12 String Guitar Advice

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

...About 30 min… crack. The bridge came up! ...

Oh, no!!!

What a shame!

Still, I hope you will love your new Martin HD-28-12. That will be a very nice guitar.

You poor guy! Wow!

- Glenn

[martingitdave]

Well, I’m lucky in love. [emoji7] Got a great wife. As to other matters, I’d like to believe my karma is good. I’ve tried hard. Or, at least, the universe should be even now. [emoji23]

[martingitdave]

Final Update: Part Deux

The Martin 12 string never shipped. There was an inventory problem and it was sold twice. Martin is currently out of stock of this model. More will come, eventually. However, I needed to be up North for other reasons. So, I made a quick stop over to my name sake shop in Milwaukee. I am fond of this location of Dave's. The staff are friendly. They had several 12 strings in stock from different brands.

Both new Martin models, the Gibson J45-12, Taylor's newer models, and a Larrivee L09-12, which I had been looking to try. My favorite was the Larrivee. After a little discussion, they set it up for me and filed the nut slots nicely, added a strap button and K&K. Job done. This guitar sounds really good. It rumbles and chimes and is perfectly comfortable. I really like it. It's new (B-stock). I found a very small pin head ding on the back. I think most shops would have sold it as new. The discount confirmed that it was meant to be.

Per suggestion, I ordered a Taylor bone wave compensated 12 string saddle. They are nice because Taylor keeps the tops of the string pairs level. That's a nice feature for finger picking. Taylor and Larrivee have similar saddle sizes, and identical heights from the factory. So, little work will be required on my part. I ordered some StringJoy Foxwood strings last week. They arrived today. They also sound really good. The 10's come with a 50 on the bottom and they are coated. It's like a custom set just for Dave!

Thanks again!

[Glennwillow]

Whoa! Nice Larrivee 12-string! Awesome!

- Glenn

[Rockysdad]

It's terrible that you had to go through all that.

Congrats on the Larrivée, enjoy it forever.

Kinda jealous as I've been wanting to get an L bodied 12 string Larrivée in Rosewood.

I've got several L bodies in different wood flavors. I think it's a perfect body size.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Whoa! Nice Larrivee 12-string! Awesome!

- Glenn

Thank you! Feeling blessed today. Got a great guitar and got some encouraging indications yesterday that my most recent rounds of treatment are working.

As to the 12 string, it has a lot of the “wall of sound” of the Guild with a bit less volume. Very nice neck for my hands. Overall, the right solution for me. The path was circuitous, but it arrived.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Rockysdad

It's terrible that you had to go through all that.

Congrats on the Larrivée, enjoy it forever.

Kinda jealous as I've been wanting to get an L bodied 12 string Larrivée in Rosewood.

I've got several L bodies in different wood flavors. I think it's a perfect body size.

I am really fond of this body shape. If I needed more acoustic guitars (I do not), I could see having a few flavors of the L body. Very versatile without being wimpy or boisterous. Similar to my Martin M body in that regard.

[rmoretti49]

Hey Dave,

Congratulations on the beautiful Larrivee! I love the shape and overall look of it. If I had ever encountered one like it, I'd probably own it. Enjoy, enjoy!

[Tony Burns]

The Yammies and the Guilds ( from china ) are my two suggestions-
Not a big Martin 12 string fan -
I recently bought a guild F1512 ( their own knock off of the F512 ) is what i choose , but as you mentioned you sold your F512
- the smaller version of the dread maybe your solution,

Something to consider -Ive always liked the Larrivee 12 strings , passed up a chance at one 3-4 years ago -should of bought it
- their durable and have a decent sound and not all that pricey - as with all guitars im a big believer in play before you pay
- not crazy about believing i can return a guitar ( thats not a nice thing to do to one of our sponsors )

their is an old saying ( thou ive played some super Guilds )- " If you want a six string buy a Martin , if you want a 12 string buy a Guild "


.

[LawrenceMollard]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Per suggestion, I ordered a Taylor bone wave compensated 12 string saddle. They are nice because Taylor keeps the tops of the string pairs level. That's a nice feature for finger picking. Taylor and Larrivee have similar saddle sizes, and identical heights from the factory. So, little work will be required on my part.

I have a Larrivee and a Taylor 12 string, and I thought about putting the same saddle I used on my Taylor on the Larrivee but ended up going in a different direction.

Is this the one you used?

https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylor...ddle-12-string

Are the radii different with the Larrivee and Taylor? I thought they were.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by LawrenceMollard

I have a Larrivee and a Taylor 12 string, and I thought about putting the same saddle I used on my Taylor on the Larrivee but ended up going in a different direction.

Is this the one you used?

https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylor...ddle-12-string

Are the radii different with the Larrivee and Taylor? I thought they were.

Yes this is the one. There might be a 1 foot radius difference (16’ for Larrivee and 15’ for Taylor). Not enough to worry about in my opinion.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Thank you! Feeling blessed today. Got a great guitar and got some encouraging indications yesterday that my most recent rounds of treatment are working. ...

That is great news. Good for you. Hang in there.

- Glenn

[martingitdave]

Reporting good news. I played out a few times this weekend. I did two hours tonight alternating between 6 and 12 string. Not only did the new Larrivee 12 string and Martin 6 string hold up great, so did my hands! It’s been a few years since I could do that. The 12 string didn’t even require retuning. Pretty darn cool. I like the Stringjoy Foxwoods on the 12 string. Loud and stable. When I run out of elixirs sometime this year, I think I’ll switch over to the 6 string balanced medium set. I’ve landed on some great sounding instruments with great necks. Hope you all made great music this weekend.