NGD - Seagull Entourage Rustic Mini Jumbo -- Noisy sound.

[Mystery123]

My only Seagull was a S6 that was horrible so I got rid of it but wanted to try another from that company as lot of you guys say they are great.
Here's the mini jumbo.
Excellent condition except one ding on the front.
G string is missing plus old strings so I'll have change them.

What do you think about this against S6?
It feels very lightweight.

[personatech]

I tried a Seagull Entourage mini-jumbo just a couple of months ago. Bought an S6 Original Slim instead because the S6 had a deeper tone and a cool growl that the mini jumbo seemed to lack. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Why did you "hate" the S6?

[Mystery123]

One thing I noticed on this guitar is there's not much winding on the tuners.
If you look at the pic below, low 3 strings don't even wind once.
Even the high E,B strings have one or two turns.
I checked the tuning on high strings, strummed few times and it was already flat.
I've never seen strings like this.
No wonder PO didn't play much.

I'd understand if they were locking tuners...


Let's see what strings I have in stock.

Originally Posted by personatech

I tried a Seagull Entourage mini-jumbo just a couple of months ago. Bought an S6 Original Slim instead because the S6 had a deeper tone and a cool growl that the mini jumbo seemed to lack. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Why did you "hate" the S6?

No projection, no resonance.
Sounded like I was playing strings over a cardboard.

[Mystery123]

The only strings I had was Elixir Polyweb medium .013-.056 so I put them on the Seagull.
Sound is brighter but that's not what I don't like.
It has very light sound and has string noise more than other guitars.
The strings ring lightly and almost sound like tinnitus.

Can't describe properly but the sound is in two stages.
First bright light annoying sound comes when striking the strings followed by the guitar resonance, not in sync.
Other guitars have that sound coming together.

It sounds fine picking but strumming is just too noisy.

Here's some quick sound samples to show what I mean.
It's hard to capture but something is better than nothing.

I'll give it few weeks to get used to.
I feel like my ears are ringing when playing the Seagull.
Probably, I'm used to heavier sounding guitars and cedar top is not my thing.
Playing this back, I can hear the metallic ringing on the Seagull. My ears don't like that.
What you think?

Yamaha FS700S:


Fender CD-140SCE:


Seagull:

[JMFingerstyle]

I have one of those in my stable, and liked it for fingerstyle before I got my Taylor 322ce. Since then, I haven't played it much, but here are my opinions, for what it's worth.

That model has a very soft cedar top, which should be warm, woody, and responsive to a light touch. I think medium gauge strings may be over driving the top a bit, which is why you're getting a kind of brash sound out of it. I agree, that's not how that guitar should sound.

I would switch to a light phosphor bronze or a set of Elixir lights, and I think you'll be a bit happier. If you're primarily a strummer, though, I never thought this was a particularly good guitar for that technique.

By the way, expect that top to wear and pick up dings very easily. It is indeed very soft.

I don't own that model but I have played a couple of seagulls a fair amount.
.13 I would regard as too heavy for that guitar (as stated before).
some .11s should do it, I've used D'Addario EJ26-3D Phosphor Bronze and been happy with them.
it will be bright and tinny until the the top gets played in again and the new strings settle down; idk 100 minutes of playing time maybe.
if it's anything like mine (me), it will sound better the more your play it. some of this will be from becoming accustomed to the nuances and some will be because you will adjust your playing style without realizing it.
I would expect it to eventually project mids better than an s6 but don't dig in so much, that might overdrive it.

[Mystery123]

Originally Posted by jpmf

I don't own that model but I have played a couple of seagulls a fair amount.
.13 I would regard as too heavy for that guitar (as stated before).
some .11s should do it, I've used D'Addario EJ26-3D Phosphor Bronze and been happy with them.
it will be bright and tinny until the the top gets played in again and the new strings settle down; idk 100 minutes of playing time maybe.
if it's anything like mine (me), it will sound better the more your play it. some of this will be from becoming accustomed to the nuances and some will be because you will adjust your playing style without realizing it.
I would expect it to eventually project mids better than an s6 but don't dig in so much, that might overdrive it.

I'll try light strings when they get here.

However, another thing that annoys me in this guitar is the fret height.
They are very low.
So low that barre chords are very hard to play as my finger is not perfectly straight to barre all strings like a capo and some parts already hit the board.

This is fairly new guitar and no fret wear at all so it's setup like this from the factory.
I checked Yamaha frets and they are much higher and barre chords don't buzz as there's enough height to apply pressure.
I might try different strings but can't do nothing for the frets.
This one will go out soon.

[Mystery123]

Light strings are not here yet so in the mean time, I swapped the new medium Elixir Polyweb strings from Seagull with old light gauge strings on Fender CD-140SCE.
With old lighter gauge string from Fender, the Seagull sounds way better now.
Not much string noise and sound is more in sync plus easier to fret even though fret height is low.

Weird thing is Fender that is also suggested to use light strings, sounds great with medium strings.
It does have slight string noise that could be due to new strings but nowhere noticeable and harsh when it was in Seagull.

Looks like Cedar top was targeted for picking and soft strumming.

I'll put new light strings when I get them and hopefully, it'll be better outcome.

[Mystery123]

It looks pretty but I prefer other guitars so will pass this along.

Basking in the Sun:

[Dloz]

I have this guitar and love it. It has a lot of "character " I bought it used for outside campfire play. It sounds great with Martin Lifespan light strings. I'm a strummer and this git fits my use. And yes the cedar top is best up but sounds (and smells of your into it) great

[Johnny K]

Did you get a bad S6. Mine sound great.