Simon & Patrick SP12

Solid Cedar top, Wild Cherry Laminated back and sides. Natural finish. No case supplied.

A rich, beautiful tone. Cedar is traditionaly not as bright as spruce but this guitar really 'sings' I had tried various 12 strings and found they had quite a thin, trebley sound. The Simon and Patrick has real soul. I don't tend to use a plectrum when picking or strumming but this guitar really projects its sound well.
No fret buzz that I have noticed and the guitar holds its tuning wonderfully.

This guitar is a handsome beast!. Despite yearning after Abalone rich inlay, the simplicity of the S+P is part of its charm. There is a simple sound hole rosette and a standard tortoise shell pick guard.
The Cedar top is a lovely caramel colour and the Wild Cherry back and sides are a a rich red colour, the grain on the back is especially nice. Solid feeling smooth mahogany neck, not as wide as a Seagull (made by the same company Godin) but plenty of room for fingerpicking.
The finish is 'natural' or matte which is said to aid the resonance of tone. I dare say this is the case but I would choose matte over high gloss anyway, it has a more 'handmade' look.
The guitar's construction is of the highest quality, no scrapes or snags, not a hint of a glue mark or a rough fret. The shop I bought mine from had 2 SP12's on display. One was the newer 2004 design with the updated headstock logo and the other was the original design. I am glad I tried out both because they were both quite different. I found the newer model had some glue marks around the bridge and the action was higher, also to my ears the sound wasn't as 'sweet'. These guitars are handmade so I suppose it stands to reason that they might differ between bodies. I chose the older model as it was flawless.

Time will tell but as the guitar is for home use only I can't see why it wouldn't last well. My 6 string is a dirt cheap Fender DG-3 which refuses to stay in tune so having the S+P which never goues out is a real treat.
The 'natural' finish will inevitably wear quicker than a high gloss but if I wanted it to stay in pristine condition I'd have left it in the shop! I bought a case for it to keep it as unmarked as I can but the more I play it the more the wood will 'age' and the sweeter the sound will become.

no need as yet but the S+P's website is full of useful info....

I have been playing for about 15 years now so I felt it was high time I bough a 'proper' guitar and had always fancied a 12 string.
If it got stolen i'd buy another one without question, the sound it delivers is quite amazing. I am considering upgrading my 6 string to one that will stay in tune so if the S+P6 has a similar tone then I guess i'll have a matching pair!

Satin finish, cedar top dreadnaught, left handed, purchased 1992 or 1993. Very nice sounding guitar. Lucky me that the only lefty 12 string they had in stock turned out to be such a nice instrument and sensibly priced.

Case was not included. The store gave me a good deal on one, though.

Has sounded great since I got it. Rich and full. It has been subjected to some abuse over the years, and has suffered some bumps and bruises but still sounds great.

For strings I use 10s, or sometimes even 9s, nickel and steel, and usually keep it tuned down to D. I like the way it rings. It plays fine in standard tuning though.

I lost the original saddle a few years ago. I scavenged a replacement but it was not as good. Less sustain, and maybe it's my imagination but it also seems harder to tune now. I have been meaning to get a new one custom-made from tusq.

One of the tuning pegs is a little looser than the others. This has not been a major problem. For all I know, I may have hit it against something.

It didn't need any adjustments at the shop; it was well set up from the manufacturer. The action is a little higher than I like; someone mentioned that's by design. Anyway I didn't mess with it.

Since I use light strings and keep them tuned down, the neck has withstood well. It is probably due for a minor adjustment, though.

I have bumped this into doors, etc. The satin finish has stood up very well. The only places where the finish is marred is where there is a physical dent where I bumped into a door or something. (But it didn't break, and to my ear it still sounds as good as before that accident.)

I'd definitely bring spare strings to a gig, especially for that high G, but I would trust the rest of it to hold up well.

I have never dealt with them directly.

I've been playing since 1990 but am a casual player. This is my only acoustic guitar, and I play it a lot more than my electric. If I lost it, I would order another of exactly the same model.

I purchased my SP12 Cedar in June 2001 from Sound Control in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Solid cedar top was the main plus, as I wanted a reasonably priced solid-top instrument, an well as my first 12-string. Neck, frets and fingerboard and bridge were well set up on purchase, and I wasn't even slightly tempted to try to improve the neck adjustment. The finish is plain, but in a perverse way the SP12's simple appearance actually makes it stand out from conventional finishes,- it is a very attractive instrument, well proportioned and functionally styled. No accessories were included, but I was able to negotiate a discount on the catalogue price and get a gigbag, strap and tuner with the guitar all under #330.00!(I think the UK catalogue price at the time was around #390.00)

I play mainly folk and liturgical music, mainly fingerstyle for folk and strumming in liturgical, although the SP12 seems so suited to picking I use a mike as often as I can in liturgical settings so I can fingerpick. That is not to say that the SP12 is not a decent strumming instrument-it is, as with none of the 'mushy' sound often associated with strummed 12s. The sound is full and even using extra-light strings (Martins)produces a sonorous bass and clear and sustained trebles.

The factory set-up for the guitar needed no attention - as they say, it 'played first time straight out of the box' (except it didn't come in a box!) The finish is good with a 'hand-made' feel to it.

The satin finish looks fragile, but to date shows no sign of scratching or damage even though the guitar has suffered the very unsubtle attentions of my two adolescent sons who are starting to learn to play.(I just have to change strings more often!)It holds tune well.
When I first acquired it I tended to use it as a second guitar to my 1967 Harmony Sovereign (six)but I quickly found there was nothing I could play on the six that couldnt be played as easily on the SP12, so the Harmony usually stays at home now.

Never dealt directly with the company

I have been playing for 32 years off and on, my only other guitar being the Harmony Sovereign I bought second-hand in 1968. It is comfortable to own and play, and is of such quality that if you can't play someting on it, it is your playing that is the problem, not the guitar! If stolen or lost, I would get another one. Before I bought it I tried several other similarly priced 12s by Fender, Yamaha, Tanglewood (incl. the Tanglewood 'Earth')Washburn, Takamine ana few others. I was tempted by the Fender and the TW Earth, but then tried a second-hand Guild 12, which put me off everything else, until I encountered the SP12, which for my style of playing felt and sounded much better than anything apart from the Guild, and I did not feel that the edge the Guild had was sufficient to justify the additional expense. I have become very attached to the SP12, and even if I can ever afford a Guild, I will still be keeping it and playing it!

Handmade in 1997 in La Patrie and Princeville, Quebec Canada. 21 Frets, solid cedar Top, laminated cherry back and sides, mahogany neck, and (I think) ebony fingerboard, satin finish, dreadnought.

I play fingerstyle, I always wanted to try a 12 string and this is my first. It is the least expensive guitar I own and has quickly become my favorite.

I love the way this guitar sounds. It has ringing yet mellow highs and rich mids and lows. I generally play in dropped tunings and usually use a standard light guage set but have also used mediums but kept the tuning down a couple of frets and have experienced no problems. It sounds better with the mediums and tuned down. I've also actually tried a silk and steel heavy guage set (tuned WAY down) which sounded fantastic, but the nut would need to be modified to really get the set up right for the bass strings.

The factory set up was very good and it still is. I've had this guitar 4 years now and I haven't had to have any adjustments made.
The guitar is very plain but very well made, a rosette inlay around the sound hole is the only cosmetic feature. It came with an unattatched pick guard which I've never had stuck on.

This seems to be a very solid well built guitar. I don't play live other than the occasional unplugged Irish session and it seems to work well in that situation. Even though it has a fairly mellow tone it still has enough volume to cut through the din. The only problem I see with durability is inherent in the satin finished cedar top, it
can be dinged and scratched very easily. This seems to be a trade off though because I don't think you could build a cedar top guitar that sounded as good with a heavier more protective finish.

I've never had a problem with this guitar but I own another S&P Pro Mahogany/Spruce. It started having some problems with a creaking brace or bridge plate while it was still under warantee. It was sent to Lasido (the parent company of S&P, Seagull, and some other Canadian luthiers) by the shop for repairs. The repairs were done promptly and the guitar came back in brand new condition and set up very well. The warantee is one year.

I also own an S&P Pro Mahogany, a Harmony Sovreign, a Gibson SG, an Peavy Vintage tube amp and a Fishman Rare Earth Blend Pickup. This guitar sound very nice with the Fishman pickup through the amp and even better plugged into my audio card on the computer.

If it were lost or stolen I would definitely buy another. The only 12 strings I've found that I like as well or better have been Taylors which start out at about 3 times the price for something that sounds as good and much more for something better (if I ever win the lottery I'm getting a Taylor Leo Kottke 12 string)

1995 Manufacture date, I got it when it was about 6 months old. It's a solid cedar top with laminated wild cherry back and sides. Handmade in Canada. Pretty plain looking guitar. The lite satin finish helps the guitar resonate better.

It sounds GREAT. Better sounding than 12 strings that are $1000 or more. Can't say much else. Not the bass of a Martin, though.

High Action, which I like. I used to put light guage (12's) on there at standard tuning, which killed the neck and I had to have it straightened twice. I go with 10's now and it sounds great, but there's not that high tensioned volume anymore. If there are any 12-strings out there that can stand the tension of a light to medium guage string, let me know.

Played it at gigs. Very durable. Had to buy the case separately, though. Frets are still solid.

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My first 12 string. I also have a Gibson Hummingbird and a Fender Strat. Given the same money, I'd buy it again, unless I could find something around the same price that could take heavier strings (I don't buy cheap equipment... but by default 12 strings sound good and I don't see the reason to spend $1200 on one.