Yamaki AY433L

12-string dreadnought, made in the early 1970s, I'm guessing. 20 frets. Laminated top with cedar veneer. Big, fat neck. Back and sides look like walnut; neck looks like mahogany.

Sound is a little disappointing--kind of thin and brittle, without a lot of bass. Sounds a lot like a harpsichord, in fact. Do all 12 strings sound like that?

Maybe I'll learn to like it.

Bought used--very used--on eBay. Needed a lot of work--but that's not the manufacturer's fault.

The bracing seems to be too lightweight to withstand the stress of 12 strings. Even after repair, the top still bellies out behind the bridge. Neck should probably be reset, but it's hard to tell whether there's a true dovetail joint or if it's just doweled. The guy who fixes my guitars did a lot of work on the bridge, which was really thick (and pulling off the top of the body). He says the top was damaged when the bridge was originally installed, and he ended up having to use two bolts to keep the bridge from pulling off again.

But someone really liked to play this guitar. The top is really worn, and the frets are down to almost nothing.

I don't think it has a lot of life left in it.

I would imagine Yamaki is history.

I bought the guitar after reading reviews of Yamakis here on Harmony Central, but had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have bid. The light bracing (and the way the top bulges as a result) is a real problem. Everything else I could live with. It seems to be a design problem and there's not much to be done about it. Maybe the manufacturer thought that the plywood top would handle the load?

But I live in a small city in Canada and play left-handed. Buying guitars on eBay is one of the only options available. Either that, or travel out of province. Especially if I want to try something new, like a 12-string.