NTSGD

boogieman

New 12 string guitar day. Been hankering for a decent 12 string acoustic for a while and the Guild Chinese built range seemed a good punt for the money. Picked this F1512 up from Peach last week and I’m very pleased with it. Spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides. 

It’s got a nice balance between jangly top end and bass grunt. I struggle playing dreads these days but the jumbo body isn’t too big, “It’s a cannon” as one review said and certainly has lots of volume. The neck is nice and comfy with a decent width nut:  I’ve got a Yamaha APX where the strings are too close together for my sausage sized fingers. 

Fit and finish are really good with nicely finished frets. Allegedly it’s been set up by Peach… if they have touched it then I’m impressed as it played nicely straight out of the box, it was even in the ballpark of tuned correctly. There’s one tiny blemish in the lacquer on the headstock and the tuners are a wee bit stiff at the mo but I’m hoping they’ll ease with time. There’s nothing that really bothers me otherwise. The soft case is pretty nice too. 

ElectricXII

HNGD. That's a fine looking guitar, and I've always liked the Guild brand from some reason. I've got a decent 6 string acoustic, and an electric 12 string, so can't really see me getting a lot of play time on a 12 string acoustic, but it doesn't stop me GASing for one .

Mellish

Very nice mate.

Setup OK?if it needs a few tweaks, don't do it/have it done yet. Let it get used to its new  home first  

boogieman

Mellish said:

Very nice mate.

Setup OK?if it needs a few tweaks, don't do it/have it done yet. Let it get used to its new  home first  

I got it on one of the scorching hot days last week so I was expecting it to need a bit of adjustment after a few days but it doesn’t seem to need anything so far. I’ll drop it down to D when I restring it to give the neck and top an easier time, maybe it’ll need a bit of fettling after that. Probably put a bit of oil on the fretboard too, it’s a tad dry. 

Tannin

Good move @boogieman and a nice write-up. 

ElectricXII said:

I've always liked the Guild brand from some reason ...

And that reason would be because they are such bloody good guitars. I haven't played many of the Chinese Guilds but the ones I briefly picked up seemed as good or better than most, and the US made ones, of any era, are brilliant. (Sadly, these days the new-build ones are priced for dentists - but at least these are dentists who can play.) I don't think I have ever played a US-made Guild I didn't like.

boogieman

@Tannin its certainly the nicest sounding 12 string at that price point. I was thinking of going for a Yamaha LL series as Peach had them on offer, but the Guild sounded much nicer to my ears. The fingerboard spacing is tighter on the Yammy too so it’s harder to pick individual strings. I can’t think of too many reasons to go for the Guild US version at 4 times the price… maybe it has slightly better woods, I dunno, but I couldn’t justify paying that much extra when the Chinese range is so good. 

Tannin

Cheers @boogieman I've played both the Guild F-512 and the F-512 Maple. The F-512 was excellent, but the F-512 Maple was the best 12-string I have ever played in my life, and one of the best four or five guitars of any kind I have ever played. It was just mind-blowingly good. 

But at nearly $7000 (about £3900) it was crazy dear. That was January 2021. They are now asking $9500 (about £5350) for them, which is ridiculous for any factory guitar, even a Guild. 

If it had been a 6-string, I probably would have gritted my teeth and spent the $7000. It was that good. 

But a 12-string for me is a part-time instrument. No matter that the F-512 Maple was so incredibly good, it would never have been my #1 instrument, or even my #3.  I wasn't going to spend 7 grand on a 4th or 5th guitar. Instead, I spent $2400 on a Cole Clark 12, which was a much more sensible purchase. I would have liked to try a Maton 12 (about the same price) and a good Taylor 12 (a bit more) but couldn't find anything in stock back then other than an Ovation (which was awful), the Cole Clark, and a little 2-Series Taylor (which was pleasant and playable but way too dear for what it was).

The Cole Clark 12 was a good guitar - very bright and trebly but that's what 12-strings are for. It served me well, but after a year or so I reluctantly came to the conclusion that my life-long love affair with 12-strings is over.

I bought my first 12-string , an Eston (rebadged Eko) in my early teens, and replaced it with a Yamaha when I was about 30. For the next 25 years the Yamaha 12 was my main guitar, sometimes my only guitar. But try as I might, I just can't find a way to make a 12 sound good now that I play with my fingers.(And I'm never going back to plectrums.) Truth be told, I haven't been able to find any examples of fingerpicking on a 12 that I like the sound of enough to want to play like that. So I eventually traded the 12 in on yet another 6-string. 

If you get half as many years and half as much fun out of your Guild as I got out of my Eston or my Yamaha back when I was a younger man, it will have been worth what you paid for it five times over. Enjoy!

boogieman

I must admit that a large part of wanting another 12 string was driven by nostalgia. My first decent level guitar was an Eros 12 string dread, pretty similar to your Eko. I saved up for ages to buy it, it cost me £40 back in the early 70s, not a small amount of money back then. Man, I played that thing to death until it developed a few issues and I retired it. In fact I still had it tucked away until a couple of years back. I’d thought about maybe resurrecting it at one time but it had a bowed neck with a twist in it, the bridge had split right across the pin holes and the top had bellied up. Took it around to the charity shop and it had gone within a day, so maybe someone cleverer (or with deeper pockets) than me has got it playable again. 

Tannin

Wow! A little web searching yields the following (slightly abridged) text from guitar-list.com

The first E-Ros guitars were made between 1966 and 1970 by the Fratelli Fuselli Company (Fuselli Brothers) in Recanati, Italy. Most of their instruments were flat top dreadnought acoustics. The range included the 6 string 606 Dakota and 606 Arizona, the 12 string 612 model also known as the 612 Nevada. Some came with a pickup, these models were designated 606-E and 612-E.

According to fetishguitars.com, the similarity between E-Ros guitars and Eko Rangers suggests that the Fuselli Brothers were making guitars for Eko during the mid 1960s. When the Eko factory was ruined by fire, the Fuselli Brothers started selling their guitars themselves, under the E-Ros brand.

Most E-Ros guitars were distributed in Europe, but some E-Ros guitars turned up in the USA in the 1970s bearing the Eko logo. It is likely that Eko bought up some of the E-Ros unsold inventory.

The EROS brand name (without the dash) reappeared in the 1970s, on a range of Japanese made guitars. 

Looking at your picture, the guitar is instantly familiar. The body shape is the same, the headstock shape is identical, and the zero-fret is another hint. 

Did yours have the heel-less bolt-on neck joint?

boogieman

As far as I remember it was a glued in conventional neck joint. Thanks for that info! My cousin had an Eko six string, that was a Ranger I think? Looked a very similar design so it makes sense that they maybe came from the same factory. I’ll see if can dig out a cheesy 70s photo of the two of us playing. 

boogieman

guitarjack66

boogieman said:

New 12 string guitar day. Been hankering for a decent 12 string acoustic for a while and the Guild Chinese built range seemed a good punt for the money. Picked this F1512 up from Peach last week and I’m very pleased with it. Spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides. 

It’s got a nice balance between jangly top end and bass grunt. I struggle playing dreads these days but the jumbo body isn’t too big, “It’s a cannon” as one review said and certainly has lots of volume. The neck is nice and comfy with a decent width nut:  I’ve got a Yamaha APX where the strings are too close together for my sausage sized fingers. 

Fit and finish are really good with nicely finished frets. Allegedly it’s been set up by Peach… if they have touched it then I’m impressed as it played nicely straight out of the box, it was even in the ballpark of tuned correctly. There’s one tiny blemish in the lacquer on the headstock and the tuners are a wee bit stiff at the mo but I’m hoping they’ll ease with time. There’s nothing that really bothers me otherwise. The soft case is pretty nice too. 

I had a Yamaha APX three quarter sized guitar and moved it on due,in part,due to string spacing. I'm scared to buy another Yamaha because of it despite their stellar reputation. I would love a 12 string and yours looks very nice.

boogieman

guitarjack66 said:

boogieman said:

New 12 string guitar day. Been hankering for a decent 12 string acoustic for a while and the Guild Chinese built range seemed a good punt for the money. Picked this F1512 up from Peach last week and I’m very pleased with it. Spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides. 

It’s got a nice balance between jangly top end and bass grunt. I struggle playing dreads these days but the jumbo body isn’t too big, “It’s a cannon” as one review said and certainly has lots of volume. The neck is nice and comfy with a decent width nut:  I’ve got a Yamaha APX where the strings are too close together for my sausage sized fingers. 

Fit and finish are really good with nicely finished frets. Allegedly it’s been set up by Peach… if they have touched it then I’m impressed as it played nicely straight out of the box, it was even in the ballpark of tuned correctly. There’s one tiny blemish in the lacquer on the headstock and the tuners are a wee bit stiff at the mo but I’m hoping they’ll ease with time. There’s nothing that really bothers me otherwise. The soft case is pretty nice too. 

I had a Yamaha APX three quarter sized guitar and moved it on due,in part,due to string spacing. I'm scared to buy another Yamaha because of it despite their stellar reputation. I would love a 12 string and yours looks very nice.

I’d definitely try to play a Yamaha before you buy one. I found the LL finger spacing too tight as well, although it was still a nice guitar otherwise. The LL is definitely a way better guitar than the APX I’ve got but for me the Guild still beat it for playability and sound. The Yammy had a nice bass clout but a touch too much treble to it for my taste, but everyone’s different and that might suit you anyway.