Why Seagull Guitars are the Best Bang for the Buck

Why Seagull Guitars are the Best Bang for the Buck

NOTE: this post reflects our opinion on Seagull guitars. We are not sponsored by or affiliated with Seagull, Godin, or any other related company, nor have we been asked to write about them. This is our unsolicited but glowing recommendation and endorsement of their products, based only on our experience.

If there's one thing you'll see consistently on this blog when it comes to discussing quality acoustic guitars, it's that we give exceptionally high marks to Seagull, across the board. Perhaps of note, Seagull isn't actually our favorite guitar maker, nor the one whose products we own the most of! (That would be Martin, btw.) We've ranked our top ten acoustic guitar brands before, and though we placed them high on that list, there were others above them.

In other words, we believe you can get another guitar better than the very best Seagull, if you're willing to pay up for it. What we consistently say, however, is that they give you more for the price than any other manufacturer.

The point of this post is to explain two things:

1. Why we believe that
2. How they're able to sell such good guitars at such low prices

Why We Consider Seagull to be Such Good Value for the Money

I suppose we can start at the bottom and work our way up here. When I bought my first Seagull, an Entourage Rustic Mini Jumbo, it was in their entry-level acoustic guitar series. I paid under $400 for it, brand-new. Today, a few things have changed: that model is no longer available, other models can now be called "entry-level" in Seagull's lineup, and (sadly) Entourage Rustic models are now made with spruce tops rather than the cedar that I so love on mine.

However, much of what I could say about my first Seagull then holds true for any low-end Seagull today. Some of the attributes I would highlight include:

• Handmade in North America (Canada) to exacting quality standards
• Quality materials, including better-than-typical laminates compared to most manufacturers
• Solid top
• Though it's an "intangible" and subjective quality: tone way beyond its price point

These are things just about anyone familiar with Seagull guitars seems to agree with, including the intangible and subjective one! Those unfamiliar with Seagulls often compliment owners of Entourage or S6 models on how great their instruments sound, and are shocked to learn they've just been impressed by a guitar that cost so little.

As you move up the lineup, you find a lot of other pleasant surprises. Let's consider some of the things that make the Maritime SWS models a steal:

• As with all Seagulls, handmade in North America (Canada)
• All solid wood construction
• Tonewoods that most manufacturers charge a lot for
• Current models include good electronics
• Can be had for under $1,000

There is some variance depending on what years a Maritime SWS model was produced. Currently (2020) you'll find them with solid mahogany bodies, but in prior model years there were many produced with rosewood. Any year of this series is great. But the pricing today is just incredible for what you get. You can buy a natural-finish Maritime SWS dreadnought with electronics for $699! Or if you want it a little more "dressed up," with a gloss top and a cutaway, it'll run you $979.

Let's compare that to our favorite manufacturer, Martin. In the same price range, you can find their Road Series DRS1 or DRS2. Both of those feature solid sapele for the back and sides, with either a sapele or spruce top, and not quite as nice of a pickup. Sapele is the inexpensive alternative to mahogany. Martin sells a very similar guitar made of sapele, for roughly the same price as Seagull charges for genuine mahogany. The value for money doesn't even compare, unless the signature Martin sound is specifically what you're after -- in which case a "lesser" tonewood might be a worthwhile trade-off.

Taylor's solid sapele offerings aren't in the same price range at all.

Breedlove, for a while, offered solid mahogany and solid rosewood guitars in the $900-1,000 range via their Stage Series. They were great instruments for the price -- I personally owned both the dreadnought and concert models with rosewood bodies. But those didn't have the same distinction as Seagull and Martin, of being handmade in North America (Martin's Road Series guitars are made in their Mexico factory). The Stage Series Breedloves were made overseas, most recently in China, and were known to have the occasional quality-control issue.

There really isn't anyone currently offering the level of material quality and craftsmanship that Seagull does for anywhere near the price.

And we can move all the way up to the top of their line, where you'll never spend more than about $1,500 for a brand-new Artist model. The quality of materials, fit and finish are truly top-notch. Unfortunately they're no longer using rosewood on these models either, but I'm guessing that has to do with laws concerning importing/exporting rosewood.

If we compare that to Martin again, a Seagull Artist Mosaic EQ easily matches up quality-wise with a D-18E. The Artist can currently be had for a street price of just under $1,200, while the D-18E is going for $2,899. Some might make the argument that you should compare the Artist to Martin models such as D-15 or D-16 variants, since they're lower-priced mahogany guitars. But spec-for-spec, the 18 series is the more accurate comparison. And still, the 15 and 16 Series models will run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500, for a "lower-end" instrument than an Artist.

To be fair, there are some models in Seagull's lineup (specifically the Performer Series) that I don't feel are as phenomenal of a value. That's not to say they're overpriced; it's just that they aren't way below what I'd expect, the way other Seagull models are. They're appropriately priced.

Overall, Seagull's "bang for the buck" factor is off the charts!

How Seagull Offers Such Quality at Such Low Prices

I've heard several explanations for this, but I'm only going to list what I can verify.

For one thing, Robert Godin, the founder of parent company Godin, along with their other brands (Simon & Patrick, Art & Lutherie, Norman, and LaPatrie) made an agreement with the Canadian government, allowing the companies to use trees that have fallen on their own, which reduces some of the cost of materials -- a major part of any guitar manufacturer's overhead.

Secondly, Godin makes a point to not waste any of the wood they get their hands on. The article linked above details some of the ways they ensure it is all put to good use. But something else they've historically done, which is part of the reason my amazing Entourage Rustic guitar was so affordable, is to make use of some lumber that other manufacturers would simply discard.

The "Rustic" designation means that the wood used for the top was cosmetically imperfect. Most guitar makers would simply discard this wood and roll expense of the wasted material into their overhead -- cost that gets passed onto the customer. Seagull, on the other hand, applies stains to this otherwise perfectly good lumber, giving a nice sunburst appearance that either covers, or in some cases incorporates, the imperfections into the aesthetic of the guitar. Less waste means less overhead being passed on to the buyer, so everybody wins. And in the case of my "cosmetically imperfect" top, I still haven't been able to figure out what the imperfection is after owning it for about a decade and a half.

Manufacturing processes and cost-effective use of equipment are also factors, but we mostly wanted to highlight the two items above as they are truly unique to Seagull/Godin among acoustic guitar manufacturers.

For these reasons, Seagull is able to sell instruments that simply should not be seen as equal competitors to others in their same price range. They are of higher quality and sound better than just about anything on the market that costs the same. And that's why we give them such glowing reviews and endorsements, even though we've never been asked to!