I was in my local guitar shop yesterday and they had a second hand Japanese made Kimbara 12 string for sale, Kimbara were not a big company and used to be a British importer of Japanese and then later on Korean made guitars but this 12 string was incredible build quality, looked gorgeous and sounded lovely and deep, not mandolin like at all, made me think of you stratmanjimbo when I played it as you are looking for one at the moment and this thing was selling for around £300!