New Hampshire

I want to send you this happy mail and thank you for your help and patience. The Saratoga is ringing and plinging and has accepted me as her user. My fingerpicking is improving and I am happy in every way. 

Next year I will buy a  good open back banjo and I mean to buy it from you. I don’t find the Saratoga to be ideal for claw hammer so we must look into the matter. Maybe a fine  top end instrument already used and treated with songs? Greetings from Norway!

Just a quick note to say you guys do a great job, and I wish I were closer to you. Kansas is a long way away. Great job on the tips you provide for players. Spot on info, well said. I wanted to thank you for doing this, as it’s a great service to all of us. Take care and keep up the great work!

I really like what you’ve done with the website and newsletter posting. Please keep these things coming. Another reason why The Twelfth Fret is just about the finest ‘go to’ place for all of us guitarists, and those who pursue other fretted instruments.

I have had this guitar back over a week and I am still ecstatic over what a great job Jay did with that humble Classic Vibe Strat!

After you guys put that Lollar CC pickup in the neck of my tele, I couldn’t find a telecaster style bridge pickup which matched up closely enough with it for my taste while still fitting in a conventional telecaster bridge. So Lollar wound three balanced output CC tele neck style pickup and I bought a CV Strat in order to have something to try them out in.

It was a total experiment. The CV strat had had its fret edges beveled just a little deep and there was some playing room lost on the fret. I asked the fellow who helped me (Scott?), if he could put a new nut in with a bit tighter string spacing to compensate for the loss of playing space and he assured me that he could and we left it at that.

Now as things turned out Jay was the fellow who ended up working on the guitar. Now in a mediocre place when a different fellow works on your instrument than the fellow you talked to, something usually gets lost in the translation. But I’ll have you know, that thing plays fantastic now. The before and after with a new nut and set up was really striking. Way beyond expectations! I had assumed that I would check out how the pickups sounded and change out the neck to a Warmoth or something, once I determined whether it was worth it or not. This guitar is remaining intact now.

I have owned a lot of instruments, have taken guitar building courses and put guitars together myself. Twelfth Fret’s work really is on a different level than other places in this city and it is not only the technical ability but taking the time to understand clearly what the customer wants and treating even less expensive instrument with care.

I couldn’t be happier. This set up has taken this guitar to a different level now. I have a totally unique instrument that can effectively go from playing thick George Benson single-note jazz lines to Dire Straits approved ‘quack’ with the flick of a 5-way switch!

Now that I’ve had it (Manzer 1980) for 24 hours all I can say is WOW! I took it in to my local L&M to order a new case for it and the guys were literally lined up to see and try it out. Also some patrons came over hearing there was a Linda Manzer in the store.  Anyway, I do not regret the investment. Out of the 14 hours of ownership…. I’ve played for at least 10 and showed it off for 2. I think my Taylor 914ce will be looking for a new home. No comparison.

Thanks for everything.

I love your store. You were my first dealer outside the US back in 1987, when I started THD.   The 12th Fret has always been one of my favorite guitar stores in the world.