Seagull Entourage Rustic
 

I constantly find myself impressed by this guitar. I won it in a competition about a year ago and I'm glad I did because I don't think it woud be on my radar other wise. Anyone looking at a cheap dred should definitely consider this instrument.

Do any of you guys own one? Or have you had similar experiences with Seagull? I feel like they blow competitors out of the water.

Here's a little video of it I put together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlCHZrn8wwU

Thanks for sharing.

Seagulls including the Entourage offerings are impressive guitars.

Lots of Seagull love here...
 

I am very impressed with Seagulls, and am very close to picking one up as my first guitar. I keep going back and forth between the Entourage Rustic and traditional S6. The only thing stopping me from picking either one is that I seem to be having trouble playing dreads in general, so I'm now auditioning the Entourage Mini Jumbo as well.


sleepy

Nice win. You'll find a bit of 'Gull love here.





Jerry

I find the mini jumbo MUCH more comfortable than the dreadnought. The appearance wouldn't indicate this but the narrower waste and the shallower body make it more comfortable to me. Give it a try. I think you will agree. Besides dreadnoughts are boring to look at. :)

My wife tells me it's funny for her to watch my evolution in guitar playing over the last 7 months. The S6 in my sig was my first guitar... a total noob at the age of 41. And I really enjoyed the thing for a while... when I first brought it home last August and through 4 months of lessons.

As time went on however, and I began to get better and better, and then got to sample other guitars, I started to notice things that bothered me... the 1.8" nut and chunky neck past the 7th fret, the weight balance (a tad neck heavy), the fact that it slides on my leg under heavy strumming, and that 'laminate' tone. And the dreadnought shape was not helping my bad right shoulder any.

I'm one of those detail oriented people that can pick out nuances in everything. And when I started sampling the all solid wood Martins, and especially that Performance Artist neck, the limitations of my S6 became clearer and I wanted something more. I think the S6 is an 'okay' guitar, but not a great guitar. And I play my particular Martin way better as well.

I've played the Mini Jumbo and didn't like the sound at all. Not even a little. The S6 blows it away. But if I were doing it all over and had known what I know now, 7 months into my journey, I would without question choose an all solid wood Eastman in the $550-$650 range before Seagull.

One man's opinion.

Great video - and then I saw this one. So what was used to record? The Seagull sounds very good.

That is a fine guitar. I have liked Seagulls for decades... my favorites are the Entourage Rustic and the S6 Slim. I think you'll find Seagulls get a lot of respect around here. Great guitars for the money.

Yeah....dreadnoughts simply bore my socks off.

http://www.rumbleseatmusic.com/image...rtinD41Nat.jpg

Or a solid wood Seagull. Delighted with the '99 S-6 in my sig.

Couldn't agree more. I ignored the Entourage Mini Jumbo for quite a while simply because I thought there was no way that it would fit me. But, after trying it, the narrower waist makes all the difference...it hits my leg in a better spot and sits in the lap much better than a dread.


sleepy

As a guy who has a both a "Performing Artist" Martin and a Seagull dreadnought, I have to agree that with you they do play differently. The string spacing is exactly the same on both guitars (2 3/16 @ bridge) but the nut is wider on the Gull by a little bit outside of both E strings and the neck is definitely "chunkier", so the actual playing experience is different, bu not radically so, IMHO. I usually carry both my Martin and my Seagull with me to performance so that I can keep one in alternate tuning and not have to waste time on stage. Switching back and forth between them hasn't presented me with many problems.

Perhaps. I just have never ever seen one or had the chance to play one in the shops I've visited. The GC and SAs in the NYC metro area mostly stock the S6 and Entourage MJ.

What's funny is that I am starting to get into fingerstyle a little now (very rudimentary still) and the S6 sounds way better as a fingerstyle guitar than a strummer. Who knows, maybe I'll keep the thing after all...

Heh heh ... Parlours to Jumbos ... got to believe that a Martin decked out like that is going to be attractive no matter what the body size. ;)

I had an S-6 (solid cedar top, lam cherry b/s) , and M6 (solid spruce top, lam mahogany b/s), and still have the Artist Mosaic (solid cedar top, solid mahogany b/s) ... I liked them both, but I thought that the voice of both the S-6 and the M6 when strummed aggressively, became a little overwhelming.
Recently I sold the S-6 and gifted the M6 to my son, but I'm hanging on to my Seagull Artist Mosaic ... combined with the Quantum II electronics, it's one sweet sounding guitar!

I think the rustic series is Seagull's best deal. It's what Seagull started out as. A concious excercise in "strip away all that doesn't matter but don't compromise anything that really does..." I've had both the dread and the mini-jumbo and probably will own the latter again someday.

bonus is short scale and slightly wider 1 23/32 fretboard, so right between
1 11/16 and 1 3/4

with the cedar top it's really responsive, and slightly overbuilt so it's rock solid :)

Wow went to class and came back with a lot of posts, cool to see some 'Gull love here.

I actually recorded that with just a really nice HD camera. Sounds pretty good but there's a lot of hiss which drives me crazy.

re:Seagull entourage
 

I agree that this is a fantastic little guitar(I have the parlor). I've had a Taylor 814 for years, that I absolutely love, but I wanted something both smaller and less costly for road trips and camping, and I also wanted it to have a decidedly different voice. I now have a travel guitar that I love to play and doesn't get used just for travel. It sounds especially good in alternated tunings like open and DADGAD, and it's nice to not have to constantly be retuning one guitar! I didn't win mine but it was worth paying for! It certainly won't replace my 814, but it does go to show that you don't have to spend 2K+ to get a very nice sounding guitar.

I have observed the same thing re: size/shape. Dreadnaughts are uncomfortably large for me, but the GA body of the 814, which has a smaller waist though same size large bout as a dread, is quite comfortable.

Just got my '03 Entourage Rustic CW QIT off Craigslist about three weeks ago, and still can't put it down... What a fantastic guitar! That cedar top just sings...


http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/w...IMG_4688pb.jpg

I absolutely love my Entourage. I went through a few guitars as I was starting out and learning what I wanted tone wise from my guitar. I read, here especially, a lot of great reviews for Seagull guitars. I tried the Entourage Rustic (dread) at a local shop and fell in love. I, at the time, owned a Blueridge BR-160. I had no doubt about "down grading" to the Seagull. No regrets still after 5 months. Beautiful guitar and great tone for a few Franklins.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7007/6...361085e6a9.jpg

I currently have a seagull entourage dred, a seagull rosewood sws dred a Martin GPCPA4 and a Rainsong dred. The wood ones are all brand new, so there will be some breaking in/opening up still to come, but they all sound great so far. I don't expect my Seagull guitars to be Martins. The thing I like is that I could buy an all solid, made in canada, spruce/rosewood dred with electronics and the nice sounding easy to play cedar/cherry dred with electronics for the same price as the Martin. The all solid Maritime Seagull is easily as nice of a guitar as many guitars twice it's price.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...8/d95ade7b.jpg

bone saddle
 

A few months ago I put a Colossi bone saddle on my old S6 and it really brightened up the sound and added substantial sustain. I sent him my original for him to copy in "antiqued" bone. Great job at a very reasonable cost and worth every penny in tone improvement. I'll probably send him the saddle from my S12 in the near future.

[QUOTE=Matt McGriff;2990626] The wood ones are all brand new, so there will be some breaking in/opening up still to come, but they all sound great so far.[QUOTE]



The Entourage I got off Craigslist is an '03, so that cedar top has had 9 years or so to open up, and it has really aged well - what a tone!

Does the S6 have laminate B/S as well?

Yes it does

I had one which i sold but ye it was a nice sounding guitar

but i prefer my Yamaha FG 730S over the Seagull Entourage Mini Jumbo.

I might well consider getting bone for mine too then!

I also agree. I got my mini jumbo at GC a few weeks ago, used. At $150 off the regular price, it was a steal! A little cleaning, and a new set of Martin Marques strings and it was a match made in heaven!

Personally ive always much liked the look of a dreadnought to any other build

of acoustic guitar, its just i like that traditional look best

but all to their own :)