Guild F212 NT 12 String Acoustic Guitar Natural, 1970

Built from 1964 to 1982, the Guild F212 came with a Natural Top (NT) and was based around a 16 inch wide Jumbo body of Spruce and Mahogany.

Here we’re looking at a Guild F212 NT built during 1970 in Westerly, Rhode Island. This model is built with a Sitka Spruce top, Tropical Mahogany for the sides, back, body blocks and neck, and Indian Rosewood for the fingerboard and bridge. This guitar is in good working condition and has had a number of repairs over the years. Loose braces and Back cracks have been repaired and cleated as appropriate, and the back center seam may have been repaired and oversprayed. There is a small and typical crack, repaired with a cleat, between the treble end of the fingerboard and the soundhole. This is a common result of having the pickguard glued directly to the top rather than to the finish. This was also very common on both Martin and Gibson models! The bridge was shaved some time ago and the heel cap has been replaced.

Like other Guild 12’s, this Guild F212 NT has a great, full sound with plenty of volume and projection.

The original hard shell case is included.

The 12-string guitar started to appear in the late days of the 19th century as a development of the Harp Guitar. The first production 12-strings seem to appear around 1902, sometimes advertised as Harp Guitars though the six double courses were on one neck. By the 1920s, 12-strings were more commonly available; Leadbelly used a Stella Auditorium, built by the Oscar Schmidt company. Blind Willie McTell used a Stella 12-string from about 1927. Martin and Gibson didn’t start building these models until the early 1960’s in response to the folk boom.

Not to be left behind, the Guild F212 and F312 were added in 1964 and quickly gained reputations as solid, reliable and loud instruments. The top of the line, special order Guild F512 appeared in 1968 as super jumbo model with Brazilian Rosewood for the sides and back. By 1974, this had moved into regular production but with Indian Rosewood.