Most affordable acoustic guitars are made with the emphasis on looks often at the expense of sound and playability. The Seagull guitar places the emphasis back where it belongs, that is, to provide guitar players of all levels with an affordable handmade solid top guitar with the sound and ease of play normally found in much more expensive instruments. The Seagull design combines many characteristics from the tradition of handcrafted acoustic guitars such as select solid tops and choice tone woods with several innovations, including, a tapered headstock for straight string pull making it easy to tune. The Seagull neck attachment system insures consistent neck pitch and maximum neck/body energy transfer. The most obvious feature of the Seagull is probably the satin lacquer finish. This finish protects the guitar top while allowing the top to vibrate freely and actually improve over time.
Virtually every part in a guitar contributes to the sound of the instrument, but having said that, there is no doubt that the single most important component in the sound of a n acoustic guitar is the vibration of the top. Seagull guitars feature solid cedar or spruce tops. These select woods come from trees that average about 800 years old, and as much as eight feet in diameter. The tight straight grain in this wood is what makes it so desirable.
Seagull necks are made of top quality Honduras mahogany and topped with an Indian rosewood fingerboard. The truss rod sits inside an aluminium enclosure that allows us to reduce the profile of the neck to a very comfortable size, without sacrificing neck stability.
Body
A guitar body works in much the same way as a ported speaker enclosure, that is to say the top vibrates - as in the speaker - and the back and sides reflect the sound in much the same way as the speaker cabinet does. Seagull back and sides are made from three layers of real hard wood, the centre layer runs cross grain for added strength.
Solid top
A solid top vibrates much more freely than a laminated (plywood) top this provides; richer tone, better dynamic range and better balance of tone.
Alcohol Lacquer Finish
It takes about four days to apply the alcohol lacquer finish used on all Seagull guitars, this method of finishing is the single most defining characteristic of a handmade guitar. The lacquer finish protects the wood without impeding its vibration. Most affordable guitars are finished in polyester or polyurethane, the poly finishes are easy to apply and durable, but a poly finish is thick and will not allow the top to freely vibrate and therefore a poly finished top will never age.
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