12 fret Triple-0

For years, flatpickers in the know have regarded these guitars as exceptionally powerful for their seemingly small size. A featherweight hammer. The 12 Fret 000 has very direct projection and attack- almost like a sonic laser when built in the appropriately lightweight style of the late ‘20s. Too many modern takes on this style of guitar end up subtly heavy, overburdened by small dimensional differences skewed for “strength” that would be better left slender and quick like the originals.  

The 12 Fret 000 is an interesting outlier in the range of late ‘20s/early ‘30s steel string guitars. It resembled the standard “parlor” shape of the time, but with a considerably larger air volume than its 0 or 00 sized cousins. In many ways, like the 12 Fret Dreadnought, the seeds of the 14 fret evolution to come are apparent in the 12 Fret 000.