Here's a weird one: JD Guitars "thinbody" 12-string w/strange woods...

[SignoftheDragon]

Like I said, a weird one:

"Gotta Catch 'em All" entry no. 13,472:



JD Guitars "thinbody" 12-string with a mildly astonishing assortment of woods:

Bound ash body, front is stained yellow, back is a nice deep red.
"guard" is made from a 1/2" thick slab of African sapele.
Neck is cherrywood, with a nice dark walnut bound fretboard.
Headstock has a layer of ash, and then a top layer of the sapele laminated to the face.

The good: Great playing, nicely appointed boutique-built 12-string with a few cool innovations - I particularly dig the wacky headstock. Fine woods, sturdy build, substantial-but-not-in-a-bad-way neck profile, nice accents with the gold hardware & abalone inlay & dots. The GFS Retrotron sounds great, and the coil-tap option gives it a little versatility.

The bad: It's a bit of an uggo, yes? I'm definitely not a big fan of the color scheme. Also, why on earth would you only put a pickup in the bridge position? There's MAGIC in that neck position! Don't you want to make MAGIC???!?!

Here's a couple more pics:

[wooderson]

Looks like something a man with a graying beard down to his navel and a ponytail untrimmed since 1968 would have presented to Jerry Garcia backstage.

[sal paradise]

This will give me nightmares for the rest of my life

[Marc]

Looks like something a man with a graying beard down to his navel and a ponytail untrimmed since 1968 would have presented to Jerry Garcia backstage.

Definitely. Or a tweaker’s “up for 11 days project”.

[Nudger]

The bad: It's a bit of an uggo, yes? I'm definitely not a big fan of the color scheme. Also, why on earth would you only put a pickup in the bridge position? There's MAGIC in that neck position!

Deffo missed a trick with single pup..
A cant stop seeing the control end of the pickguard, looks like it was made for another guitar!

[BoringPostcards]

Wild. It looks like it has some Wandre DNA in there. That headstock is the stuff of nightmares.

[Nudger]

Wild. It looks like it has some Wandre DNA in there. That headstock is the stuff of nightmares.

Just googled wandre, see what you mean.. This reminds me of a vintage bog seat!


Odd brand, Models swing from cool as to wtf

[Fiddy]

Wandre guitars are cool. This one, not so much.

[JSett]

That headstock is making my eyes twitch

[SignoftheDragon]

The headstock is a little confusing to look at, but I think it was a worthy experiment, pulled off with a bit of panache and (mostly) a success.

He was basically taking the Ric 12 headstock format (3x3x3x3) and adding some modern design ideas into it. Aesthetically I'll give it a bit of a pass because it's an ambitious re-imagining of an idea that has really only been done one way for the last 60 years. I'm giving it an 8/10 for effort.

Functionally, it has a few flaws- basically the break angle from the nut to some of the tuners has the strings sawing into the wood of the face, and there are a couple string-routing turnbuckles that wouldn't have needed to be there if those angles had been built around. Tuning is nice and stable, and there are no flaws that affect playability. 7/10 in this metric, again being generous because the design is so ambitious.

[Embenny]

I just don't get why someone would put all that effort into shaping so many nice pieces of wood, and then stick a GFS pickup in there, of all things.

It definitely has those hippie/alembic/Grateful Dead vibes. Some of the aesthetic choices make it hard to look at.

[Larry Mal]

Aww, I kind of like it.

[Fiddy]

I got nothing against the body either looks or shape. Nothing against the neck, or headstock.

I don't like the pickguard, pickup configuration the whole "face" of the guitar actually. I would also use different a style of tuners.

But, much better than what Fender is cooking up these days...