Simon & Patrick SP6 Cedar

The SP6 Cedar dreadnought has a basic, almost unfinished look. Perhaps 'natural' is the best way to describe it. No fancy sunburst. No decorative inlays. No frills.

If a Gibson Dove or ornate 'in your face' guitar is what you're after then you won't like this. This is low key. Think mellow.

The sound, for a ??300 acoustic is great and by far the best I've ever played in that price range. I have recorded with this guitar and it performed excellently however, if I was recording a 'proper' album then I'd use a higher end guitar (Santa Cruz, Collings etc).

I love the warm tone produced by the cedar and using decent strings really brings the guitar alive. Being a dreadnought, this definitely prefers to be strummed rather than finger picked but even so, the clarity is absolutely fine.

The action is a little high (compared with my Martin and Santa Cruz) but not to the detriment of the intonation(?) and it just means you have to work a little harder, which I like.

As for the appearance, I'm not into guitars that look like polished table tops. There's hardly any finish to the guitar and to me, it's like it has come straight from the tree. I LOVE it!

I've had mine for 9 years and it's still going strong. Cedar is a soft wood, and I've worn a nice groove into the edge of the sound hole. Due to the softness of the wood and the lack of finish, it scars easily but again, that's something that I love.

I have gigged it and will do so again until the neck falls off or until I go all 'Jimi' and set it on fire.

No idea. Never had to use them.

I've rated each category as accurately and unbiased as possible (It has no features so surely can only be a '1'?). If I were to mark it based on my love of the guitar then it'd be '10' all the way.

A great dreadnought with bags of character. I bought a ??1800 Taylor 2 years after buying the SP6 but soon got rid of it because, whilst it was easy to play (too easy!!), it was lacking when compared with my trusty steed.

Aside from my Santa Cruz and a Collings I once tried out in a shop, this is the best dreadnought I've played and would be the first guitar I'd save in a fire.

I rented this guitar in used condition for 2 months whilst in Toronto. I chose to rent this partly because of its worn in appeal and its solid looking body. It is devoid of flashy features in terms of look, but has all the constituent parts to make it a good acoustic. So, a straight up low end acoustic then. You either get it right or wrong don't you? until you set it on your lap you can't really know if it suits you or not.

I have played a range of acoustic guitars - from the most budget to borrowed Martins. I currently have a Takamine and an old Yamaha. When i was trying out the rentals one hazy summer in Toronto i picked up several others including a mid range seagull and an epiphone and decided on the SP6. Why? The unbridled acoustic sound and no rattles or creeks - it felt solidly pitched towards the sound it produced. To record on this wouldn't be inadvisable, but certainly if you are recording music you should perhaps treat yourself to a higher end guitar.

As I received it in rented condition it had been used possibly many times before. The action had been adjusted lower, and the frets were well set up for messing around with acoustic riffs. The finish was completely trashed, but you know I didn't pick the guitar for how it looked. Besides, i like the look of a guitar that's been worked over.

I was provided with a basic hard case for this guitar. Given its state I wasn't too concerned about ruining it further, but to be honest it was fine. It kept tune pretty well too. I even took it to Algonquin park, on a canoe, with some friends. Even after 5 days in the wilderness (in its case, in dry conditions) it still sounded gorgeous. So yeah I'd say it's dependable. If you don't mind a worn in look on the finish.

Did not deal with S & P.

Everything about this guitar makes me like it. Its simplicity, its obvious expertise in craftsmanship to make a solid, dependable guitar with a very fair price ticket. As I said earlier, I compared it to a few others, some with higher price tags, and picked because of its sound.

I have been playing for about 8 years, and have bought a couple ( a fender dreadnought and a takamine) but have access quite few others - a seagull, my mate's dad's martin, some yamahas, washburn, tanglewood, epiphone etc.

This is going to be the simplest review ever, for less than a Grand this is the best playing, sounding and constructed acoustic ever FACT!

8 years old and sounding better everyday!

action is adjustable so Its adjusted the way i like it.
Finished simple and finished nice.

I've had it 8 years played everyday and the frets are still like new.
yeah the tops all marked up by i did that so i cant blame anyone but my heavy hands. its bee ndropped a few times and not even a ding!

contacted them a few times regarding info always had a timely curtious reply.

i love it. I'm sure there are possibly better guitars out there but after playing this one i stopped looking.

2007 model. 21 frets. Only 14 are very easily accessable. Not many outlandish features to speak of. It has very few adornments except for a really simple rosette. The binding looks like plastic maybe, and you know what? It doesn't make a difference to me. I still think it looks great. The top is solid cedar. The sides and back are wild red cherry i believe, and the bridge and fretboard are rosewood as usual. It is fitted with the TUSQ nut and saddle which come highly recommended as aftermarket parts. I'll probably be replacing the bridge pins soon to matching TUSQ products. If you don't know, TUSQ is made by a company called Graphtech and it's basically a man-made ivory. I think it works very well. The tuners hold up well, bends don't have much affect on the tuning and they work well in alternate tunings(open g, drop d, etc). Neck is pretty thin for the first 5 frets or so, then it gets a little thicker. It has about all the features you need in an acoustic, and it's pretty in a different sort of way. It's not a wildly adorned museum piece, but it has simple, beautiful woods, and that's were it really looks nice.

I play mostly blues, rock, some classical, and folk. It fits most of them well. I don't think many classical players would think it sounds very good, but the regardless of what they think it sounds musical. It's easy to sing along with it, if that makes any sense. The only real bad thing I can say about the sound it that because it sounds pretty warm and deep, when you capo and play at higher frets (strumming with your hands) it doesn't resonate very well. I'm probably going to try a lighter gauge string when I change out, that might help.

The action is good. It might be a tad low for an acoustic, which makes slide playing difficult, even with a light glass slide. Like another guy on here, the neck joint is maybe a 1/2 millimeter off in one section of the cut, but thats just nitpicking. It still looks great. It has nicely finished cuts and seams. The dot inlays on the side of the neck are wither stained wood or are like a copper paint or something. They look nice though. Probably one of the first things I noticed when I started playing it. The bracing inside looks nice, good clean cuts. P.S. It smells great.

I bumped it into the mic and it left a few small dents in the finish, so it is fragile, but it will supposedly age faster, and makes it soudn better. Just pay attention and you'll be fine. You should be carefull with hollowbody instruments anyway. Maybe it'll teach you something.

I haven't had to deal with them. I'd proabably just take it back to our local shop I bought it from anyway.

Ive been playing about 6 years. I own a Fender Strat, Fender j-bass, Ibanez ARC300DVS, and I've owned other gear prior to those, but they arn't really worth mentioning. If it were stolen I would probably shop around for something else, but it's possible that I'd come back to this. I don't think there is anything out right now that can beat this, not only in it's price range, but several hundred ahead of it. You'd probably have to get into the 6-800+ to get anything that sounds drastically better. Even then, is a $600 guitar twice as good as this? P.S. even with its slight limitations it still sounds great. Ive been playing for a good 6 hours everyday, proabably because it is so nice to listen to.

I`m the same guy as posted right below. I guess i wasn`t able to "Resist the new product rush!" so in order to compensate i`ll re-rate the different categories.

I`ve realized that it sounds a bit muffled, i.e if you strum it hard, the sound from all the strings tend to be a bit smeared out, and not so distinct.

The sound is great if you pick one at the time, but maybe cedar isn`t so good for strumming. But still, it`s very loud using 0.12-0.53 strings, and it sounds great.

I`ve used it for some time now, and it dents very easily. The finish isn`t really that weak, but the wood itself is so soft. The shop should have told me when i bought it. (It`s not like you can test it yourself in the shop =) ) This applies for the HG-modell.

It is very sensitive to temperature/humidity, but i don`t know how other guitars react.

-The muffled sound has dissapoited me a bit.
-The strings aren`t that easy to push down, but still very good.
-It dents too easily
+You can easily tune it differently without snapping strings. (BDDDDD is for instance no problem, some pepole have problems with this)

I may have been too harsh this time, but i was too kind last time so on average these two reflect my oppinion pretty well.

-Solid cedar top, laminate in sides and bottom
-High gloss sunburst
-Dreadnought body, no cut-away
-The neck is a bit "thick"
-22 bands
-No electronics

This guitar sounds GREAT!
I tried about 30 different guitars at 6-7 different stores, and this guitar sounded best (to my ears). My general conclusion after trying guitars in this price class, is that guitars like my S&P, Norman (Canadian made?) gives the best sound for your money. Stay away from Takamine in this pricerange!

I do some fingerpicking and some strumming.

The sound is "open" i.e not locked inside the body, partaially due to the solid top.

Good setup in general:

GOOD:
-The strings are EASY to strum, ideal if you`re a beginner like me and have only played nylon before.
-Light strings => fingerpicking is easy and sounds good.
- no flaws

BAD:
-The thick E-string is a bit loose => you easily get buzz if you strum it too hard. Thicker strings or another adjustment might solve this.
-The strings in generall are light so you can`T strum very hard. On the other hand you DON`T need to STRUM HARD to get GREAT (and loud) sound.

-The FINISH is WEAK. I considered another sp6 with only a thin cellulose finish, but I thought this finish looked better and was tougher. On the other hand the weak finish allows for BETTER SOUND!

No experience, but i got no paper about string types, or other information. I`m dissapointed, but i don`t know what`s common when buing guitars.

Have been playing for about 6 months now. I would cry and then BUY this guitar again if it was stolen. I haven`T regretted the purchase for a second.

I`ve tried lots og guitars, and this one sounds great and has fantastic playability. If you`Re a beginner and cand afford it buy this one. Beginners (like me) "need" a good and easily played guitar like this one.


If you wan`T something to show off, like a jewlery don`t buy this guitar. If you wan`T a great instrument and can afford it, buy it.

SUMMARY:
-GREAT sound
-Ok looks, simple but elegant.
-Fantastic playability
-"weak" finish
-Loose E-string

Go to a guitar shop before you buy, and let your ears, fingers and wallet decide.

Mine is an S&P 6 with a solid cedar top and B-Band active pick up/preamp system. Body style is dreadnought without a cutaway.
The finish is very thin and natural - it mostly just feels (and smells!) like untreated wood!

The retailer supplied it with a good quality hardcase (not S&P) within the price quoted.

This is a very simple well made electro acoustic. Difficult to rate the features - it has everything I could want or expect and nothing I don't!

I love the sound of this guitar acoustically - very woody and natural and ideally suited to country, folk, rock and bluesy styles. Probably not great if you want a super bell like tone for almost classical style pieces but I don't!. To my taste it is close to perfect - the 9 rating is based purely on the unplugged sound.

My guitar came with the B Band preamp/pickup system but I cannot really comment on this yet as I have barely used it plugged in. I have tried it out, it all works fine but I have only put it through a regular electric guitar amp which is not suited to electro acoustics.

All good, no complaints at all. I think the guitar shop (Project Music in Exeter UK - highly recomended by the way)did a bit of tweaking on it but I get the impression that not a whole lot was required.

If I was being super super picky then the join between neck heel and body could be tighter but this is totally inconsequential. One think I really like is that the guitar feels great to the touch - nice natural woody quality!

I have only had this guitar for a couple of months so can't really rate the reliabiliy properly. I can't see it being any trouble though and I will certainly gig with it happily (I just need to incorporate some acoustic stuff in my bands very electric set!).

The guitar feels very solid and well built and I have no worries about how long it will last. The finish is (deliberately) thin to non-existant and so I guess the guitar will show the knocks but this was a design choice by S&P and I chose to buy it anyway!

No experience of this, the website is very helpful however.

I have been playing for around 20 years and have owned various guitars and basses. I currently have various strats and teles but this is my main acoustic guitar.

Before I owned this guitar I had a Taylor 414 and a Gibson J45 - both of these high end guitars cost three times the money of the S&P and I have to say that I cannot see why - the S&P6 is everybit the equal to my fingers/ears/eyes!

My SP6 plays and sounds way better than the J45 (I bought the name on the headstock when I bought this one - big mistake!). The Taylor 414 was superb and I regret selling it still but this SP is more versatile.

I looked at all kinds of guitars before buying this one and picked this for the following reasons:
1) It sounds fantastic.
2) Excellent value for money.
3) Strongly recommended by retailer.
4) Looks great.
5) Not made in the Far East - I know it is stupid but I guitars made in North America (ie US & Canada) just seem to have more soul. OK, I have a lovely Japanese Strat but that's different. Those bottom end Takamine's just don't have the character that this one does.

I would strongly recommend this guitar to anybody who wants a decent sound out of a mid priced guitar.

I have tried many guitars over my 30 year music background. It's a combination of feel and sound that makes you say "this is a nice guitar". I'll admit I'm a cheapskate by nature so price was certainly a deciding factor also. I Bought my Cedar top S&P(6) 15 years ago, for 300.00 dollars Canadian. Style Wild Cherry 6 serial #4918 119G. I knew then I wanted a solid top so this is what the salesman suggested. They were relatively new on the market so there weren't any reports good or bad about them. Just another well made Canadian guitar from the Godin, Le Petri, Seagull factory.

I've always wanted to find another inexpensive acoustic like this that was musically superior to higher priced guitars. Start a small collection of instruments perhaps. I've played a lot of guitars, anywhere from the department store el-cheapos to the ridiculously expensive collectors items. I've always walked away with a smug smile knowing I had a nice guitar waiting at home. There are some very nice guitars on the market but dollar for dollar you'll never beat the value of most Canadian made guitars.

After 15 years the cedar top shows every little nick and ding that happened along the way. The plain/understated looks have been acentuated by the years of agressive playing. It looks like I've been playing it with a wire brush. Kind of a Willie Nelson look. I love it. The sound has only gotten sweeter over time. The tuning has always been solid and action has been comfortable. If you have wimpy fingers you should look around for a smaller neck guitar.

An excellent guitar maybe under priced, No issues for the contruction or condition of this guitar. Well made.

never needed,

Mostly it's personal preference. It's not going to be the last guitar ever made. You could do alot worse in choosing a guitar, shop around, let your sences guide you not a lable or price tag.

This guitar is HAND MADE in Canada. It is produced by the company Godin. It has a solid cedar top with laminated sides and back.

I used the guitar for fingerpicking and strumming as well - playing everything from Travis picking style tunes, rock and a bit of blues. This guitar sounds very good finger picked OR strummed. The only drawback is it is a bit on the quiet side though nothing too extreme. The sounds is very WARM, and to my eyes almost sounds like a vintage acoustic (though it was practically brand new at purchase). The tone is true acoustic - it sounds like WOOD! This tone quality IS hard to find in this price range ($300-$600). Obviously, these guitar are built with quality tone woods. I've read that these guitars are made with "old wood"....wood that has neared or reached the end of it's life - compared to other acoustics that are made with newer, younger trees. Not only is this good for the environment, it looks like it's good for a guitar's tone as well. This might be the secret to the S&P signature sound. The sound is neither overly bright nor overly bass heavy... it is near perfect in its' balance of high's, mid's and lows. Great tone for the money.

The action on my S&P 6 is very good - though I've played better on higher end guitars. I believe the action may have been lowered by the store I purchased this guitar from. The finish on this guitar is very basic - as is the overall look. If you're looking for a guitar that looks great skip this one over. If you're looking for a guitar with very good sound and excellent playability look no further.

This guitar may not hold up in a live situation - due to it's soft finish, it would likely get banged up very quickly if not handled with kid gloves. What you sacrifice in durability, you make up for in tone through the thin finish. But, i've already decided my goal is not to protect the look of the instrument but to relish in the inspiration and fun this axe provides. DON'T WORRY ABOUT NICKING IT...PLAY THE DANG THING!

I emailed them and they emailed back the next day. Great!

I've been playing for 19 years. Good acoustics tend to be hard to come by. If you're looking for a great instrument at a great price you owe it to yourself to check this model out. At $300 this guitar was a great value.

Canadian (Godin) made basic acoustic guitar, solid cedar top and laminated hardwood back & sides. Bolted-on neck. Satin finish.
Nothing fancy, just a simple, well made guitar.

In my +40 years as a pro musician (studio work mainly, different musical styles), I've owned and played many guitars (electrics : Gretsch, Guild, Gibson, Fender, PRS, etc... acoustics : Martin, Taylor, Gibson, Takamine, etc...). Well, what do you expect : to guys like myself, guitars are working instruments, so we need a bit of different gear.
In the recording studio, the producer decides what kind of sound he wants, so we choose and use our instruments accordingly.
The Simon & Patrick SP6 Cedar is one of my rehearsel acoustics (S&P SP6 Cedar, Martin DM and Martin DR); for recording I mainly use my Standard Series Martins.
I'll let you in to a little secret : more than often, producers ask me to use "the guitar that we rehearsed with" for the actual recording session. They don't care about D45's or whatever, they just want the sound that they like most. And very often, that simply means the Simon & Patrick SP6 Cedar or the Martin DM.
So, what does that tell us about the sound of those so called "cheaper" solid top acoustic guitars, eh ?
I may very well not want to be caught dead on the stage with such "simple" guitars, but there you have it : the actual recordings, say "the real thing", are often done with just those !

Simple, but well finished guitar. The factory set action was a bit high (as it is with practically any new guitar), but no problem : spend a few $$ having it set up to your liking by a good luthier, and all is fine.
The cedar top is a bit fragile, so take good care of this guitar, as one should do with any musical instrument.

I never used the Simon & Patrick for gigs or stage work (see above !), so I do not know if it would withstand such treatment, but the build quality is certainly OK for studio work or playing at home.
The S&P6 Cedar is a very light guitar (such is also the Martin DM): I like that. Well cared for, this guitar will last a lifetime, I suppose.

In my entire life as a musician, I have never needed any warranty support by the manufacturers of my guitars. Lucky fool ? Well, one little bit of advice : when you buy a guitar, have a very very good look at it, and try it out very extensively. Look at the smallest details : screws, bindings, hardware, bridge, braces, etc...etc...
If you find the tinyest flaw or anything that you don't like, don't buy the guitar, or live with it. Never buy crap : save some more for a good quality instrument, and provided you care for it as you should, you will not have unpleasant surprises.
Anyhow, colleagues of mine tell me that the Godin customer support is very OK, so I guess that's a 9.

Compared to top of the range acoustic folk guitars, the Simon & Patrick SP6 Cedar is a very basic, simple guitar. However, playability, build quality and especially the sound are very good. If you do not really need investing in a (very much more expensive)top of the range guitar for your work as a musician, then simply stick to a solid top Simon & Patrick (cedar or spruce) or a somewhat more expensive Martin DM or DR. You might also try out some Alvarez, Yamaha, Taylor or Takamine etc...models in the same price range, but I would certainly recommend the Simon & Patrick SP6 Cedar (or even the less expensive Art & Lutherie solid tops, I'm told) from Godin.
Please bare in mind that quality guitar playing is produced by the PLAYER, the guitar only being the tool that he/she uses for that. So believe me : anything you can't do with say a Simon & Patrick SP6, you won't be able to do with a Martin D45.