Year: 2005
Model: AC250/SM-12
Serial Number: 05110389
Manufactured in Korea
Type: 12-string acoustic electric guitar
Body type: Deep Body Concert with Soft Cutaway
- Solid Sitka Spruce top
- Mahogany
back and sides
- Rosewood
fretboard
- Scale:
25.5"
- Nut width: 2
5/16"
- Electronics:
Fishman Classic 4
Even after listening to Ralph Towner or Leo Kottke, I remained absolutely ignorant of 12-string guitars … until I actually owned and played one. I spent a few days with my own 12-string guitar, and I now realize that this instrument deserves a new respect and approach to bring out its potentials.
By the way, I had great opportunities to sit in the front row to watch and listened to Ralph Towner and Leo Kottke (not together, of course) at UC San Diego back in the late 80's. Awesome concerts. San Diego and La Jolla used to have very nice Jazz clubs and programs. Elario's, Chuck's Steak House, Ichiban's ... Even a Mexican restaurant Diego's had a great jazz night with $1 margaritas. Quality musicians, cheap drinks, no crowds ... Good old days.
Anyways, I played Taylor, Guild, Takamine, Yamaha and Breedlove 12 strings at a few guitar shops to experience and understand the differences. Taylor, Yamaha and Breedlove have Concert or Auditorium body types that I prefer. Among them, Breedlove sounded very nice both plugged and unplugged. To my ear, $800 Korean-made Breedlove AC250/SM-12 felt and sounded as good as, if not better than, $1,800 USA-made Taylor 354CE. Of course, they are not the same guitars. Back and side woods are different, sizes are slightly different, strings are different, pickups are different, amps used for my testing were different. But after all, I decided that it did not make sense for me to spend $1,000 more for a guitar that I can’t appreciate as much as the other. I believe now that Breedlove is an excellent guitar maker. It was a similar experience I had when I bought S. Yairi back in the 70's.
I use fairly heavy strings and tuned in slack open D (C-G-C-E-G-C) or slack DADGAD (C-G-C-F#-G-C). I use Fishman Loudbox Performer acoustic guitar amp, Yamaha MagicStomp Acoustic effect and Digitech Jamman.