I have a deceased friend's jumbo Gulid 12'er, made in the mid 90's. It's a truly amazing acoustic instrument, but sadly developed a top bulge under the bridge saddle that is , I've found, common to 12 strings. This made the action unplayably high. There are a few ways to fix this , and I did drop a few bennies to a good luthier to at least get it playable in lower positions. The last few years, I keep it tuned down a full step as well. In a GC today, they had a 1975 dreadnought Guild 12'er. So I spent a little time strumming on that. Had it been a '74, I might have put a deposit on it. '74 is my birth year. Year of the Tiger : ) GC wants $800 for that guitar, and I'm not in the market. And I need to fix my friend's, which honestly has a better sound. While the '75 completely blew away to new Takamine they had hanging there, it can't touch the jumbo in terms of low end. Not much else to say here right now. I just really dig 12-strings, and this was a good reminder to get back into the mission of fixing Robbie's guitar.
I still have my '74 or '75 model (can't remember for sure) G312. I have kept it tuned down a full step (D standard) and used a capo on the second fret almost from day one. No bulge and still plays and sounds great. This was my main guitar for most of my life until about 16 years ago when I got back into bass. At one time I had well over 200 songs that I knew on it plus about 30 originals. I could probably still get through about 60 or 70 of those songs (a lot of John Prine , Dylan , and some Leo Kottke plus a bunch of others) and probably still remember about 20 of the originals. The rest are written down in a notebook in a file cabinet in the basement. It still gets pulled out a few times a year and always goes on vacation to Ocean City Md. with me. A couple of hours on the boardwalk there always nets us drinking money for the night. Since I don't play it much , the callouses are mostly gone and marathon sessions with it are a thing of the past. I wouldn't sell it for the world.
That’s a nice guitar. Light strings and tuning down always helps. Have you looked at a bridge doctor? Supposed to work pretty well but I haven’t tried one personally. I have a cheap 12 string that I got practically free just to experiment on but I have not gotten to putting it in yet. JLD Bridge Doctor | stewmac.com
My partner's ex was a luthier at Guild and may have been the one to set the neck on your friend's guitar. If you ever pull the neck off and find a "JT" and a year written at the heel of the neck, then that's the case. There is a guitar shop called Frets in Westerly, Rhode Island (where Guild was located) owned by Zack Dennis who is a talented luthier with an expertise in Guilds (he knew most of the people at the factory). Real nice guy, and I'm betting that he could give you some good advice, or competently do the work for you.
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