12 strings!

[Rockmonton]

picked up a fender f-310-12 for 150 canadian today, love it so far. bit buzzy, so i'll raise the action about a 1/2 millimeter. pretty sweet deal, what do you all have?

[Jovinyl]

Alvarez 5021. just had refret job and bone saddle. Waiting for a Guild to fall into my hands for a price I want to pay. :smoke:

[WhiskeyRebel]

Washburn Festival EA20-12 cutaway. It has the oval soundhole and an odd bridge with a plastic spacer that holds six individual small saddles. I suppose that is so each pair of strings can couple to its piezo crystal effectively.

The oval soundhole looks slick but it prevents me from popping in a magnetic soundhole pickup. I would like to hear how one of those would mix with the built-in piezo system.

I added a JLD Bridge Doctor to keep the top from bellying. It braces the bridge against the tailblock so string tension presses against the tailblock instead of twisting the bridge against the top. So far, so good on that. With all the tension from 12 strings I recommend them for any 12 string flat top.

[Reel 2 Reel]

I have a 198?..'WFM Mitchell'..I picked it up at a pawn shop in the mid 80s for a decent price....the only other place I seen one is at the new Guitar Center here in Saginaw.....I have cheched online for it and everything...no cigar!...

The action is exelent...all the way up the neck....and only one buzz on the high E string at the thirteenth fret!...I took care of that allready!.....

see it here! (http://www.audiokarma.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1322&size=big&password=5f37148739ac110bce3b1212457628ba&sort=1&cat=502)

[Pickoid]

I've had a bunch of 12-string acoustics over the years. I think I will always keep one around, they are fun to play and just about a necessity for a folkie type like me.

Currently, I have a Larrivee D-03-12. It's a stripped-down mahogany dreadnaught 12-string, all solid wood. I got a heck of a deal on it 4-5 years ago. I had a Fishman Rare Earth soundhole pickup permanently installed in it with an endpin jack. It sounds pretty good acoustically, and acceptable through the pickup. My only complaint is that the sound doesn't have much guts - it's kind of sterile. The action is too low when I tune it down to D or C#, so I keep it tuned to standard pitch. That's the primary problem - 12 strings just don't have any growl when they're tuned to standard pitch. I need to take it to a repair guy and have him set it up the neck for lower tunings.

Several years ago, I had a Guild JF4-12. That one was wonderful, a mahogany jumbo. I wish I still had it, but I sold it on eBay to finance another guitar purchase. I have to say, the old Guilds are pretty hard to beat.

In between the Guild and Larrivee, I briefly had an early 70's slot-head Nippon Gakki Yamaha. It was all plywood and the neck had bowed into something resembling a ski jump, but it had an awesome sound. I tuned it down to C# and did a pretty passable Leo Kottke imatation on it. It was kind of fun, but just too limited to keep around.

The first 12-string I had was a Takamine I got in the late 80's. It was all plywood, but played very well. Didn't sound that bad, either. That one was destroyed when a tornado hit the house in '93.

[pjweeks]

My first acoustic was an Ibanez 12 string which I enjoyed until a fatal fall at my roommate's hands. Some of the carnage is listed here:
DISCLAIMER: the following link has been rated PG because it contains pictures of a post-mortem guitar
http://groups.msn.com/donpedrospics/lsfpictures.msnw?Page=7

It was a good first guitar. I miss the 12 string sound and so does my girlfriend. Only thing about it was that I wasn't brave enough yet to do neck adjustments so it was on the high end(imagine that!). Someday I'll get one, but right now I'll enjoy the tone of my Taylor Big Baby to it's fullest (which admittedly isn't that full, but it's a nice tone).

[DaWoofer]

I love the sound of a 12 and wish I had one.. I'm still useing my old Epiphone PR-765. The closest I can get is with my DigiTech Processor.

[Rockmonton]

damn pj that sucks, do you still have the guitar around, that might be fixable, although ugly....

[pjweeks]

Nope, my roommate was decent enough to give me some money for the Ibanez so it's his now. I had an experienced guitar repair tech look at it and he said that he *might* be able to fix it for $100 but he wouldn't be able to guarantee anything. I hope he's fixed it. Since then I got a Baby Taylor which I find to be a really nice-sounding guitar, but it's certainly no 12 string....
Pete