Why did YOU buy a SEAGULL ??

I just told my story on the "Are you a reborn guitarist?" thread Robert W started. It includes how I came to buy a Seagull. I went to town for new strings, and played a Maritime dread while I was there...... had never heard of Seagull before that, but traded my Washburn 12 string for it that day.

Had a closet full of cheap off shore guitars that didn't do anything for me, then saw an add for a seagull....a what?..it was only $100, came with a case, strap, new strings, etc. so I bought it. Turned out to be a real jewel. Unloaded the others and rejoiced and marveled at the seagull. Became a diehard fan with a quickness. For a 20 year old beater guitar it played almost as good as my dads '58 Stratocaster. One thing led to another and bought 2 more seagulls...I'm hooked.

Many of the pros who play products from the Godin Company pay more for the pickups than for the guitar.  Dan Walsh and Gurf Morlix have both told me that they did.



Dan Walsh

Sam Baker

Lee Renaldo (Sonic Youth)


Tegan Quin


Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams)


Cris Cuddy

Yes, I find that many folks seem to do it that way. All of the folks pictured have A&L Amis except Cris Cuddy, who has another A&L model.  Cris has a Baggs Element in his.  Of the other folks pictured, Dan and Gurf are the only two I've talked to and Dan's was a sound hole pickup, but I can't recall what kind. Gurf had 2 Arts & Luthiery Amis in different tunings when he came to the Shelter Valley Folk Festival. I don't recall the type of pickup he used.
Probably because my newest guitar is from 1962, all of mine have after market pickups.

In the late 1990s, I saw Peppino D'Agostino perform live, and was blown away. My wife at the time began following his website, and saw that he was performing for free at a music store in the town he lives in, Benicia, CA. We went, and that was when Seagull first released his signature Artist series (he had been playing a Martin and an Ovation before that). He demonstrated the guitar, and played a mini concert in the store. From that point on he always had his Peppino Artist with him (I've seen him play at least 15 times). So in 2007, I was in Guitar Center, and found myself in the high-end acoustic room. I saw a Breedlove with a red cedar top, and out of curiosity, I played it. I fell in love, it was the perfect tone for me. I asked a salesman who wandered in how much it was, because it had no price tag on it. He said, "Well, I can go look it up for you, but if it has no price tag, it's over $3,000." I quickly put it back on the wall. I told him I had tried it just because I had never heard of using cedar on a guitar, and it was just perfect for me. He mentioned, "Well in the other room, we have a couple cedar tops that are more reasonably priced." So I checked them out. Both identical, but the first one I tried didn't do it for me. I almost gave up, but he got me to try out the other one. It turned out to be much closer in tone to the Breedlove, and I bought it right then and there. It has been my #1 main ax ever since!

As it turns out, I also have the same model.  A few years back, my son was working at a local music store, and he called me to tell me someone had just traded in a really nice Seagull that he thought sounded great.  So I went to look at it:   It was essentially the same as the Seagull S6 I had at the time, only with a gloss finish and the QII system, and some nicer trimmings.  Devon was right; it sounded lovely, so I bought it.  I still have it. Nice guitar, and I prefer it to the current crop of Performers in maple.

Doesn't have a name, though.