Art & Lutherie AMI Spruce

The previous review did a great job of listing the features so I won't repeat. This is a parlor guitar. The finishes are very light so these guitars will get beat up fast but that adds to their 12 frets to the body vintage vibe. I've seen at least 3 finishes: a tabacco vintage sunburst, a vintage transparent red, and transparent blue and black. It's well built and has no more features than you need so I gave it an 8. To get to 10 I'd expect bone nut, ebony fingerboard etc. For the $200 I could give it a 9 but overall 8 sounds right.

I play both electric and acoustic fingerstyle blues and slide. I've been playing for over 30 years. I use a lot of open tunings for slide. This is is a very very good guitar for this style and I like it especialy for slide. It's better to play with your fingers than a pick because the pick can overpower its small body. The tone it produces for the slide is just great. Lots of sweet highs. You can get a very good dark low out of it if you use your thumb on the bass strings as we do in fingerstyle. The spruce sounds a lot different from cedar model so you should try both. The spruce has more complexity and harmonics.

I give this a 6 rating on Action Fit and Finish, and I think I've tried enough of these guitars to have a good understanding of what you're up against. I had to pay 4 different versions of this guitar side by side to find a good one. They all had minor probems. Two had awful colors as well so I passed on those. One had a nice tabacco sunburst (this one was an AMI ceder). I bought it and LOVED it for about a week. I had trouble getting some notes to sound right so I put a tuner on it and found that it's intonation was off in various parts of the neck. Also the frets were very sharp but I knew that when I bought it. The builder did not sand them and you could see the edges were just sticking way out (easily fixed). In any case I was fooled for a whole week because I mostly was grooving out on slide playing so I was compensating for the intonation. I was prepared to fix the sharp frets but not the intonation. I returned this one and decided I'd "upgrade" to the parent company (Seagull) and get their parlor guitar called the Seagull Grand. That one was ceder. I sent away and payed $100 more for the "better model". This one had a great setup. Frets were perfect ec. The trouble was it didn't sound as sweet as the $200 AMI ceder so I was really feeling badly about it. The reading I did on woods told me the ceder was just less complex and harmonic than spruce. Eventually after about six months (the minimum period after which I can buy another guitar without feeling too guilty) I went back and two of the four AMIs were still sitting there in the store. One again was ugly transparent blue in color so I passed (i'm willing to wait for the guitars I want!) The other was a transparent vintage red. This one was an AMI spruce. The neck was perfect and even had a slight v shape. The frets weren't sharp - they were well prepared. It sounded great but it stil had the problem which originally steered me away from it: the first string had a lot of dead spots after the 7th fret where it bottomed out (no sustain - just rattle). I figured this was just because of high frets that were dampening the vibration. Sure enough I took it home and filed then sanded the upper frets where the 1st string was bottoming out. The restuls were AWESOME and the spruce was even better. So my advice to you is this. These guitars are great if you can find one that's been properly set up. In some cases you may be able to do the adustments yourself. The result is that you've got a guitar that's worth well more than $200 in sound. I mean what's would you say the cost is of all the leg work and setup that I went through. Depending on what rate I charge for my time I easily added $400-800 of value to the sound of the average AMI Spruce. In some ways it's unique and priceless. After I was done with quest, I give this guitar a 9+++. But I caution you that it's not what you should expect on average for your $200

Hardware is sturdy. The finish will not last but will acquire "mojo" with more and more use.

There was no neck strap button. You have to be carefull when you install these yourself because of the way seagull necks work. The pin can only go in a certain spot. You need to let an experienced person put it on.

Seagull has been very responsive when I called them about info on installing strap buttons. They are a great company and provide lots of value

I've been playing for 31 years. I own 9 guitars, 6 of which are acoustics. One is a National estralita, another a taylor 314ce. I think this is a GREAT guitar if you can find a good one or fix one t your liking. I love mine and would definitely replace it if lost. I love the parlor size.It's great to sit around in any spot you want and not feel like the guitar can't fit between the arms of the chair or the edge of the coach. The sound is right on for slide. It's great for fingerpicking too. The action is relatively low. The strings are easier to handle because of the size.

Solid Sitka Spruce top, Wild Cherry laminate sides and back, Silver Leaf Maple neck,quarter sawn Sitka Spruce bracing, Rosewood Fretboard.Rosewood Bridge.95% Canadian wood used.

TUSQ nut and compensated saddle. Nice inlaid rosette around soundhole.Plain cream Binding around body.No pickguard. Great looking guitar.

No-name, good quality high-ratio Tuners.Nice medium frets.
Truss rod.Chrome endpin. Stamped serial number on back of headstock.
Satin real Lacquer 'Antique Burst(dark red)' (cellulose?)finish.

Parlor size. Body/neck join at 12th Fret. Slightly broad neck.Looks like a proper dovetail neck joint but actually has a bolt of some sort in there also. Handmade in Canada.
Comes with very nice lightly Padded basic beige nylon Gigbag.

Purchased new in Australia (not easy to source), February 2007, for the equivalent of approx $360 USD including a cheap but OK Chinese plastic molded Hardcase sweetening the deal.

My style for this Baby is basic folk/blues/rock/soul with plectrum.
This is one loud Cannon of a little guitar! Very dynamic and responsive.
Very good clear tone, a little 'boxier' than a quality Dreadnaught, but very balanced and full for the size of it.
Great for fingerpicking and Blues. Slightly broad fretboard, with a slightly flat neck profile. Easy to play, good for big hands/fingers. I like it a lot.
Oh, it has plenty of mids too, and bass is there!

No flaws at all, well finished. For a handmade guitar it does seem a little 'uncrafted'- a Martin or old Maton it aint, but for the dollar, so what!!
Factory set-up definitely playable, pretty bad strings fitted.
Needed a slight truss rod adjustment, fitted GHS Acoustic Boomers-not good strings (came with only five!@#$%in the packet, broke another one on fitting!). Fitted now with Dean Markley Light 12-52 American Flyers. Much much better.

No doubt will withstand gigging.
Good quality hardware.
Finish is light, and no pickguard, so I expect some nicks and play wear will develop quickly, hey-that will just add to the 'vibe'!. Heck, at the price, if it really annoys me I'll throw the damn thing away!!
N.B DO NOT try to put a strap pin at the heel of the neck, as the young fool in the store insisted on attempting, despite my cautions; yep he hit the internal bolt and scared my new axe before I even left the store! Put it off-centre, into the meat of the heel up near towards the fretboard............The guitar is just 'settling in' currently, and getting better every day! I'll get a good set-up after 7 months, and she'll be SWEEEEEEET !!!

Ain't gone there yet, but I have the National rep's cell number, and he called me direct when he delivered it to the the Store- so that is a good sign I guess! 12 month warranty I believe.....

Been playing about 32 years, pro and recording for around 14 of those. Owned and/or used and recorded with many different guitars, basses and amps over the years. Mainly Fenders and Gibson elecs, Fender basses, and Martin, Maton and Gibson acoustics. Fender and Marshall tube amps. Haven't been playing at all for the past 10 years, but still own a nice '68 Tele in Lake Placid Blue (aged to green)w/Rosewood board, '72 Precision w/Rosewood board, '70's Pearl Les Paul junior knockoff, early '60s Jansen Jazzmaster, and a lovely 1982 Maton CW80 Dreadnaught. Oh yeah, 1962 Cream Tolex Fender Bassman 50 top and 2x 12" Cab (sweet!) and a Behringer (whoops) BX450 bass top and Peavey 410TX cab for bass. And a vintage Sound Workshop (Neve, API-ish) 'Series 20' 12 Channel/8 Bus recording console for front-end, and a PC Hardisc rig etc etc..

I wanted a small travel-type guitar to gig with. Did a bit of research and discovered AMIs...

I put this up against a lot of guitars before buying, I could have bought a quite nice Asian-made Dread for the same moolah or less, but size was a big consideration, so.......

AMI vs a few small Ibanez's, no contest, AMI wins.
AMI vs cheap EPI's,no contest, AMI wins.
AMI vs Yamaha travel size, no contest, AMI wins.
AMI vs Martin Backpacker, no contest, AMI wins.
AMI vs Washburn Rover,no contest, AMI wins.
AMI vs Washburn 3/4 size mini-Dread costing 3&1/2 times AMI,no contest, AMI wins.
AMI vs Martin 00 & 000, Martins win, but cost 6 x as much, so, errr, AMI wins.
AMI vs Jean Larrivee handmade Parlor, very close fight, very similar in tone and balance, you can tell the Larrivee is all solid woods, with more age to it,slightly purer sound and better note definition, but also costs more than 4 x AMI, so AMI wins.
AMI vs JD Luthier 'Chinese-made' Parlor style, all solid woods-this was a surprise, the chinee guitar was same price with an average pickup and internal preamp included, but a very good sound, remarkably like a full size Dread, but with a cheap synthetic supergloss finish, and issues with the boards and frets-I tried two identicals, both slightly diff necks, both with same good sound.Plus it had an elongated Headstock, which didn't help the body balance any, and made it a couple of inches longer(BAD) than AMI. AMI wins again.

Fitted a K&K Sound Systems Twin Spot Internal pickup, which sounds fantastic (w/no preamp, real players can use Channel EQ if req!!), pain in the butt to install though, and I'm nearly ready for her public Debut in Melbourne, Australia !!

I reckon these little beasts CAN NOT BE BEATEN for the dollars. Plus these are not made by slave labor, and the company cares about the environment! I'd like to try a Cedar top some time.

I will be thrashing the heck out of AMI at the Blue Moon Bar and others on Koh Lanta (tropical Island paradise) in the Andaman Sea, Krabi Province, Southern Thailand during November December 2007. Can't wait !!!