The Seagull Coastline S12: A Guitar Player’s Review

When it comes to acoustic guitars, there are many grades of quality and a broad range of prices. Once in a while, a guitar priced at a mid-range grade delivers truly superior performance. The Seagull S12, a solid cedar topped and wild cherry bodied 12 string acoustic dreadnought, is one such wonderful find.

Grades of Guitars: Some Background Information

There are essentially five distinct quality levels and price ranges when it comes to acoustic guitars. These range from the 1) Inexpensive/cheap. These guitars are poorly made, fashioned of unreliable materials and difficult to play with prices ranging from $50. To $150., 2) Moderate-cost but adequate. The materials used are often laminates but sound OK to the average player and listener. The workmanship is basic and the instruments are, generally, adequate for a beginner on a budget with prices from $150. - $350., 3) Mid-range. These guitars offer greater playability, richer tones and better materials at $350. - $700., 4) Mainstream high-end. Built for experienced amateurs and adequate professional play; Popular models of well-known major manufacturers priced at $700. - $3,000., and 5) Premium hand-made top quality instruments generally made by smaller companies to order and by private boutique luthiers. There is no upper limit to the cost of some of these guitars.

The Seagull S12 in Context

The generally accepted rule of thumb when buying a guitar is simply to buy the best guitar you can afford at the time. Conventional wisdom reinforces the ideas that because you get what you pay for, the most expensive instrument is probably the best. The Seagull Coastline S12 12-string acoustic guitar from Canada's Godin Guitar Company is a welcome reminder that when it comes to such categorical statements, "it ain't necessarily so."

Pricewise, the Seagull S12 fits into the Mid-range (#3) category but has an appearance, feel and sound more apt to be identified with instruments costing 3-10 times more. It is really quite remarkable and well worth considering for anyone considering the purchase of a 12-string acoustic guitar.

Appearance and Construction

The Seagull S12 is unadorned but sweet and earthy in appearance. The light tones of the solid cedar to and darker warmth of the wild cherry back and sides give off a nice, honest, natural presentation. The wild cherry is not solid wood as it might be in a more expensive instrument. However, experienced players often prefer these tightly made laminates as they hold up much better than solid woods in changing temperatures and varying humidity.

The semi-gloss lacquer is gentle and subtle. It is thin enough to not impair the natural resonance of the S12 but heavy enough to protect the surfaces from small 'incidents.' The classic Seagull headstock is angled and, while ornamental on other Seagull models, serves a functional purpose by making the 12 strings much easier to tune.

The neck is of mahogany and, although the body is of a standard dreadnought shape and size, it is wider than a standard 6 string dreadnought and measures a wide 1.9" at the nut. This wider spacing makes fingering the 12 strings easier but may be a bit too wide for those with very small fingers.

The fingerboard and bridge are rosewood and the compensated bridge and not are of the well-regarded manmade ivory substitute, Tusq. There are MOP (Mother of Pearl) dot inlays along the fingerboard, the edge binding is white and the rosette is a tasteful herringbone design.

All-in-all, the appearance is straight-forward, functional and genuinely appealing. The construction is a lovely surprise for a 12 string guitar at this price point.

Popular X-bracing has been used to frame and support the guitar internally. I found no flaw in the finish nor glue spots on the assembly. It arrived ready-to-play after some minor tuning out of the box.

The Coastline Cedar series of which the S12 is a member also includes standard dreadnought guitars and small, parlor guitars like the Coastline Cedar Grand. The same value and workmanship is present in each and every model in this line.

Playability and Sound

Beyond the construction and appearance of the Seagull S12, there is the real bottom line for any guitar; How it plays and how it sounds.

Custom set up at the factory ships each S12 with a nice, easy to play, low action. The action is particularly tricky to set on a 12-string guitar. Ideally, the strings are set low enough to the fingerboard and frets to allow for easy fretting and fingering but not so low as to create the dreaded guitar phenomenon of "buzz." Seagull has gotten it just right here. Because the model includes a double-direction truss rod installed within the neck, adjustments can be easily made should a player want things set differently than they come. Mine required no further adjustments.

The sound is wonderfully full and rich. Many 12-string guitars are Jumbo sized to provide deeper resonance and what players refer to as 'sustain' - the quality of the sound that hangs in the air for a while after the string is struck or picked. This Seagull S12 has a noticeably rich warmth of sound that parallels that of its appearance. It is loud but not too loud. It does not have the tinny jingle-jangle of cheap guitars and holds its own very nicely in the company of more expensive instruments.

While it does not have the tremendously full-bodied qualities of a Taylor 355, when we remember that it costs less than 1/3 of the price of that Taylor, the difference in sound seems quite negligible.

For those interested in a reliable, lovely, well engineered and imminently playable 12 string acoustic guitar that will not break the bank, I strongly suggest taking a look, feel and play of the Seagull Coastline S12.