1978 D 25 CH

[Westerly Wood]

Fantastic lineup right here!
I also think a standard D25 arched with spruce top would have been my next dread if I were continuing on with dreads...or a beat up D4.

 

[Bonneville88]

Never met a Guild D25 I didn't like for one reason or another.
That particular photo line up was a once-upon-a-hog-dread incident,
but that wasn't all of them.
I'm down to two D25s - an all-hog Corona flat back, and a '76 spruce-top.
The Westerly Collection D120 in the lower left corner of that photo will be sold.
For now, I'm holding on to the all-hog (D20?) prototype on the lower right.

 

[wileypickett]

When the D4 Mahogany was introduced there was a comment that the bracing had been tweaked due to the stiffer top wood:
Suspect that's what you're seeing.

Thanks for posting adorshki -- I'm intrigued by this. (Maybe I'm just easiy intrigued?!)

Since how braces are patterned (ladder-braced; A-braced; X-braced, etc), where they're postioned, and how they're treated (shaved; scalloped, etc.) is a big part of what makes a guitar sound the way it does (sayeth the experts), the fact that Guild varied the way they braced their mohogony topped guitars versus their other tops, is -- well, interesting.

Before this thread started, I'd never noticed the top bracing on my D15 didn't extend under the kerfing. I'd assumed the top material being mahogony was the only contributing factor to how these guitars sounded.

Anyway, I'll be sticking my dental mirror down the throats of my other Guilds as I take them out for their exercises over the next few weeks.

 

[adorshki]

Thanks for posting adorshki -- I'm intrigued by this. (Maybe I'm just easiy intrigued?!)

Since how braces are patterned (ladder-braced; A-braced; X-braced, etc), where they're postioned, and how they're treated (shaved; scalloped, etc.) is a big part of what makes a guitar sound the way it does (sayeth the experts), the fact that Guild varied the way they braced their mohogony topped guitars versus their other tops, is -- well, interesting.

Before this thread started, I'd never noticed the top bracing on my D15 didn't extend under the kerfing. I'd assumed the top material being mahogony was the only contributing factor to how these guitars sounded.

Anyway, I'll be sticking my dental mirror down the throats of my other Guilds as I take them out for their exercises over the next few weeks.

As I'm sure you know bracing is as important as a good top, and we know Guild had great tops.

I suspect they continuously adjusted bracing to match build styles, and it was their real "secret sauce", but it was only sporadically referenced in their lit. Still a lot to be discovered about their bracing changes over the years. They finally dedicated a couple of articles to it in a couple of the Guild Galleries:

Guild Gallery Catalog - 1999 Winter | GAD's Ramblings

PDF Version: Here More about: [ Guild Guitars ][ Dogs ][ Cozy Tales ][ Ferret-Dog ] Donate: PayPal Crypto: BTC | ETH | Doge BTC: bc1qgke2eeuwjafudateev08ekytn3g3mpl2w5a542ETH: 0x0AC57f8e0A49dc06Ed4f7926d169342ec4FCd461Doge: DFWpLqMr6QF67t4wRzvTtNd8UDwjGTQBGs

www.gad.net

Note that pic of a dreadnought top shows bracing extending all the way to its the edges.

Guild Gallery Catalog - 1998 | GAD's Ramblings

PDF Version: Here More about: [ Guild Guitars ][ Dogs ][ Cozy Tales ][ Ferret-Dog ] Donate: PayPal Crypto: BTC | ETH | Doge BTC: bc1qgke2eeuwjafudateev08ekytn3g3mpl2w5a542ETH: 0x0AC57f8e0A49dc06Ed4f7926d169342ec4FCd461Doge: DFWpLqMr6QF67t4wRzvTtNd8UDwjGTQBGs

www.gad.net

Note that one says they never use(d)(?) scalloped bracing on full size jumbos because of the top width. So they obviously put a lot of thought into bracing, suspect it was always part of the company design philosophy.