Dadaist
Senior Member
We enjoy our guitars, whether your Guild was made by those former Epiphone craftmen and immigrant, Italian cabinet makers in New York City, Hoboken and Westley or later in Corona, Tacoma and now, New Hartford..., we sometimes lose sight that these guitars, though beautiful to admire, to hold, are meant to be played which is the measure of any instrument. Without that, they are just very attractive, wooden and metal sculptures.
I happen to see a local ad for a D35 at what appeared to be a reasonable price. The seller didn't give any more information other than it was older and a Guild. Now to someone born in 1985, older could be a guitar made in the early '90s. He didn't include a photograph.
My morning was free and the town not that far away. I called the number, spoke to a young man, got an address, a time and made arrangements to meet at His house.
After driving east along the Foothills through the small towns with names like Monrovia, Altadena and Sierra Madre that at the beginning of the 20th century, were known throughout this County for their citrus and produce but were now, like the rest of Southern California, concrete and asphalt covered housing developments, strip malls and commercial real estate. A few minutes later, I pulled up to a small, tan, '30s stucco, Spanish revival bungalow on a quiet, tree lined street in an older neighborhood.
He met me at the door and showed me inside. The guitar was sitting in a gig bag
up against the back of a patterned velvet sofa. As He unzipped the case, He told me he was a bass player and that the guitar had been acquired from an ex-girlfriend just before they broke up. Those two elements didn't surprise me as it seems that several acoustic guitars I've owned over the years.... previously belonged to bass players and they were selling it to buy something,.." precision, fretless and made by Fender". My theory about selling an Ex's former possession has more to do with personal memories, usually unpleasant, than anything else. He took the guitar out and I could see why the asking price had been on the low side.
This D35 was in a rough state of affair. Though it appeared structurally sound, the expression,.."Ridden Hard And Put Away Wet.." came to mind. The neck, though surprisingly straight, was devoid of most of its lacquer and color. The headstock was so worn that you could barely make out the reverse "V" that told you that you were holding a guitar that according to the faded label in the soundhole was made in New Jersey. The serial number revealed that it left the factory in late 1969. The back was a series of dents, gouges, and small pin-prick holes. On the plus side, the spruce top was dirty, but appeared sound.
Every edge on this guitar seemed to have been hit, abrated and scraped, but fortunately, not cracked. When their detractors and critics chide Guilds as being, "..too heavy and built like tanks,.." in this little guitars case, it was probably the only reason it survived for the last forty plus years. The guitar sounded okay as I picked a couple of John Hurt pieces. Even with rusty, dead strings that were new twenty or thirty years in the past, the guitar still had that unmistaken, sweet bottom of a vintage, mahogany Guild.
I offered him what I thought, given the guitar's cosmetic condition, a fair and reasonable price and he said he'd think about it. Twenty minutes later driving to my next appointment,
I get a call from him saying that I could have the guitar. He'd found a bass that just came available and this sale would give him the funds he needed.
I spent the next morning and part of the afternoon cleaning years and years of grime, on the fretboard and body from the forlorn D35. After a lot of elbow grease and very pricey guitar polish/wax what was revealed was a patina of amber tinted, spruce. I tried, as best I could seal the damage to the finish on the back and neck. I refrained from taking all of the corrosion off of the original open back tuners, as it added to the overall look. A set of new Martins PBs and it was ready. The improvement in the sound was noticeable, but not as much as you'd think.
Now I came to the point of what to do with the guitar. I didn't really need another Dreadnaught ( I can hear your chorus of,.."Blasphemy....blasphemy, a Pox on You......one can never have too many Dreadnaughts!!!! ) and I was thinking of offering it to one of my guitar students who enjoy playing my Guilds. I know that the cosmetics would put them off regardless of the sound or any other consideration. Pretty guitars, will always be pretty. That's why I'm told that those D55s and F50s are so popular with the young people these days,...right?
I decided to put the guitar back for sale at a price that would pay for the guitar, my time, but nothing near what it would be worth if it was "restored". And it could be. Someone could refinish it in such a way that it would look like a nice used, '69 D35 that had been living under someone's bed since Nixon's first term. There are artisans out there who can duplicate the crazing on the back of a vintage, '57 Strat and other Wonders of Moderne Lutherie.
Well, within the first three hours of placing the ad, my virtual mailbox had fifteen inquires and I started answering them as they had come in. Intermingled among those that offered me a chance to finance the lifestyle of some former, deposed African president-for-life and Viagra ads, one of them caught my attention. It was from a guy in a band who said that he needed a good acoustic guitar for some showcases he was playing. Money was tight and he didn't care what the guitar looked like but it had to sound decent. He said he played electric and had never even owned an acoustic guitar, let alone a vintage Guild.
There was a contact number and after several games of phone tag, we agreed to meet after work (he had an office job) at a coffee shop nearby. As I was driving he called telling me he was there and sitting at one of the booths in the back.
We exchanged greetings. He was young, maybe mid to late twenties, and said he'd been playing since high school. I took the guitar out of it's black nylon bag, made sure it had held its' tuning and handed it to him. He took out a pick strummed it, soft at first then harder and harder. He then surprised me, and I think most of the other early evening customers nearby, by going into the intro to Hendrix's "Little Wing" a fairly difficult piece on a guitar you're familiar with, let alone one that you've just picked up for the first time. This guy could play, and after finishing it, put it down next to him on the seat of the banquette and nodding, quietly said,.." I want this guitar.."
So maybe the next time you're thinking about moving some of your collection and you have the means, (in this Economy that's a tough one...)....let a guitar go to someone who might really appreciate it on a level that's beyond the hard and fast dollar value.
As we get older, I know I do, we sometimes forget the important, little things of why we enjoy these guitars. The inlay on the fretboard of an F40 or the pattern on the back of a vintage D50 is wonderful to look at, but it's the sound and that alone that makes them, as the slogan reminds us,.." made to be played.."
Here's a photo of the D35....
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/475 ... 2a6f_b.jpg
David
I happen to see a local ad for a D35 at what appeared to be a reasonable price. The seller didn't give any more information other than it was older and a Guild. Now to someone born in 1985, older could be a guitar made in the early '90s. He didn't include a photograph.
My morning was free and the town not that far away. I called the number, spoke to a young man, got an address, a time and made arrangements to meet at His house.
After driving east along the Foothills through the small towns with names like Monrovia, Altadena and Sierra Madre that at the beginning of the 20th century, were known throughout this County for their citrus and produce but were now, like the rest of Southern California, concrete and asphalt covered housing developments, strip malls and commercial real estate. A few minutes later, I pulled up to a small, tan, '30s stucco, Spanish revival bungalow on a quiet, tree lined street in an older neighborhood.
He met me at the door and showed me inside. The guitar was sitting in a gig bag
up against the back of a patterned velvet sofa. As He unzipped the case, He told me he was a bass player and that the guitar had been acquired from an ex-girlfriend just before they broke up. Those two elements didn't surprise me as it seems that several acoustic guitars I've owned over the years.... previously belonged to bass players and they were selling it to buy something,.." precision, fretless and made by Fender". My theory about selling an Ex's former possession has more to do with personal memories, usually unpleasant, than anything else. He took the guitar out and I could see why the asking price had been on the low side.
This D35 was in a rough state of affair. Though it appeared structurally sound, the expression,.."Ridden Hard And Put Away Wet.." came to mind. The neck, though surprisingly straight, was devoid of most of its lacquer and color. The headstock was so worn that you could barely make out the reverse "V" that told you that you were holding a guitar that according to the faded label in the soundhole was made in New Jersey. The serial number revealed that it left the factory in late 1969. The back was a series of dents, gouges, and small pin-prick holes. On the plus side, the spruce top was dirty, but appeared sound.
Every edge on this guitar seemed to have been hit, abrated and scraped, but fortunately, not cracked. When their detractors and critics chide Guilds as being, "..too heavy and built like tanks,.." in this little guitars case, it was probably the only reason it survived for the last forty plus years. The guitar sounded okay as I picked a couple of John Hurt pieces. Even with rusty, dead strings that were new twenty or thirty years in the past, the guitar still had that unmistaken, sweet bottom of a vintage, mahogany Guild.
I offered him what I thought, given the guitar's cosmetic condition, a fair and reasonable price and he said he'd think about it. Twenty minutes later driving to my next appointment,
I get a call from him saying that I could have the guitar. He'd found a bass that just came available and this sale would give him the funds he needed.
I spent the next morning and part of the afternoon cleaning years and years of grime, on the fretboard and body from the forlorn D35. After a lot of elbow grease and very pricey guitar polish/wax what was revealed was a patina of amber tinted, spruce. I tried, as best I could seal the damage to the finish on the back and neck. I refrained from taking all of the corrosion off of the original open back tuners, as it added to the overall look. A set of new Martins PBs and it was ready. The improvement in the sound was noticeable, but not as much as you'd think.
Now I came to the point of what to do with the guitar. I didn't really need another Dreadnaught ( I can hear your chorus of,.."Blasphemy....blasphemy, a Pox on You......one can never have too many Dreadnaughts!!!! ) and I was thinking of offering it to one of my guitar students who enjoy playing my Guilds. I know that the cosmetics would put them off regardless of the sound or any other consideration. Pretty guitars, will always be pretty. That's why I'm told that those D55s and F50s are so popular with the young people these days,...right?
I decided to put the guitar back for sale at a price that would pay for the guitar, my time, but nothing near what it would be worth if it was "restored". And it could be. Someone could refinish it in such a way that it would look like a nice used, '69 D35 that had been living under someone's bed since Nixon's first term. There are artisans out there who can duplicate the crazing on the back of a vintage, '57 Strat and other Wonders of Moderne Lutherie.
Well, within the first three hours of placing the ad, my virtual mailbox had fifteen inquires and I started answering them as they had come in. Intermingled among those that offered me a chance to finance the lifestyle of some former, deposed African president-for-life and Viagra ads, one of them caught my attention. It was from a guy in a band who said that he needed a good acoustic guitar for some showcases he was playing. Money was tight and he didn't care what the guitar looked like but it had to sound decent. He said he played electric and had never even owned an acoustic guitar, let alone a vintage Guild.
There was a contact number and after several games of phone tag, we agreed to meet after work (he had an office job) at a coffee shop nearby. As I was driving he called telling me he was there and sitting at one of the booths in the back.
We exchanged greetings. He was young, maybe mid to late twenties, and said he'd been playing since high school. I took the guitar out of it's black nylon bag, made sure it had held its' tuning and handed it to him. He took out a pick strummed it, soft at first then harder and harder. He then surprised me, and I think most of the other early evening customers nearby, by going into the intro to Hendrix's "Little Wing" a fairly difficult piece on a guitar you're familiar with, let alone one that you've just picked up for the first time. This guy could play, and after finishing it, put it down next to him on the seat of the banquette and nodding, quietly said,.." I want this guitar.."
So maybe the next time you're thinking about moving some of your collection and you have the means, (in this Economy that's a tough one...)....let a guitar go to someone who might really appreciate it on a level that's beyond the hard and fast dollar value.
As we get older, I know I do, we sometimes forget the important, little things of why we enjoy these guitars. The inlay on the fretboard of an F40 or the pattern on the back of a vintage D50 is wonderful to look at, but it's the sound and that alone that makes them, as the slogan reminds us,.." made to be played.."
Here's a photo of the D35....
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/475 ... 2a6f_b.jpg
David
:!: 
