Figure 1 – The Seagull Entourage mini jumbo
Seagull (by Godin) produces some of the finest acoustic guitars for under $500. The Seagull Entourage Mini Jumbo is currently priced around $400. Not bad at all.
This guitar was hand crafted in LaPatrie, Qu’bec Canada. Lets take a look at the features:
Body: Mini Jumbo
Top: Solid cedar
Back: Wild Cherry
Sides: Wild Cherry
Neck: Silver Leaf Maple
Fretboard: Rosewood, 21 frets
Bridge: Rosewood
Finish: Rustic Burst Semi-gloss
Nut: Tusq®
Saddle: compensated, Tusq®
Nut Width: 1.72″
Upper Bout: 11.59″
Lower Bout: 16″
Waist: 9.53″
Body Length: 2.0″
Body Depth: 5″
As stated above, the top is solid cedar! Although it does produce a nice sound, it is fairly delicate and will easily scratch and dent. The finish is a very thin semi-gloss. I don’t mind this. I actually like it this way – You just have to be extra careful if you don’t want tons of dents and scratches in your guitars body (which WILL happen). The action on this thing out of the box was just perfect. It came with fairly low action which made it a breeze to play. The mini jumbo body style is one of the main reasons I purchased this guitar. The bigger dips in the body make it feel much more comfortable than a standard dreadnought guitar as it rests on your thigh. The rustic sunburst finish is also candy to the eyes.
The neck is a little bigger than most acoustics but isn’t as wide at the nut as the Seagull S6. I hear some people say that the headstock on the Seagulls are ugly. Sure, it’s a little smaller than a lot of other headstocks but in my opinion it still looks great. The smaller size does not affect tuning stability or anything else, but it does feel better from the players point of view. The Seagull Entourage Mini Jumbo stays in tune better than my Takamine and my Ibanez acoustics.
I’m willing to say that it is the best 6 string acoustic guitar for under $1k. I played much higher priced guitars at the music store, but none of them had the mojo that this one did. Highly recommended!
