1970s Epiphone FT-160 12-String Dreadnought Guitar

This is a local customer's guitar and I'm sharing because -- despite its many flaws -- it's still a fun old box. I see two or three bolt-on-neck, early-'70s Japanese Epiphones in a year (well, not the same model, but the same design style) and a surprising number of them have been used for decades by the same player. This one was a yard sale find for its current owner, though.

It was built a little too light in the top (which was failing, apparently) so the owner installed some "extra bracing" inside:

I also installed a K&K Twin Spot pickup for him and you can see my preferred mounting position for two-sensor K&Ks in this pic, too.

The bridge saddle was also placed incorrectly so I modified the original metal adjustable saddle-holder into the saddle itself by removing the front wall of it and using the rear wall of it to make a "saddle" from. That plus some string-ramp slots improved the tone and intonation a lot:

In the end, it is what it is -- an all-ply guitar with a midsy, bouncy sound. I'm assuming that without the mahogany reinforcement blocks under the bridge the bass would be better, but removing them and dealing with whatever top fatigue would then happen was a "not my problem" affair.

The neck is comfortable, though, twist/warp-free, and features a shorter Gibson-style 24 3/4" scale length. I'd almost be tempted to hunt for one off of a junked body to make an electric 12-string with...