Antoria 12 string question

Hi all, I have had an Antoria 12 string folk model, sunburst with hummingbird scratch plate for almost twenty years now.

The model number is 684.12 imported into the UK by Pollocks I think.

Question.... How can I tell if the front, back and sides are laminated or solid wood....plus does anyone have any info on this guitar good or bad.

It still looks great after a lot of travelling and gigging, busking around London too, I carried it in a back plastic bin liner and have never got a hard case for it.

Regards Alan

The front's easy enough, look at the edge of the soundhole, if grain from the front runs right the way through, solid top.if there are stripes parallel with the face, it's laminated (like the edge of a piece of plywood) - the back + sides are more difficult, look to see it the grain appears to go rright through - figure annd such, rather than just the direction. An antoria's unlikely to have solid sides and back, though, being mass-produced in the far east - even the top may well be laminated, as the current crop of inexpensive solid-top guitars is a relatively new phenomenon. Nice guitars, though, I played a couple ermty years ago, quite liked 'em, and their electric copies were pretty good too :o) HTH Dave H. (The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

says...

Looking inside the guitar at the sides and back, if the grain pattern on the outside matches the grain on the inside exactly, you know its solid.

For the top you can do the same, using a dentists mirror to check the inside of the top, or look at the edge of the soundhole to see if its one piece of wood or a sandwich of layers. Sometimes the edge can be bevilled though, and its tricky to tell.