M1
Superb
This is the second Barton 12 string I bought as I was that impressed with the dreadnought model I bought.
Finished really well. Nice playable neck. Body size is folk sizing which is a joy to hold.
As usual top service from Thomann guitar arrived in UK less than a week delivery 👍
Finished really well. Nice playable neck. Body size is folk sizing which is a joy to hold.
As usual top service from Thomann guitar arrived in UK less than a week delivery 👍
9
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L
Unexpected gem
I was fully expecting to send this back as for the price i couldn't believe it was going to be any good and after some recent bad luck with Recording King acoustics i was expecting the worst, huge surprise, it plays absolutely lovely, looks great and sounds wonderful, there was no sharp frets (as per the Recording king guitars), it was beautifully setup with a low action and very playable, the tuners which are very important in a 12 string obviously are pretty good and it stays in tune well, the guitar is so good I've ordered a pickup for it as intend to use it live with my band. I would also say it isn't an expensive guitar which you can tell close up, it's similar to Tanglewood's crossroads series but it looks great, vintage looks, it's a keeper and quick delivery as well. Very pleased
9
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P
BIASED?
Ok. I'll admit it: I love Baton Rouge guitars, and I'll go a step further and say I have not been disappointed with Thomann's selection or service at all. The last 5 instruments- one 5 - string bass, two electric 6's (one double cut SG- style and one single - cut LP Style) one e cello, and two Baton Rouge acoustic guitars - have all come via Thomann Music. You can read all about the Baton Rouge X11S/FJE-SCR in the style of the Folk Jumbo flat top with cutaway in my review of the aforementioned page.
But this is about the folk style (read: folk - sized) 12 - string.
The first thing you'll notice about BR guitars is they are much lighter than most acoustics. Don't worry about that as the quality does not suffer.
The guitar arrived just slightly out of tune which is amazing. You know the old joke: "You spend half the time tuning a 12 - string and the other half playing out of tune."
(Insert Rim Shot or Canned Laughter Here)
Once tuned she stayed in tune and the re - tuning required is minimal from day to day. Much like all the other guitars with which you have to deal. Piece of cake. The intonation was spot on at the open position, 12th - fret, and harmonics up and down the neck, just like the other BR guitar.
I admit, jumbo and dreadnought - sized 12 - strings spoiled me, as the smaller folk 12 means a narrower nut and hence the space between the strings are truncated, and my fretting fingers felt cramped . . . At first.
After a couple minutes I got used to chord changes and triad shapes on the narrower nut end, and fell in love. That's the second worst feature in my mind. The first worst (?) Feature is this particular guitar does not come in the Screwed Crimson finish, which is awesome on mahogany and spruce both. The "SCR" in the X11S/FJE-SCR stands for "Screwed Crimson," so my BR guitars do not match perfectly.
C'est la vie . . .
I have placed piezoelectric pickups on all of my acoustic guitars, and they sound great. The dreadnought 6 (X11S/FJE-SCR) has on - board electronics and running each pup through its own signal chain makes for a mind - blowing experience. But that is not this.
If you are looking for a 12 that fits everyone in the family, here it is. If you want a beautiful 12 - string machine with bright and even EQ across the board and a folk - sized sound, well here you go.
Get one.
But this is about the folk style (read: folk - sized) 12 - string.
The first thing you'll notice about BR guitars is they are much lighter than most acoustics. Don't worry about that as the quality does not suffer.
The guitar arrived just slightly out of tune which is amazing. You know the old joke: "You spend half the time tuning a 12 - string and the other half playing out of tune."
(Insert Rim Shot or Canned Laughter Here)
Once tuned she stayed in tune and the re - tuning required is minimal from day to day. Much like all the other guitars with which you have to deal. Piece of cake. The intonation was spot on at the open position, 12th - fret, and harmonics up and down the neck, just like the other BR guitar.
I admit, jumbo and dreadnought - sized 12 - strings spoiled me, as the smaller folk 12 means a narrower nut and hence the space between the strings are truncated, and my fretting fingers felt cramped . . . At first.
After a couple minutes I got used to chord changes and triad shapes on the narrower nut end, and fell in love. That's the second worst feature in my mind. The first worst (?) Feature is this particular guitar does not come in the Screwed Crimson finish, which is awesome on mahogany and spruce both. The "SCR" in the X11S/FJE-SCR stands for "Screwed Crimson," so my BR guitars do not match perfectly.
C'est la vie . . .
I have placed piezoelectric pickups on all of my acoustic guitars, and they sound great. The dreadnought 6 (X11S/FJE-SCR) has on - board electronics and running each pup through its own signal chain makes for a mind - blowing experience. But that is not this.
If you are looking for a 12 that fits everyone in the family, here it is. If you want a beautiful 12 - string machine with bright and even EQ across the board and a folk - sized sound, well here you go.
Get one.
5
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DC
Finally a 12-string that doesn't reduce me to tears
I've flirted with a few 12-strings over the years but always ended up selling them at a loss. This is the first one that I've been able to live with. I generally play finger style and classical so I wasn't really sure where this would fit in. It turns out that it's actually playable in those styles. My Baroque and Renaissance pieces take on a whole new dimension.
As for strumming, it's just a joy. I've never used a plectrum but use a mix of basic thumb strumming and rasgueados and let's just say - it fills it space in the room. Magical.
I tune it down a whole tone so I can't say what it would be like in standard tuning in terms of string tension and playability but tuned from D to d it's a cannon.
The intonation is pretty much perfect so whacking a capo on at the second fret let's me play along with all my favourite rock songs.
If you're reading this, you already know you want one. Now you just need to convince the missus.
As for strumming, it's just a joy. I've never used a plectrum but use a mix of basic thumb strumming and rasgueados and let's just say - it fills it space in the room. Magical.
I tune it down a whole tone so I can't say what it would be like in standard tuning in terms of string tension and playability but tuned from D to d it's a cannon.
The intonation is pretty much perfect so whacking a capo on at the second fret let's me play along with all my favourite rock songs.
If you're reading this, you already know you want one. Now you just need to convince the missus.
3
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DS
I like this guitar!
It's very good 12 str. guitar.
The guitar sounds good, it's ergonomic, it's beautiful. What else is needed?
But do not forget that this is an inexpensive guitar and, perhaps, it should be brought to perfection by yourself or by a guitar master.
The guitar sounds good, it's ergonomic, it's beautiful. What else is needed?
But do not forget that this is an inexpensive guitar and, perhaps, it should be brought to perfection by yourself or by a guitar master.
7
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A
Incredible guitar at this price!
Beautiful 12 string that sounds as good as it looks. I love this guitar. I recommend anyone to buy this, it is amazing.
2
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E
Great! 12-string guitar.
After leaving the guitar in the box for a day or so I removed it tuned it to my preferred tuning for 12-string which is D.
Out of the box it played really well. The action was almost spot on and the nut only needed some slight adjustments and a little tidy up to remove some rough surfaces left in the Slots from the factory.
Took measurements for the relief at the 7th, 8th, 9th and 12th fret.
the 12th fret it was 2.8mm that isn't bad at all for a 12 string out of the box my preference is 2.25 to 2.3 bass side and the treble side was already at 2mm so it was fine.
Checked the frets with my fret Rocker and again out of the box it was only the last 2 frets that were a tiny bit high.
but on this style of acoustic you will probably never use them because it has no cutaway
All I did was give them a rough spot level and a polish, even though they were not really causing any problems with playing, I'm a bit OCD with my guitars.
Made a truss rod adjustment and remeasured the height at the 12th fret and I was was getting 2.27mm, ideal height for finger picking and quite heavy strumming, if you are purely finger picking on it, you could probably go a bit lower to just under 2mm but then you would potentially run into problems with buzzing.
So I don't need to adjust the saddle.
It has a really nice sound as well. Some people will tell you not to buy guitars with laminated tops. Often on YouTube you find on the guitar people on there just have nothing good to say about laminate tops.
Utter rubbish one of the best selling acoustics of all time is made by Yamaha and that has a laminate top, sought after vintage jazz guitars have laminate tops, one of John Lennon's favourite Gibson guitars had one and he loved the sound of it.
I would go as far to say on the 12 string. A laminate top is a good insurance policy. My last 12 string that was an all wood construction guitar suffered a severe hump and sinking around the sound hole even though it was tuned to D and had a very good in case humidifier. When I was changing the strings to my preferred brand I took that opportunity to look inside the guitar with my mirror and the bracing inside looks really good and well crafted.
It is very well supported around the sound hole and that is definitely needed on a 12-string.
If you are reading this and feel a bit intimidated by some of the things I have said about setting up a guitar, you have no need to worry because the work I have done is really minimal. Just sight adjustments. Nothing needed Drastically changing at all.
In fact, if you just took it out of the box and didn't have any knowledge of setting up instruments, you were probably happy with this as is because as I said out of the box it was almost spot on dialed in. I have autism so I can be a bit particular about things.
About 6 years ago I purchased a more expensive guitar from a popular brand and out of the box it needed a lot of work. We're talking about a full fret job, a new nut and a lot of tinkering with the truss rod and saddle to get it playing well.
I highly recommend this instrument due to how well it came from the factory and the finish is really nice, sounds great and if you tune it to D you will have a wonderful guitar that plays really easily, I did tune it up to e just to see how it was and it was perfectly acceptable. Just I prefer to keep my 12 strings tuned down the whole step for less tension and ease of playing, this guitar also has a shorter scale length and that helps a lot also.
Out of the box it played really well. The action was almost spot on and the nut only needed some slight adjustments and a little tidy up to remove some rough surfaces left in the Slots from the factory.
Took measurements for the relief at the 7th, 8th, 9th and 12th fret.
the 12th fret it was 2.8mm that isn't bad at all for a 12 string out of the box my preference is 2.25 to 2.3 bass side and the treble side was already at 2mm so it was fine.
Checked the frets with my fret Rocker and again out of the box it was only the last 2 frets that were a tiny bit high.
but on this style of acoustic you will probably never use them because it has no cutaway
All I did was give them a rough spot level and a polish, even though they were not really causing any problems with playing, I'm a bit OCD with my guitars.
Made a truss rod adjustment and remeasured the height at the 12th fret and I was was getting 2.27mm, ideal height for finger picking and quite heavy strumming, if you are purely finger picking on it, you could probably go a bit lower to just under 2mm but then you would potentially run into problems with buzzing.
So I don't need to adjust the saddle.
It has a really nice sound as well. Some people will tell you not to buy guitars with laminated tops. Often on YouTube you find on the guitar people on there just have nothing good to say about laminate tops.
Utter rubbish one of the best selling acoustics of all time is made by Yamaha and that has a laminate top, sought after vintage jazz guitars have laminate tops, one of John Lennon's favourite Gibson guitars had one and he loved the sound of it.
I would go as far to say on the 12 string. A laminate top is a good insurance policy. My last 12 string that was an all wood construction guitar suffered a severe hump and sinking around the sound hole even though it was tuned to D and had a very good in case humidifier. When I was changing the strings to my preferred brand I took that opportunity to look inside the guitar with my mirror and the bracing inside looks really good and well crafted.
It is very well supported around the sound hole and that is definitely needed on a 12-string.
If you are reading this and feel a bit intimidated by some of the things I have said about setting up a guitar, you have no need to worry because the work I have done is really minimal. Just sight adjustments. Nothing needed Drastically changing at all.
In fact, if you just took it out of the box and didn't have any knowledge of setting up instruments, you were probably happy with this as is because as I said out of the box it was almost spot on dialed in. I have autism so I can be a bit particular about things.
About 6 years ago I purchased a more expensive guitar from a popular brand and out of the box it needed a lot of work. We're talking about a full fret job, a new nut and a lot of tinkering with the truss rod and saddle to get it playing well.
I highly recommend this instrument due to how well it came from the factory and the finish is really nice, sounds great and if you tune it to D you will have a wonderful guitar that plays really easily, I did tune it up to e just to see how it was and it was perfectly acceptable. Just I prefer to keep my 12 strings tuned down the whole step for less tension and ease of playing, this guitar also has a shorter scale length and that helps a lot also.
1
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