1978 Guild F512 Jumbo 12-String Guitar

Rosewood-backed Guild 12-strings are my favorite Guild 12-strings, though the F112 (smaller body) body size is still my favorite shape playing-wise. The rosewood smooths-out the long-scale extra-jangle of the Guild 12-string sound and seems to clean-up the extra overtones I always hear from them when they're in maple or mahogany.

A local friend brought this big old 12-string in for service. It'd apparently had a neck reset done a while back but the action was creeping-up and so it needed a little love. It got that in the form of a mild fret level/dress (to deal with uneven fret height), some more aggressive string-ramping at the bridge, full compensation and adjustment to the saddle, a cleat to some sort-of repaired cracks on the top, and a good setup with a custom set of strings in gauges: 22w/46w, 17/36w, 11/26w, 8/18w, 14/14, 10/10. This is every-so-slightly lighter than a normal 12-string "10s" set and reduces tension mostly on the octave strings for a much more comfortable feel. Action is 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret.

Specs are: 25 1/2" scale, 1 7/8" nut width, 1 5/8" string spacing at the nut, 2 7/16" spacing at the bridge, 17" lower bout, 12 1/2" upper bout, and 5" side depth at the endblock. The neck has a ~14" radius to the board and a mild-to-medium, D-shaped rear profile.

Dual truss-rods hide under that cover. They're very useful in this configuration -- one can eliminate random seasonal twist to necks via adjusting one more or less than the other -- and of course, upbow/backbow, too.

I love the pinkish form of the abalone used for the triangular inlay in some of these positions.

Hubba-hubba!

The individual sealed tuners are a bit heavy but they're a lot better than the factory-original tuners.