« Disappointing for a Guild »
Published on 06/26/18 at 19:04
Best value:
Correct
Audience:
Anyone
My musical style is a folk-country style--flatpicked alternating between strumming and arpeggiated chords.
The guitar is well-made from a construction standpoint. No loose joins or bracing. No sloppy glue spots.
It has a jumbo body with a solid spruce top and maple [laminate] back and sides. It has a matte [satin] finish. It also features an undersaddle pickup and preamp. The volume and tone controls are located inside the soundhole. The bag which holds the 9-volt battery is attached to the neck block inside the body of the guitar.
It has minimal cosmetic appointments. There is no binding on the fretboard and inlays are imitation pearl dots.
The pickup/preamp is virtually useless. It feeds back at very low volumes. And no amount of EQ seems to be able to tame either the feedback or the piezo "quack."
Acoustically, the tone is not much better. It lacks the chime-like quality which should be the signature tone of a 12-string. It sounds more like a 6-string run through a chorus pedal. At first I thought this might be due to the strings being old. But a change to fresh strings did not improve the sound.
The tuners are another problem. In a guitar of this price range--one should expect at least sealed clones of Grovers or Gotohs--but these seem to be revisiting the early covered tuners made by Waverly or Kluson. They do not turn smoothly and getting an exact tuning, even with a strobe, is time consuming.
I've only regretted purchasing a 12-string a few times in my life and this is one of the purchases I've regretted.
The guitar is well-made from a construction standpoint. No loose joins or bracing. No sloppy glue spots.
It has a jumbo body with a solid spruce top and maple [laminate] back and sides. It has a matte [satin] finish. It also features an undersaddle pickup and preamp. The volume and tone controls are located inside the soundhole. The bag which holds the 9-volt battery is attached to the neck block inside the body of the guitar.
It has minimal cosmetic appointments. There is no binding on the fretboard and inlays are imitation pearl dots.
The pickup/preamp is virtually useless. It feeds back at very low volumes. And no amount of EQ seems to be able to tame either the feedback or the piezo "quack."
Acoustically, the tone is not much better. It lacks the chime-like quality which should be the signature tone of a 12-string. It sounds more like a 6-string run through a chorus pedal. At first I thought this might be due to the strings being old. But a change to fresh strings did not improve the sound.
The tuners are another problem. In a guitar of this price range--one should expect at least sealed clones of Grovers or Gotohs--but these seem to be revisiting the early covered tuners made by Waverly or Kluson. They do not turn smoothly and getting an exact tuning, even with a strobe, is time consuming.
I've only regretted purchasing a 12-string a few times in my life and this is one of the purchases I've regretted.
