Seagull Original S6: Any Opinions?

[WackyT]

Been looking at this gee-tar lately. :whatever:

And am looking for some Fretter opinions who've played the S6. Reviews I've read on other websites have been good to excellent.

I can get her for $350 shipped with Live.com's current 30% off through eBay and PayPal on Buy It Now items. And I'm getting paid Friday! :R

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I liked the quality of the Seagulls I played at our local store. A professional musician I knew made money with his cedar top Seagull and his looper, and he loved that guitar. Don't know anything about this one in particular, or what sound it has or what you are after, but I think a Seagull is a good value. I just did not find the rosewood back and side, spruce top type sound I was looking for. They were nice to play though.

 

[Tim]

I have the earlier modle of the S6. They did experience early production problems matching the fretboard to the body. Mine was one of them.

My advice is to play the guitar before buying. Make sure the fretborad is straight and the frets are all even down the board. Mine has a dip at fret number 14 due the problem stated above. Open chords play well. Barre chords up the neck begin to buzz the further up I go.

I had it looked at one time. The repair tech could not fix the problem.

Hope this helps.

 

[tjcurtin1]

I have a close cousin of the S6 - an Art & Lutherie cedar top. Even after getting my Tacoma rosewood, I still appreciate the sound and feel of this guitar. It has opened up over time and sounds very nice. I also had for a short time one of the Seagull Artist model - it was a beautifully made and sounding guitar, just not the sound I was looking for.

 

[Kazz]

I have played a couple of these and absolutely loved the Cedar Topped version....very warm and just a real treat to play

 

[Tynee]

I have a close cousin of the S6 - an Art & Lutherie cedar top. Even after getting my Tacoma rosewood, I still appreciate the sound and feel of this guitar. It has opened up over time and sounds very nice. I also had for a short time one of the Seagull Artist model - it was a beautifully made and sounding guitar, just not the sound I was looking for.

I own the same guitar, the A&L Cedar, and LOVE it. Before I bought it, I played close to 50 different guitars from Washburn, Seagull, A&L, Martin, Taylor, and Epiphone. When I settled on the one I liked the best because of it's tone and ease of play for a guy with ginormous hands and fat fingers, imagine my delight to find that it was also the most reasonably priced guitar I had tried, other than the Epiphone I alomst bought instead.

 

[Duff]

I have a twentieth or something aniversary edition with a spruce solid top and cherry sides and back covered with beautiful flammed maple sides and back, supposed to add to the sound.

I love this acoustic guitar. I bought a soundhole Dean Markley piano black humbucker pup for it and a Crate Gunnison acoustic amp at a great price, way better sounding to me than the Marshall AS50.

The Seagull I got about a year ago for 265 at a local store, brand new. They were moving stock. What a deal! Normally sold for like you said, over 350.

I like Seagulls a lot, but I WANT a Fender Sonora with the strat neck and headstock in sea foam green bad. Maybe Christmass. 299. Acoustic electric. Sounds almost as good as the Fender Kingman which also has the strat neck set up but a larger body and super nice sound. 500. I'd like to save up for that.

Duffy

 

[R.B. Huckleberry]

My acoustic quest came down to the original S6, or a Martin D-15. Although still pricier than the Seagull, the store sold me the Martin at cost. But I'll have an S6 someday (yes, they are that good IMO).

 

[evenkeel]

Congrats on the D-15. :beer: :bravo:

I'm curious, did you do a side by side comparision of the spruce top Seagull vs. the all mahogany Martin? I've played both and like both, but (at least to me) a very different sound.

Pics, of course, would be nice!!

 

[R.B. Huckleberry]

Congrats on the D-15. :beer: :bravo:

I'm curious, did you do a side by side comparision of the spruce top Seagull vs. the all mahogany Martin? I've played both and like both, but (at least to me) a very different sound.

Pics, of course, would be nice!!

They were at 2 different stores, so a side by side wasn't possible. The D-15 had a very warm tone that to me seemed different that the "typical" Dreadnaught sound. There was more bloom to the notes. The Seagull had a little more "sizzle". Not a "plinky" top end to be sure, but there was a laid back quality to the Martin that I liked.

It was a matter of them being anywhere close in sound. I liked both. They made a solid, indisputable arguement for owning more than one acoustic guitar. These are the 2 models I'd play to convince a wife or girlfriend that there are differences and of course I need another guitar.

I just had to flip a mental coin. That day the Martin won.

 

[Duff]

Pictures of my 20th aniv S-6

Great guitar. Flammed maple body over cherry for a mahogany body type sound with a beautiful look, mahogany slim neck.

Super beautiful playing guitar.

Hope you like the pictures. Got it for 265 new at a local shop. New old stock. Made in '04 I think. But perfect condition new.

Duffy

PS Woops, how'd that SG get in there?

 

[evenkeel]

Hey Moe!! Nuk, nuk nuk!!

Huckleberry, I think you captured the differences perfectly.. in other words I agree.

Duff,
Great pics. Love the flamed maple. SG looks pretty cool too. But what are all those knobs for??? :thwap:

 

[Duff]

Knobs on SG

They are devoted to tweaking the individual volume and tone of each pup separately to give you a wider range of tones when in the middle switch position. They work great, as you know, I'm sure.

It's an Epi SG copy of a '66 Gibson Std with the full pickguard instead of the teardrop. I love the feel, tone, and playability of this guitar stock. Really nice pups for some reason. When I bought it new I compared it to about five other Epi SGs and a Gibson I think and it sounded by FAR the best of the bunch, can't remember about the Gibson though but I think it was a low end one. The tonal quality of the '66 SG copy posted was way cooler, crystal clear highs like a strat, and rumbling low end like a LP. All mahogany with a mahogany set neck. One nice guitar.

Yeah. The flammed maple over the cherry on the body of the 20th aniv. S6 looks really good. I tried to take some pictures that do it justice. It has a solid spruce top. I like the picture where my Lab, Nigella, is looking at the Seagull so intelligently.

Got her a new companion today, a purebred Newfoundland puppy complete with needle sharp puppy teeth. My lab is ready to explode with the puppies from my late Newfoundland that was a previously owned stud of six years I got free. Little did I know he was an accomplished excape artist and even went thru my cow style electric fence without hesitation during heavy traffic on my country road to his demise. The poor boy was killed instantly in a head on. He weighed more than me.

I can't believe I was able to get another Newfoundland. They are very very expensive but some horse ranchers around here knew of my loss and were compassionate and one of them had a puppy and sold it to my for 450 and the mother is a show dog. I'm a lucky guy. Wasn't that a John Lennon song? I really feel lucky and when things get tough you never know who your friends are. I didn't even know, these people that arranged for me to get this puppy. There are some really great people in the world. It has been inspiring. I need to do some repaying somehow.

Peace,
Duffy