Seagull Coastline Grand Guitar

Acoustic Guitar

Seagull Coastline Grand Guitar – Compact Guitar with a Big Sound

The Seagull Coastline Series Grand Parlour is an acoustic guitar that's great fun to play. The Coastline Grand Parlour produces a surprisingly big sound. Using computer modeling to optimize the internal bracing and soundhole design, this Seagull guitar represents an intriguing mix of old and new. Its smaller size leads itself to portability. This is one sweet smaller guitar. It has an amazing sound and great projection for its size. Dollar for dollar, it's possible that Seagull is the best value guitar on the market.

Coastline Cedar Grand

Seagull Coastline guitars are outstanding values. The back and sides of Coastline series guitars are made from a 3-layer lamination of wild cherry wood. With a sound that lands somewhere between the mellow tone of a mahogany guitar and the bright sound of maple, wild cherry has proven itself to be an excellent tone wood. Grown locally, wild cherry is also a choice for guitar construction. Coastline series guitars feature very smooth necks made from silver leaf maple.

Coastline Series

The guitars that make up the Seagull Coastline series represent one of the world's outstanding values in acoustic guitars. The back and sides of the Coastline series models are made from a three-layer lamination of Wild Cherry wood. With a sound that lands somewhere between the mellow tone of a Mahogany guitar and the bright sound of Maple, Wild Cherry has proven itself to be an excellent tone wood. Grown locally, Wild Cherry is also a choice. Coastline series guitars feature very smooth necks made from Silver Leaf Maple.

The Compound Curve Top

The guitar top is the part of the instrument that most affects the sound. It is also the most delicate part of any high quality acoustic guitar. The grade and thickness of the wood used (solid spruce), as well as the bracing structure, have a huge impact on the instrument's sound. The idea of applying an arch or a curve to the top is appealing because the added strength of an arched top should allow for the use of a thinner and more lightly braced top. While this is true, there remains a trade-off in applying a curve to the entire top. The most active part of the top is the area centered on the bridge. Applying a curve to this part of the top restricts movement resulting in a loss of dynamic range. On the other hand, the area of the top above the sound hole moves minimally but is problematic because it tends to sink if the guitar dries out even slightly. This tendency is also encouraged by downward pressure from the fingerboard resting on top of it. The solution is a top that has a compound curve.

In the Seagull Performer's design the top is arched slightly in the area above the sound hole and levels out in the area around the bridge. The compound curve top produces excellent stability in the upper part of the guitar top and the power and projection made possible by leaving the top flat below the sound hole flat. With the weak area above the sound hole stabilized, it is possible to make the rest of the top even more active with a new bracing design that allows unprecedented control over the top vibration. The bracing for the Seagull Performer Cutaway Flame Maple High-Gloss QI Guitar is quarter-sawn spruce, scalloped and carved to conform exactly to the curvature of the tops.

A History of Quality

In 1982 Robert Godin and a few friends produced the first Seagull guitars in the Village of LaPatrie, Quebec. The concept for the Seagull guitar was to take the essential components of the best hand-crafted guitars (such as solid tops and beautiful finishes) and build these features into guitars that could be priced within the reach of working musicians. Of course there is much more to a great guitar than a solid top with a special finish, so we produced this illustrated guide to help you gain some understanding of the basic elements of a great sounding acoustic guitar.

The Seagull story wouldn't be complete without mentioning La Patrie. La Patrie is a small village in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. This is where the first Seagulls were made in the early eighties. Today, La Patrie has a population of about 475 and about half of these people are guitar builders. These folks take a great deal of pride in the guitars they build. Pick one up and you'll see why.

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