D-80

[jjwhitmore]

Hello. I am looking for historical and value information about the Guild Model D-80.

When I look across books on vintage guitars and the Internet for information I see very little.

I saw one reference that suggested the D-80 was reborn as the D-100, but I don't see anything recent about the D-100 either.

Some questions...

I see the range of serial numbers assigned to the model, but how many D-80s really exist ?

Is the D-80 associated with a particular manufacturing location, or artisan ?

Is the D-80 considered collectible, or just an odd model ?

Thanks.

 

[taabru45]

Hans Moust is the man with the answers. You'll probably hear from him or you can email him on this forum. We'd all be interested too. Do you have one, and if you do, we'd love to see some pictures of the prom queen... Steffan

 

[frettedstrings]

-jj

I remembered seeing a picture and specs concerning a Guild D80-12, from the collection of Jere Haskew, on the Westerly Guild Guitars Website http://westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/d80-12.html

There is a picture and specs for the D-100 as well http://westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/d100.html.


-frettedstrings

 

[curt]

I think that guitar took a hit and the fingerboard acted as a lever, good thing you got your money back.

 

[GardMan]

Welcome to LTG!

According to Beesley's Guitar History Volume 5: Guild Guitars, the D-80 was introduced in 1983 and discontinued in 1985, making it one of the Westerly Guilds. Rosewood sides and back, spruce top with scalloped bracing. Top and back were bound with maple. Neck was 3-piece mahogany with bound ebony fretboard, MOP crown inlays, domed headstock with Guild and G-shield. Gold-plated hardware. Both D-70 and D-80 were available with carved heels (D-80C). D-80 was more "ornate"than the 70, with genuine abalone inlays." MSP for the D-80 was $2500 in 1985.

I can't say I have ever seen one of these on eBay, GBase, or other. If you've got one, I am sure we'd all love to see pics!

 

[jjwhitmore]

Thanks for the warm reception !

Actually, the D-80 belongs to my brother, and I am looking to set a price that we can agree on.

It is a beautiful instrument.. I don't have any pictures at present, but I'll post when I do.

Regards.

 

[GardMan]

As I said, I can't recall any D-80 six strings up for sale/selling in the 4-1/2 years I have been watching these things. There have been a couple D-100s (or the same one a couple times?) that have shown up in that time. As I recall, asking prices were in the $3K-$4K range... but I might be off.

 

[West R Lee]

Are you asking for a "fair price" for you as the owner's brother, or what he might get on say....eBay?

West

 

[Ian]

GO JIM !!! :lol:

 

[jjwhitmore]

I am looking to determine an unbiased price that I will pay for the guitar.

 

[capnjuan]

Hi JJ and welcome to LTG. The D80 is pretty rare ... since there aren't very many of them, they aren't commonly seen in shops, on eBay, or in listings on Craigslist. As a result, since there is no market for them; that is, they aren't routinely bought and sold and, as a result, nobody has much of a sense of what they sell for.

Further and without pics, nobody here is going to guess about what the guitar might be worth because the guitar you are talking about is invisible to us. So ... the humor here is related to your holding up a guitar that we can't see, aren't familiar with, and asking 'what's it worth?'. You might as well be sitting there, holding up you hand, and asking 'how many fingers am I holding up?' :wink: Be patient and try and see your question from our perspective.

This is a link to instructions on how to post pictures here. The short of it is that you have to open a web-based photo-hosting account somewhere; Photobucket, ImageShack ... there are several ... and upload you pics to the web. The photo-host will supply web-'IMG' addresses for your pics; you copy and paste those IMG addresses into your draft post. The BB software will read the IMG addresses, go and retrieve the images, and display your pics to anyone reading this thread.

If you take a set of pics, be sure to highlight the height of the saddle, whether the bridge is flush down on the deck, presence/absence of top / side / back cracks, front and back of the headstock, and vertical gap between the strings and frets/fingerboard at about the 12th fret. It isn't just a matter of whether the model is desirable, there's also stuff like the remaining useful life of the neckset, whether the guitar will stay in tune, whether anybody has fooled around with it, and whether it's been subject to extensive repairs. Good luck; I hope we can be of service.

 

[jjwhitmore]

Fair point. I was looking for a price range. What I saw so far was $3k-$4k, which was what I was projecting.

I own and play other guitars. I do not consider myself a collector. I am just trying to do what's right.

Often I find the valuation of vintage instruments can be arbitrary and self-serving.

I found this forum and thought I would give it a go.

 

[capnjuan]

Hi JJ; no problem ... agree; there are people who think that the accuracy of their opinions is enhanced by their arrogance. See if you can get us some pics ... would make this a little easier.

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

I'll through this out for comment.
Take the value a D-55 and a D-100 and then put the D-80 value closer to the D-100.
A good D-55 sells for around $1500 to $2000 and I have seen
D-100 prices around $3000 to $3500.
To me a ball park price for a D-80 in very good condition would be somewhere around $2500 to $3000, assuming no work is needed on the guitar.

Anybody agree with this?

 

[West R Lee]

I'll through this out for comment.
Take the value a D-55 and a D-100 and then put the D-80 value closer to the D-100.
A good D-55 sells for around $1500 to $2000 and I have seen
D-100 prices around $3000 to $3500.
To me a ball park price for a D-80 in very good condition would be somewhere around $2500 to $3000, assuming no work is needed on the guitar.

Anybody agree with this?

I'll agree with that. In immaculate condition.......bout a $3000 guitar. Impossible to discern a real value of that one...... Gruhn might. This is why I was asking about values of limited build guitars in an earlier thread. It's just so hard to estimate a value when so few were built so long ago.

West

 

[frettedstrings]

I want to see this D-80 too. Pictures would be very nice. If D-80's were really only produced from 1983 - 1985 then that would generally make a D-80 pretty rare, in my opinion. With only 3 years of production, I would bet there definitely are not many D-80's out there, especially those that are in excellent condition. If I were in the market for a D-80, and someone had a D-80 listed for $3200 and I wanted a D-80 really bad, then I guess I'd have to pay $3200 to get that D-80. Now if there were two D-80's listed; one listed for $3200 and the other for $1500, I'd have a decision to make. Both could very well be in excellent condition, but now I have two D-80's to choose from and this makes the D-80 less rare. I'd say, put a price on it and if a fish bites.....some one gets a nice rare D-80 and lives happily ever after, maybe even someone from LTG.

 

[GardMan]

Actually, the D-80 belongs to my brother, and I am looking to set a price that we can agree on.

AM I reading this correctly that you would like to buy the D-80 from your brother? That complicates things a bit...

I bought my wife a piano from our next door neighbor a couple years back. A few calls to local stores suggested that a reasonable price for the model in question might be $1200-$1400, in VG used condition. I offered $1400, and I am sure Charlie would have given it to us for that amount, but his wife (who had bought the piano originally thinking her son would play) fixated on $1600. We paid her $1600... being on good terms with your next door neighbors (or brother) is priceless.
Dave

 

[West R Lee]

I want to see this D-80 too. Pictures would be very nice. If D-80's were really only produced from 1983 - 1985 then that would generally make a D-80 pretty rare, in my opinion. With only 3 years of production, I would bet there definitely are not many D-80's out there, especially those that are in excellent condition. If I were in the market for a D-80, and someone had a D-80 listed for $3200 and I wanted a D-80 really bad, then I guess I'd have to pay $3200 to get that D-80. Now if there were two D-80's listed; one listed for $3200 and the other for $1500, I'd have a decision to make. Both could very well be in excellent condition, but now I have two D-80's to choose from and this makes the D-80 less rare. I'd say, put a price on it and if a fish bites.....some one gets a nice rare D-80 and lives happily ever after, maybe even someone from LTG.

What REALLY makes them rare is that there we so very few built....like about 24 or 25 of them.

West

 

[frettedstrings]

[/quote] What REALLY makes them rare is that there we so very few built....like about 24 or 25 of them. West[/quote]


...and this D-80 could very well be one of the last !