1997 Seagull S6 SW Dreadnought Cutaway Guitar

Back when I first started playing guitar I lusted after many a Seagull in the music shops. I thought, for the money, they were "just the thing." Unfortunately, I always stray to vintage gear and now that I've been playing long enough I sort of "know what I want" and as such have abandoned guitars like this which do exactly what they're supposed to do: supply lots of thick bottom end with scooped mids and highs. It's the perfect sound for a heavy-handed backing player. The S6 is a popular model and I remember seeing them all over college dormrooms mixed in with a healthy dose of falling-apart Epiphone and Alvarez dreads.

Anyhow, this one shows tons of love bites and has been played faithfully since it was first purchased. I did a bit of work on it for a customer including a fret level/dress, tightening-up of the bolt-on neck, and a bit of bridge mod to get it to play "spot on." I find that a lot of Seagulls tend to get "compression" fatigue over time. This may be due to peoples' predilection towards heavier (bluegrass gauge) sets of 12s on dreadnoughts or just the nature of guitars in the cost-range of "roughing about" but for whatever reason the neck wants to pull into the body over time.

The Guitar Dater gives us way too much info: "The guitar was manufactured Wednesday, February 19, 1997. It was guitar number 549 made that week."

The smallish, snakehead-style headstock seems like a plus to me. I always feel like... the bigger my headstock is... the more likely I'll whack it on the wall.

The radiused rosewood board has micro dots on its face and the neck profile is a flatter, modern sort of profile. This, personally, kills my hands (I like to be able to press my thumb against the back easily to get leverage sometimes) but it's a very popular cut.

The owner pulled off the pickguard (or never put it on) a long time ago and as a result the top is almost worn through!

I'm pretty sure the mahogany back and sides are laminate but the top is solid.

Pickup sighting...