Based on my experience with a Sidejack Baritone, I wouldn't buy another Sidejack. Never played a 12-string, though. The idea of a trem on a 12-string makes me want to say, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

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While I love the idea of a 12 string with trem, that jazzmaster style bridge seems like it'd be a problem. Maybe with a more Strat like bridge?

BB_Bunny wrote:

I've never played one. Care to expand on that?

Sure.

The Sidejack Baritone I bought was drop-shipped from some central warehouse; the shop I bought it from never touched it, let alone eyeballed it. If they had, they never would have let it get into the hands of a player.

Numerous paint flaws - which I can sorta forgive on a more-or-less budget instrument - included having paint stains on the white binding. It speaks to poor QC, as I'm no painter or even a paint expert and I saw the flaws immediately. The binding was chipped, the end of the fretboard had a crushed spot, there were razor cut lines in the finish, and there were also gaps spots in the finish, where the wood was visible - but those spots had clear-coat over them.

The trem cavity was off enough that after the guitar had been painted, somebody had to take a hand router to it to add room at the back of the cavity to properly align the trem unit. IMO the guitar should have been cut in half at the moment they realized the trem couldn't be properly installed without heroic measures.

The nut was terrible. I had to have a good nut made for it by my tech.

The fretwork was ... well, depending on your definition of "good" and actual needs as far as frets go ... sub-par to say the absolute least. Sharp fret ends, one fret not fully seated in the fretboard, and the level & crown they performed at the factory was simply not good. Since I was having my tech make a nut for it anyway, I had him fix the frets.

After a couple of weeks of using it after my tech finished his work, I grew so frustrated with the trem system's complete inability to stay in tune that I converted it to a hardtail plate, and that's how it remains today.

Normally I would have simply returned an instrument received in the condition I received this one, but I needed it ASAP to finish a recording project I was in the middle of. Plus I had no confidence a replacement would be any better, and I did like the color and style.

The only positive thing I could say about the guitar before I had all that work done was that the pickups sounded pretty good with a little EQ, but from the factory they were far too close to the strings and needed adjusting. (I don't mind having to set a guitar up to my playing style, but fretting high notes caused the strings to contact the neck pickup.)

So yeah. That's my experience with the Sidejack. Upon sending a description of the problems and photos to back them up, the vendor felt so bad they refunded me $100.

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Last edited: Mar 20, 2024 14:58:51

Just took a look at the Sidejack 12 String on the Eastwood Website.
The 12 string w/ the trem comes with a Wilkinson roller bridge not a traditional Jag/Jazzmaster style bridge. The non-trem model comes with a TOM / stop tail arrangement.

MelWaldorf wrote:

FWIW, I put an Ac'cent vibrato on my Ric 360/12V64 and I love it. No dive bombing, but it's go a 1/2 step and return to pitch. Here's a demo I did a while back of me playing the Shadows' Wonderful Land

I don’t even remember that the Byrds had done that song. Nothin’ sounds like a Ric 12 string.

As to the half-step bends, what more do you need? Ok, there may be some need, but it’s rare for me to dive bomb anything.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Sounds great, Mel! Solid playing and the tuning sounded really stable to me.

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That's good to know! I use my acoustic 12 string often enough for recordings that I figure I'll grab an electric 12 string in the nearish future, but I'm torn about the tremolo (especially after hearing Mel's sweet performance). That said, I've heard some pretty impressive demos of the Harley Benton 12, and would have almost definitely pulled the trigger on one of those had they been in stock. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet) I waited too long to make a decision and ended up getting some other gear instead so tremolo or not, the electric 12 string will have to wait.

Good idea with the Nashville tuning, but I tend to use 12 strings for arpeggiated harmonies and the Nashville tuning seems like it would only really get the effect when doing fully strummed chords. Still, I'd love to mess around with that to get nice floaty/chiffy chords in the backgrounds of recordings without the muddiness of the lower strings in particularly dense sections.

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Last edited: Mar 27, 2024 17:33:40