Aspen A-D2912-O

I bought this 1976 Aspen 12 string guitar on e-bay for $250 and justified my spending by telling myself these great guitars are getting harder to come by. It's a slightly nicer lawsuit copy of a Martin 12 string made in Japan.
and yes, it's a D2912, not a D2812. The guitar is the standard 20 frets non-bound neck. The top is solid aged spruce and the sides and split back are highly polished rosewood. The finish is beautiful even after 32 years! The fretboard is rosewood and the bridge is ebony. The Aspen logo is mother-of-pearl inlay and the aspen leaf is also M.O.P. The keys look a lot like Schallers to me and are original. The serial # is 59780013.

This guitar was made by the best Japanese craftsmen of the time and it shows! The guitar is very light compared with other 12 strings or even 6 strings I have owned. The sound is full and still fairly deep
for a guitar that's mellowed over the years. After taking it to my local guitar shop here in Virginia to set it up and put new light gauge Martin silk and steels on it, it is a pleasure to play. I play folk and country on it and it sounds as good as my buddy's D-18.

Actually, the guitar shop I took it to didn't have to do much adjusting to make it great. It only took a slight tweek in the neck and it was good to go. The guitar must have come from the factory very nicely set up. Like I said before, the finish is beautiful and whoever had it before me must not have played it much because there are very few scratches on it and NO dings! Can you imagine a 32 year old guitar with NO dings!

Although I've only had it a short while, this guitar is solidly built
and, I'm sure would hold up to playing out. I used to play out but I've gotten to the age where I'd rather just play at my friends' houses or at a party every now and then. It's always nice to have, both a 6 string and a 12 string when playing out live anyway!

This company, from the sparce info I have read was called the International Music Corporation [IMC] and their guitars were built in different plants in Nagoya, Japan. After 1979, Samick International acquired the firm and moved operations to Korea [too bad]! No customer support.

I've been playing guitar [mostly acoustic] for 35 years and have found a bargain guitar here and there, but for the money and quality, the Aspen guitar is far and away the best deal in a vintage acoustic I've ever played!