I think I might be up for trying something a bit fancier if I was going to go down that road again.

For a mid-price option you might consider a Takamine. I've only had a shot of one and it seemed to play well and sound nice for the few minutes it spent in my hands, but my workhorse 6-string is a Takamine and, before a bad set-up ruined it, it played and sounded way better than the modest outlay suggested it should.