Yamaha FG-512 12-String Dreadnought, Slotted Headstock

Headstock, and this is the mark that sets the grade. At the crown, on the back, the finish is chipped through to bare wood, with two deeper pits inside the chipped area and a small dark discolouration at one edge of it. The close photograph of the back of the headstock shows it at size.

Tuners. All twelve turn. The cream buttons have yellowed unevenly and one carries a pink stain. The gear plates are tarnished, with spots of green corrosion around the mounting screws.

Headstock face. The arch shaped plate between the slots is the factory truss rod cover, held by three screws: one between the slots level with the bottom tuner pair, and two at its base either side of the tuning fork logo. The back of the headstock is clean, with nothing through bolted.

Body. Clean. No pick wear outside the pickguard, no dings along the edges, no cracks in the top, back or sides, no checking, and no wear through at the forearm or the ribs. The bridge is seated flat and the saddle is straight. Binding, purfling, rosette and logos are intact and the gloss is still there.

Binding. Two small hardened cream deposits sit proud of the binding at the waist on one side, and a small metal fitting sits in the binding at the waist on the other. Neither has marked the wood underneath.

Frets and board. No divots visible and the bound rosewood board is unmarked.

Case. Black hardshell, arched lid. General scuffing and one abrasion through the covering on the upper bout. It closes and it latches.

The guitar and the black hardshell case it is photographed with. Nothing else.

A twelve string is the guitar you reach for when a six string is not doing it. The strings run in pairs, and the lower four pairs are tuned an octave apart, so an ordinary open chord comes out sounding like two people playing.

This is Yamaha's FG-512, the twelve string in the FG line. Yamaha built it from 1977 to 1981 and built all of them in Taiwan. The top, back and sides are laminate, which is Yamaha's own spec for this model, though much of the trade lists the 512 as a solid top. The solid top sibling is the FG-612S, a different guitar. Laminate is also why a knock that would worry you on a solid top is a smaller problem on this one.

There were two headstocks over the run and this is the earlier one. The later FG-512 II has a solid head and trades higher, which catches people out, because slots usually look like the more expensive option.

What recommends this particular guitar is the body. No cracks in the top, back or sides, no checking, no wear through at the forearm or the ribs, and the binding and purfling unbroken the whole way round. The headstock is the exception. At the crown, on the back, the finish is chipped through to bare wood with two deeper pits inside the chipped area. The close photograph of the back of the headstock shows it at size.

We have played it. It plays and it sounds good.

Pickup only. We are not shipping instruments yet, so this one is bought here: 215 East Lewis Street, third floor, Livingston, by appointment.

Right for somebody who already owns a six string and wants the other sound in the house. Twelve strings suit open chords, capoed rhythm parts, anything sitting under a vocal, and any song that wants width rather than detail. They are strummed more than they are picked, and most of what makes one worth owning happens in open position. A laminate dreadnought is also the sensible thing to leave out on a stand in a room whose humidity you do not control.

Buy something else if this would be your first guitar. The neck is wider, the strings take more effort to hold down, and keeping twelve of them in tune with each other is a habit rather than a knack. Buy something else if you want one instrument that does everything, because a good six string is that and this is not. And buy something else if you want a pickup in it. There are no electronics here, and fitting a twelve string is a job for a tech rather than an afternoon.

The slotted headstock is either the reason you want this guitar or the thing you will curse at every string change. Worth knowing which you are before you come over.