D40 Questions

[ziess]

Hey, I'm thinking of buying a D40 but I can't work out when it was made and exactly what version of the D40 it is.

There are a few more pics here; http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i250/ytomk/guildd40/

It's got Grover Rotomatic tuners and the serial is DD400974.
Any thoughts? Any help would be much appreciated.

Tommy.

 

[hansmoust]

Hey, I'm thinking of buying a D40 but I can't work out when it was made and exactly what version of the D40 it is. It's got Grover Rotomatic tuners and the serial is DD400974.
Tommy.

Hello Tommy,

That particular D-40 with ser. # DD400974 is from 1999.

Hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[ziess]

Hans, yeah that helps, thanks!
I was under the impression the D40 was retired years ago and brought back in 2003 (ish), apparently not!
Are the late 90s models as well thought of as the more recent ones?

Tommy.

 

[hansmoust]

I was under the impression the D40 was retired years ago and brought back in 2003 (ish), apparently not!
Are the late 90s models as well thought of as the more recent ones?

Tommy.

Hello Tommy,

Yes, the model was discontinued for some time during the '90s.

By the way, I don't have permission to look at the photos!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[ziess]

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i250/ytomk/

That should work now!

 

[killdeer43]

That's a really good looking D40, Tommy.
I say, buy it now and ask questions later! :wink:
But that's just me!

Cheers,
Joe

 

[ziess]

I'm in the UK, would £400 sound like a good price?

 

[taabru45]

Excellent price....a year or so ago it would have been 2x that....Steffan

 

[Dadaist]

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i250/ytomk/

That should work now!

For some reason.....the D40 in question doesn't appear in the album, though I really like those Italian casuals (great color) and the Twin Reverb.

400 BP/650 would be a fair price in the UK, as I imagine Westerly Guilds, even late ones, are not all that common. $650 would be a great price in So Cal.

David

 

[ziess]

Ha ha, try this;

http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i250/ytomk/guildd40/

That's no Twin Reverb, that's a 1960 blonde Twin! The pre-reverb "Twin-Amp", only 400 made, I've got no 20. I love that thing!

 

[Gagarin]

Hello all - I'm new here. I found this thread as I was trying to age the very same guitar, reason being I bought it last week!

The guitar is lovely, in pretty good condition cosmetically, just one chip to the binding on the back and a broken, non original truss rod cover when I got it. A replacement has been ordered from Hans, thanks!

I suspect the machine heads are replacements - they are gold locking Grovers, and the undersaddle pickup has been removed and a Dean Markley Tahoe has been fitted.

I know that Hans dates the guitar as 1999, but I'm confused by an anomaly - everything I have read indicates that DD prefixs were used on D50 guitars, and that the DC prefix was used on the D40. Is that right or have I misunderstood. I'm no expert, but it seems older than 11 years to me.

 

[GardMan]

Gagarin,
Welcome to LTG!

Sometimes it seems there's been very little rhyme or reason for Guilds SNs over the years... and most of the lists available on the web don't go past 1997. So, who knows what SN prefix they used when the brought the D-40 back into production? If anyone on earth would know, it would be Hans...

BTW... interesting screen name. Any relation to the cosmonaut?
Dave

 

[killdeer43]

Yuri? Is that you, comrade?

Either way, welcome to LTG. You'll like it here! :wink:

Joe

 

[hansmoust]

I know that Hans dates the guitar as 1999, but I'm confused by an anomaly - everything I have read indicates that DD prefixs were used on D50 guitars, and that the DC prefix was used on the D40. Is that right or have I misunderstood. I'm no expert, but it seems older than 11 years to me.

Hello Gagarin,

Welcome! You're correct about the DD and DC serial number prefix being used for the D-50 and D-40 respectively, but that was during the '80s up till 1987 during which the entire serial number system was changed and the serial numbers for the D-40 were changed to D400001, D400002, D400003 etc. The D-40 was then discontinued during the early '90s.

The complete serial number system was changed again in 1994 and when the D-40 was reintroduced at the end of the '90s, these guitars did get DD40xxxx as the first digits of the serial number. This particular choice of letters doesn't really fit in with the other prefixes from that particular period but there's an explanation for the use of these letters. However it's too long a story to explain that here. So for the moment, just take it from me that a D-40 with a serial number starting with DD40 was not made any earlier than the late '90s.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[Gagarin]

Thank you all. Screen name is just derived from my real name - Gary just seems too dull for use on boards.

Thanks for the explanation Hans, I'll pass on the information to the guy in my local guitar shop, due to a change in circumstances I may be trading the guitar in soon. He was trying to age it last week but got stumped by the DD prefix too.

Or, I may keep it. I don't know, I really can't make up my mind. Maybe I am a spaceman after all! :wink: