The Breedlove 12-String

Been collecting and playing guitars, both acoustic and electric for over 30 years. Here is one of my favorite guitar stories, how I finally located a playable acoustic 12-string guitar.

I have spent the last 20 years or so, searching dusty guitar shops, pawnshops, Guitar Center and other places. My goal was to find a 12-string guitar, with a decent neck radius, and low enough action so that the guitar could be played effortlessly.

While my hands are not small, high string action promotes fatigue while playing, and prevents the artistic emotion from being conveyed. Especially if your hand cramps up from excessive pressure being applied to the neck just to accurately fret the strings for a clear sound to be heard.

And now I present to you,the Breedlove Model AC-250 / SM-12, 12-string acoustic/electric guitar, Serial number: 05104038.

I was browsing the wall at the Guitar Center near my home one day, (in the USA), and saw this guy walking around with a 12-string guitar, wailing away like he knew what he was doing. I followed him around for about 45 minutes, until he spoke to the saleperson, hung up the guitar on the wall and left the store.

I asked the salesperson about the guitar, he said that it was one of the best necks he had ever seen on a 12-string acoustic guitar. 12-string acoustic guitars have a special requirement. The internal bracing, the configuration of lengths of wood glued to the inside of the body of the guitar, providing structural rigidity, along with appropriate acoustic properties is critical to the guitar's reliability, tuning and tone when played.

I picked up this guitar, and my hand had never felt this comfortable holding a 12-string before. When I played it, it was an incredible feeling of joy, as the string action was perfect. The tone was immense, and I noticed that it had an electronic Fishman system integrated into the design. Featuring a concealed, bridge-mounted pickup, the controls are conveniently mounted on a panel on the top bout of the guitar, within easy reach while playing.

It did not take me long to discover that this was the guitar I had been seeking for many years. I asked the salesman the price, and it came up on his computer as over $1,000.00. My heart sank, I could not afford this guitar that I now knew I had to buy!

But then he said, it's the last one of this model year, (2007) in the store, and the manager just lowered the price to $500.00! Now I could afford that much, so I bought the guitar, and have been playing it nearly every day since then.

The Fishman pickup system is embedded into the bridge, capturing every string perfectly! The sound is balanced, has authority, and records completely pure and clean into my PC. I use a Boss Drum Composer interface, with an SPDIF, digital audio output connector, which connects directly to my computer through a SPDIF-input, on the Sound Blaster Live Platinum sound card. The recordings sound terrific!

You will be able to hear a short clip of this guitar soon on the PodBean website where my guitar clip recordings / podcast recordings are hosted: http://nachase.podbean.com.

I have really been enjoying this guitar, and will let Kim Breedlove know about this Guitar HubPage, and how very much I am enjoying this guitar. Breedlove has satisfied a a 20 year long mission to find the ideal 12-string guitar for my needs.

You can visit the AC-250/SM-12 guitar www.breedloveguitars.com webpage here:

http://www.breedloveguitars.com/instruments/guitars/atlas/ac250_sm12/index.php

Respectfully, Nicholas