Seagull S6 Original

First Look: Design and Build

The Seagull S6 Original ships from Godin's distribution center in Quebec. At a listed 4.4 pounds it is right in the middle of dreadnought weights, and the first thing that stands out in product photos is how bright the cedar top looks: lighter than Sitka spruce and warmer than Engelmann, which is characteristic of Canadian cedar sourced from the Gaspé peninsula.

The headstock shape is the S6's signature and still looks unusual to anyone expecting a standard Martin-style silhouette. The tapered design actually improves string break angle over the nut and contributes to meaningfully better tuning stability. This is functional engineering, not a cosmetic choice.

Tone and Sound Character

Cedar tops open up faster than spruce, and the S6 is the textbook example. Long-term owners on guitar forums consistently report the bass response improving within the first weeks of playing, and side-by-side demo recordings show a low-mid growl on strummed G chords that is noticeably fuller than the same chord on a new Yamaha FG800. Cedar has a warmer, slightly compressed voice that recording engineers prize for vocal accompaniment.

Fingerpicked passages show good note separation on the S6, particularly on the wound strings. In demo recordings of "Tears in Heaven" and similar fingerstyle staples, the bass line holds its own against the melody in a way that is surprising at this price. The 1.8-inch nut width is meaningfully wider than a standard $500 dreadnought and gives fingers the room to place cleanly between strings.

Playability and Setup

The 1.8-inch nut width is the S6's defining spec for fingerstyle players. It sits between a Martin 1.75-inch and a classical 2-inch, and is wider than almost every sub-$500 dreadnought on the market. Players moving up from a Yamaha FG800 (1.69 inches) will notice the difference within 30 seconds: suddenly your fingers are not crowding each other on C-shape barre chords.

Owners commonly report factory action around 2.5mm at the 12th fret low E and 1.9mm on the high E, which is within usable range for strumming and light fingerpicking. A saddle shave of 0.3mm takes it down to a dedicated fingerstyle setup without introducing buzz.

Build Quality Made in La Patrie

Godin has been building Seagull guitars in La Patrie, Quebec since 1982, and the factory's quality control is legitimate, not the "boutique" marketing claim you see from companies that subcontract abroad. Owner reviews consistently describe flawless binding, correct neck alignment, and no rough fret ends. The pressure-tested cedar top is Godin's proprietary technique for selecting only tops that vibrate consistently under pressure, and it shows in how uniformly owners describe the tone from one S6 to the next.

Silver leaf maple neck and rosewood fingerboard are standard spec. The neck has a subtle satin finish rather than the gloss common on budget dreadnoughts, and owners note it does not turn sticky on hot stages. Tuners are Godin's own sealed die-cast units, which owners report holding pitch reliably after the first two weeks of string stretch.

Who Should Buy the Seagull S6

Buy the Seagull S6 Original if you are an intermediate player with a $400-500 budget who wants a solid-top acoustic with real fingerstyle capability. The 1.8-inch nut width is the single biggest functional advantage over Yamaha and Fender competitors in this price range. The cedar top opens up fast and the Canadian build quality is consistently above the average at this tier.

Skip the S6 if you are a strummer who primarily plays cowboy chords and wants the brightest possible voice: a Yamaha FG800 or a Fender CD-60S will give you more attack for less money. Also skip the S6 if you specifically want rosewood or mahogany back and sides, the wild cherry used on the S6 has a distinctive voice that some players prefer and others find unusual.