1966 D-50. What's it worth?

[thynquer]

I am the original owner of a 1966 D-50 that I bought when I graduated from High School. It is in excellent condition, but unfortunately, I need to sell it. I believe, because of the date when it was manufactured, that the rosewood is Brazilian Rosewood.
Any help on setting the price and the best way to sell it would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[taabru45]

Do you need any body parts? :shock: That was my first guitar too.....reallly wish I still had it. Steffan

 

[twocorgis]

Do tell, thynquer. Inquiring minds want to know. :mrgreen:

 

[West R Lee]

I am the original owner of a 1966 D-50 that I bought when I graduated from High School. It is in excellent condition, but unfortunately, I need to sell it. I believe, because of the date when it was manufactured, that the rosewood is Brazilian Rosewood.
Any help on setting the price and the best way to sell it would be appreciated.

Thanks

Much depends on whether or not it is indeed Brazilian and the condition of the guitar, especially the neck and top. Some good pictures would be an enormous help.

West

 

[GardMan]

Jay @ New Hope has a '71 D-50 (scroll down a few) he thinks is Brazilian (late... but he should know)... I'd think this one has condition issues (three top cracks mentioned) which bring the price down (also the non-original fret markers don't work for me).

Here's a '70 "BRW" D-50 @ 9th South. No price listed, but you might call them and see what they're asking.

I think I recall New Hope selling a refin late '60s BRW D-50 for $2.5 ~ $3K last year... but I may be mis-remembering. Private eBay sales would probably net 70% of the price you would see in a shop. And we might have even seen one sell on LTG?

I'm sure we'd all love to see pics!
Dave

 

[GardMan]

Oh... and welcome to LTG! Sorry you have to sell her... (specially since I can't be the buyer!). Dave

 

[AlohaJoe]

Mine is a '65, and I think all the D50s were rosewood at least in that year, D40s were mahogany. I bought mine new also and it would be hard to part with... I'm sorry you have to sell.

 

[dreadnut]

Do you need any body parts?

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Why, you got some to spare, Steffan?

 

[evenkeel]

Welcome to the gang. Sorry you have to sell the D-50.

According to the Vintage Guitar Price Guide a '63-'68 Brazilian rosewood D-50 has a value of $3,600-$4,500. All the usual provisos of course. First and foremost that is a "retail" price for a D-50 in excellent condition.

 

[jgmaute]

Welcome to LTG. Kick your shoes off, relax your mind. Since you're the original owner, if you've got the papers, you may want to take it to a Guild Warranty Repair center (if there's one close) to see if it needs a neck reset or any other warranty service (and if it would be covered under the lifetime warranty). If the work is needed, it would delay your ability to sell your guitar which may not be good in your situation, but increase the value of your guitar when you can sell it. If there isn't a warranty/repair center nearby just taking it to a luthier for a once over helps, it may need some minor neck adjustment etc and you can share that information when you list it. Otherwise when folks look at an older guitar they more or less assume X amount of $ to get it set up properly. Sorry you have to part with it, hopefully you'll find it a new good home.

In terms of the best way to sell, if you want a person-to-person sale there Craig's List (count on folks offering less than you ask) or on consignment with a local store. If you don't mind shipping the guitar (plenty of posts here in the archives about how to pack) you could list it here, on acoustic guitar forum, or on ebay. (You'd have to check LTG and AGF regarding posting policies, if you don't have an ebay account some might buyers be hesitant to buy from a new seller.) joan

 

[jgmaute]

Jay @ New Hope has a '71 D-50 (scroll down a few) he thinks is Brazilian (late... but he should know)... I'd think this one has condition issues (three top cracks mentioned) which bring the price down (also the non-original fret markers don't work for me).

Here's a '70 "BRW" D-50 @ 9th South. No price listed, but you might call them and see what they're asking.

I think I recall New Hope selling a refin late '60s BRW D-50 for $2.5 ~ $3K last year... but I may be mis-remembering. Private eBay sales would probably net 70% of the price you would see in a shop. And we might have even seen one sell on LTG?

I'm sure we'd all love to see pics!
Dave

Any thoughts about the inlay on the '71 D-50? Does it look like it may have been from the custom shop of just added later by a local luthier? joan

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

Welcome to LTG. Kick your shoes off, relax your mind. Since you're the original owner, if you've got the papers, you may want to take it to a Guild Warranty Repair center (if there's one close) to see if it needs a neck reset or any other warranty service (and if it would be covered under the lifetime warranty). If the work is needed, it would delay your ability to sell your guitar which may not be good in your situation, but increase the value of your guitar when you can sell it. If there isn't a warranty/repair center nearby just taking it to a luthier for a once over helps, it may need some minor neck adjustment etc and you can share that information when you list it. Otherwise when folks look at an older guitar they more or less assume X amount of $ to get it set up properly. Sorry you have to part with it, hopefully you'll find it a new good home.

In terms of the best way to sell, if you want a person-to-person sale there Craig's List (count on folks offering less than you ask) or on consignment with a local store. If you don't mind shipping the guitar (plenty of posts here in the archives about how to pack) you could list it here, on acoustic guitar forum, or on ebay. (You'd have to check LTG and AGF regarding posting policies, if you don't have an ebay account some might buyers be hesitant to buy from a new seller.) joan

I remember reading that Fender will not warrant older Guilds.
Unfortunately, I believe that this one would be in that category.

 

[jazzmang]

Welcome to LTG. Kick your shoes off, relax your mind. Since you're the original owner, if you've got the papers, you may want to take it to a Guild Warranty Repair center (if there's one close) to see if it needs a neck reset or any other warranty service (and if it would be covered under the lifetime warranty). If the work is needed, it would delay your ability to sell your guitar which may not be good in your situation, but increase the value of your guitar when you can sell it. If there isn't a warranty/repair center nearby just taking it to a luthier for a once over helps, it may need some minor neck adjustment etc and you can share that information when you list it. Otherwise when folks look at an older guitar they more or less assume X amount of $ to get it set up properly. Sorry you have to part with it, hopefully you'll find it a new good home.

In terms of the best way to sell, if you want a person-to-person sale there Craig's List (count on folks offering less than you ask) or on consignment with a local store. If you don't mind shipping the guitar (plenty of posts here in the archives about how to pack) you could list it here, on acoustic guitar forum, or on ebay. (You'd have to check LTG and AGF regarding posting policies, if you don't have an ebay account some might buyers be hesitant to buy from a new seller.) joan

I remember reading that Fender will not warrant older Guilds.
Unfortunately, I believe that this one would be in that category.

The word directly from the guys at Guild is that they will warrant older Guilds. Each case is different and from what I've seen, they are very reasonable and nice when it comes to warranty coverage. Just have your receipt!

 

[Bill Ashton]

I believe what was said at the LMG Q & A was that older guitar warranty claims are judged on a case-by-case basis. Most importantly I guess, is that Dave R. did not say "no" to warranty claims.

 

[fronobulax]

Welcome to LTG. Please stick around even if you sell your baby.

To add some weight to the warranty comments, I was also at LMG 2010 and heard what was said by Fender employees. It boils down to the following:

There is no blanket policy concerning "lifetime" warranties on pre-Fender Guilds. Each instrument is handled on a case by case basis. To increase the likelihood that your case results in warranty repairs, the following steps are suggested. First, make sure the problem to be fixed can be attributed to a manufacturing defect and not just wear and tear or unintentional abuse. Second, make sure your "original purchaser" paperwork is intact. And finally, understand that Guild and Fender repair facilities are effectively independent so if you talk to a Fender shop and don't like the answer, talk to a Guild shop and visa versa.

Now, with all that, and with all respect to the person who first made the suggestion, I would not bother with any attempt on warranty service unless the instrument has flaws that you actually notice. Doing so will delay the sale and is unlikely IMO to increase the price you can ask for and realistically expect.

 

[adorshki]

Now, with all that, and with all respect to the person who first made the suggestion, I would not bother with any attempt on warranty service unless the instrument has flaws that you actually notice.

On top of all that, if the inlays were not originally built in by Guild, that's probably an automatic warranty void, it could have caused undue stress in the instrument which they had no control over.

 

[Nigel Wickwire]

Here's a 1969 D50:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250659223812


Might be a good auction to watch, to give you an idea of value.


~nw

 

[West R Lee]

Goodness gracious, that will be a cool auction to watch Nigel. Thanks man.......that sucker will bring a fortune.

West

 

[thynquer]

Thanks for all the feedback and the links to the auction on ebay for the 1969 D50. I'm planning on taking some pictures of my D50 tomorrow and post them here.

 

[Mica]

While picking up a non-Guild guitar that had just had some work done, I decided to bring in my D25 to have it evaluated. Its an 87 and has been in need of some work for an embarrassingly long time. Apparently it needs to have the fret-board re-planed and new frets put on (needing new frets was the only obvious issue, to me anyway). I mentioned that I was glad that it didn't need a neck reset and his response was that it will probably never need a reset, that Guilds are over-built and rarely need to have their necks reset. He also recommended that I use medium gauge strings instead of lights because in his opinion, due to the amount of mass on the top, I'm not getting the full tone that the guitar is capable of by trying to drive it with light gauge strings. Any thoughts?

Regards,
Kevin