[washburned]

Why would they use epoxy? Is hide glue banned in Quebec?

 

[dradlin]

Hide glue and Titebond require close fitting joinery while epoxy doesn't.

Epoxy has gap filling properties which allows manufactures to get away with liberal tolerances (gaps).

 

[Ship of fools]

Wow live long enough and you learn something new, I knew at one time they were bolt on necks which made it really easy to do a re-set on them. I wonder if thats why I stopped liking them I wonder how much of a change it was for the sound and the playability of the Godin line since they went the way of epoxy.ship

 

[b-nads]

Having experience with both, the Taylor has a much nicer neck - I'm not typically a Taylor fan, and they charge too much for what they are, but in spite of the bolt-on nature of the neck, they are extremely playable necks.

The Taylor is gonna sound bright - I find their tone concentrated in lower mids and treble. The Seagull is not a poorly constructed guitar, by any means, but will not sound as lively as the Taylor - they sound clunky by comparison to my ears...like a guitar with softer wood and too much glue. You could liven up the Seagull by putting some Elixirs on it, or tame the Taylor by going to something warmer like Martin or Ernie Ball strings. Seagulls get a lot of press from happy owners. YMMV, but I've never played one that I would buy. I have a Taylor DN3 - it sounds bigger than the one you're considering (dred) and it has a wider string spacing, which suits me more - between those two, I'd go with the Taylor, but I wouldn't rule out other options - a Larrivee is much more guitar in that price range than either, IMHO.

 

[TimelessInst]

Godin's claim is that their guitars never need a neck reset. That is false - eventually all desirable acoustic guitars will need a neck reset.

And plenty guitars leave the factory with underset necks. Those should be rejects but are sold every day to an uneducated consumer. Those guitars will take one setup and then no more string break over the saddle (time for a neck reset).

Godin's repair approach is to replace the bridge (one with a lower profile) to expose more saddle. They can get away with that maybe once but it is not correcting the fundamental problem (neck angle).

Warrantied to original owners... that leaves a lot of disposable guitars on the "used" market - buyers beware!

This problem exists on all recent Godin family acoustic guitars and all imports.

My recommendation is always buy a higher end "used" guitar (repairable) instead of something on the cheap. A higher end "used" guitar can hold its value too. If you buy it on the cheap then consider that eventually (maybe 10 years) it will not be feasible to repair it.

Not to defend Godin, but just to qualify this statement. You CAN build guitars that don't need a neck reset, we build spanish neck joins and they hold solid. Granted, we build by hand, rather than production, and a lot more care is taken in getting a good strong joint. (technically you can reset a spanish join if you really want to, but it's lot of hair pulling). David's first guitar is 30 years old and has never needed a reset. This joint can be strong enough, we've been teaching that for years. I agree that low end guitars should have a method for neck resets available, I think truly high end guitars should be built to hold together. I'll plug a newer builder we discovered at the MGS this year, he's displaying some really good thought in his design. I hope guys like this are the future of lutherie, that's what we're trying to train too. LES GUITARES PELLERIN

just my 2 bits
Seth
Timeless Instruments

 

[Thinline]

Perhaps it speaks to my relative inexperience, but I've never held an acoustic that felt as solid as my Seagull (Maritime SWS Rosewood). I play a mostly open D and it absolutely sings to me. Pick the instrument that does the same for you.