The Standard for D Standard and Beyond
Wildwoodians, this F-12 Deluxe Mahogany is a special and exciting new offering from our friends at Froggy Bottom, and it's our favorite thing to come from the Green Mountain State since the Vermonter sandwich (which is really saying something, because it's hard to beat a grilled cheese with apple and turkey!). Basically, it's an F-sized Froggy with a twist: a 28.35" scale length that gives it supreme low-end power without sacrificing clarity or note separation.
Though the folks and Froggy Bottom designed it to handle business in D standard, it's also optimal for C and B standard and all sorts of low alternate tunings (open Csus4, anyone?). Your mileage may vary, but for this guy who writes about guitars, it's about as close to low-tuned Valhalla as mortals can get. It's truly amazing--it's as warm, full, and deep as can be, but it still has the focus of a standard-tuned guitar. Imagine early-career Shaquille O'Neal standing next to Michael Jordan, and that's an apt analogy for this guitar sitting next to one optimized for standard. They're both fantastic, and both are defined and muscular, but one is wider and taller.
Of course, this works fabulously with the tonewoods in this particular build. Adirondack spruce has tons of headroom, superb clarity and articulation, tons of volume, and a strong fundamental, while the mahogany back and sides provide plenty of warmth, punch, and roundness. It's truly a match made in heaven.
The lows sound M A S S I V E, and they have an inviting chocolate-y richness, yet they don't sound overly boomy or muddy. Honestly, hitting the low strings made me feel like I was ten feet tall. The midrange is similarly beefy and inviting like an Arby's with a friendly staff, and its wide, expansive warmth is easy to get lost in. The highs have serious mass (maybe the fattest high E I've ever heard!), and they have just the right amount of sparkle. Overall, this guitar has a woody, vintage-inspired voice but with a nice helping of sweet, rich overtones.
We invite you to take the Froggy Bottom F-12 Deluxe Mahogany for a spin and see why we think it sets the standard for D standard tuning and lower. Enter the acoustic BariToneZone and see what sonic delights you can find!
Feelin' Froggy
I will never forget the first time I played a Froggy Bottom guitar. It was my first week at Wildwood, and I was settling into my role as the shop’s copywriter and resident sonic evaluator. One morning, our acoustic guitar specialist Brian asked me if I was into acoustic guitars. “They’re my favorite thing to nerd out about,” I replied. He replied that he had a special treat for me, popped open a case, and presented me with the most gorgeous parlor guitar I’d ever seen. “It’s a Froggy Bottom,” he said, smiling expectantly. I played a couple chords and completely lost my grasp of the English language as well as most of my motor functions.
“I…what…this guitar is…how…how…how is this guitar?” I sputtered as my brain short-circuited. Brian grinned and shrugged his shoulders, palms upturned. “That’s just what Froggy Bottom does.”
I was transfixed, so I had no choice but to take this beautiful parlor guitar—I believe it had an Adirondack spruce top and koa back and sides—for a test drive. Ten minutes turned to twenty, then thirty, and then I started feeling guilty. This wasn’t working, was it? So, with much pain in my heart, I put my new favorite guitar back in its case. I spent almost an hour writing a six hundred-word essay about what a magical experience I had exploring its fretboard. Anything less seemed like an insult to the artistry of the build. It may have been overkill, but surely I wouldn’t have to do that for every Froggy Bottom guitar. They couldn’t all be that good, could they?
I am happy to report that I was completely wrong. Over the last two years, I’ve had the privilege of playing dozens of Froggy Bottoms (there are certainly perks to being their biggest dealer!), and each and every one of them was just as jaw-dropping as that first serial. They all practically demanded that I block out an hour or two of my day to get lost in their fretboards and catalog their myriad inspiring sonic characteristics.
I’ve come to realize that I do this because writing about Froggy Bottom guitars is like writing about a piece of art. I wouldn’t write a review of an album after only listening to it once, and I wouldn’t write an essay about a gallery opening without spending time pondering each painting. To capture the essence of what makes each serial special, I have to dig deep into my writer’s toolbox and use much more evocative language. They force me to step beyond the usual tropes of guitar writing because they continually transcend my notions of what an acoustic guitar can be. After all this time, they still put me at a loss for words, and they frequently make me sputter in disbelief just as I did when I played my first Froggy.
At least, that’s how I justify spending an hour or more writing about each and every Froggy Bottom you see on this page. I hope you enjoy reading my attempts to capture what makes each individual serial special, as they are all profoundly inspiring creative tools. Most of all, I hope that you take one of these guitars for a spin so that you can experience the magic of a Froggy Bottom for yourself. The whole Wildwood team is proud to present our selection of Froggy Bottoms, and we know that you will be amazed by their capacity to cultivate sheer musical joy.
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