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Seriously though, a 12-string guitar is a thing of beauty and wonder. Just do it. Guilds are supposed to be great. I've got a Martin DM, and after the action was fettled it plays and sounds like a dream.
(The Giltrap signature one is excellent too).
I am also tempted by Yamahas offerings. Now if they did a 12 string version of their transacoustic...!
Guild are the way to go.
I do like the look of the Guilds - are there any issues to look out for on the older ones?
Either that or I might go left field and look for an old Ovation
Other than that - as others have said the Vintage Brett + Giltrap offer great value for what they are.
I recently played a couple of old 12 strings at Frailers - one of which was the 'posh' Custom Legend.
They sounded (I regret to say) absolutely dreadful....
When he left it with me he said "It might want some new strings..."
He wasn't wrong - they were disgusting, black and rusty, so it sounded horrible, as you might imagine.
Now, back when Adam was a lad and I was learning about this stuff, the only way to get a 12-string playable was to put light strings on it, tune it to D instead of E, and put a capo on the 2nd fret.
So that's what I did - cleaned it up, ran a drop of walnut oil into the fingerboard, and put some 10's on. And it still sounded horrible! All crashy and too much jangle...
I ended up taking the capo off and tuning it up to E, (praying that the high G wouldn't snap!), and now it sounds ten times better. It's much clearer and more articulate (although it's certainly no Guild).
The current range is the "Woodland" - I googled and found a new one for £599, but I bet you could get a 2nd hand one for a good deal less.
So generally you want to tune a 12-string to D with 11s, and E with 10s. D with 11s sounds immense, but too loose and trashy with 10s exactly as you found. E with 11s will be extremely hard to play - roughly equivalent tension to 15s on a 6-string guitar - and may damage the top or the neck.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
That said I play solo and don’t have to be concerned about matching pitch with others, if you play by yourself I’d recommend it.