Buying Acoustic Guitar

[pablo1980]

HI everybody,
I am going to purchase an acoustic guitar (I am a film, tv and documentary composer from Argentina).

I have a problem though, I am left handed, and there are not many left handed guitars to choose from here in Argentina.

The only thing I can do is to import something (I know I should try first), and the prices go up exponentially.

I have been offered a Seagull S6 original, so my question is, for the ones that have used one, how is this guitar for studio recording? being a dreadnought, can I expect it to be boomy or will I be able to achieve a balanced tone?

thanks very much

[Todd]

From my experience with Seagull's, they are very nice for the price.

The ones ive played have been less chimey and bright than a Taylor or Martin, and i prefer that in the studio.

Its easier to add sparkle with a nice EQ, than it is to try to cut highs out.
Start cutting highs and it goes downhill from there.
Though mic choice and placement are key, as well as the player, and
the texture and thickness of the pick.

Sorry, im running on and on. I would absolutely grab a Seagull in an NY second. Grab it!
TK

[pablo1980]

Hi Todd, Thanks for the response, since the seagull has got cedar top I assumed it would sound a bit more warm.
In your experience, how about a ribbon mic for this guitar? maybe a r84, or r101?

Thanks again and other seagull users, feel free to chime in!

[drbob1]

I've owned Seagull S6 and S6+ guitars in the past, been great. I haven't recorded them, but I'd guess they'd sound reasonable. With the cedar top I'd likely go for a brighter mic so I'd have more to work with-in my case an Oktave MK012.

[Plugin]

Pablo,

Seagulls are great guitars(they are made near where I live ), but it depends on what you are playing. As a previous poster commented, they are very balanced-sounding. However, I recently bought a Yamaha - even though I wanted to support a local product - because it has a brighter tone that I wanted. Furthermore, the Seagulls' necks are a little thicker, if I'm not mistaken. If you like the tone of the Seagull, you can't go wrong with the quality and crafsmanship. The Normans are in the same category.

[ericdevine]

I can build you one.

[Jimijango]

I rented a Seagull for a guitar camp and the sound man noticed what a great sounding guitar it was. Cedar top with the higher end built in electonics. Not my favorite neck-fret-action-setup but I usually play a guitar that costs five times the price of the Seagull. They are the value champ hands down.

[Mr. Wilson]

Don't laugh but after several tries to try to find a shop with a few Taylor 414ce's to try out, I ran across a Fender (yes Fender) dg200sce at GC that was only $400, and is very close to what I like about Taylors with a little less brightness, but similar Taylor playability neck wise. If you Google them you can find the story. It's a Spruce top Rosewood sides/back piece with some sort of composite neck. The Seagulls and Breedloves that I tried were all pretty dead sounding, of course probly do to too many grimy fingers. The Fender has a nice even sound right away. If you find some, def try to check out more than one. The floor model I bought was better than a freshy right outta the box. They were quite different to more than just me. I may still want to scratch that Taylor itch, but after test recordings with a dozen or so of my mics I found several that bonded well with this piece...my U87ai, an At4047, a tlm127 oh and the tlm102 and even an at2020! Just tests, no tracking in song yet.
So there's some feedback hot off the trail.