Excuse my ignorance but what is "the 14th fret hump"???
A little bump on the fretboard at the neck/body joint, forget the cause but it's a known "malady".
If you prefer a louder, fatter, warmer sound, the arched back D25s are the way to go.
Flatbacks are cool too, but softer and darker in tone, due to the hog top.
If you prefer spruce tops, really need a good old 1974-79 D25 CH, but they had a lot of different stain abbreviations. Mostly brown, red, cherry, burst stains I have seen, natural too. such killer dreads, so boomy. workhorse!
the good news is they are all over reverb, and starting at 600 various condition. some will be priced crazy, and i would not go over 800 unless you really love it...
Here:
https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=Guild D25&decades=197&sort=price|asc
just went on reverb, searched Guild D25, checked off box for 1970s, plenty of examples. the archies will have spruce tops, unless they were made in '73/'74 a bit, some were all hog arched backs,
but definitely past 1974, they are all spruce topped arched backs. i think till like the Tacoma years. But Al be around soon enuff to elaborate.
Actually a little burned out on recounting the glories of D25's, but for clarity , they reverted to the original all-hog flatback version in Corona, '02, for about a year, then they were gone, replaced with same-formula import GAD25.
Over the years I've come to really understand why the archies are said to be better strummers and the flatbacks better for fingerpicking:
The arched back absolutely emphasizes overtones and sustain making for very lush sounding chords, but in fingerpicking all that may cause individual notes to get smothered under each other.
A flat back really emphasizes individual notes, such that even though my D25's bass might be
louder, the D40's is
clearer and thus sounds better in some styles.
(the D40 is also a 'hog body spruce top dread but has a flatback, so I've got both back types in the same construction woods and body dimensions)
In the last 18 months I've also noticed that the D40 actually records the "cleanest" on my GF's cell phone, the other 2 are more prone to distortion and clipping and guess what: even thought they're different woods they're both archbacks.
The light went on: the D40's waveforms are cleaner so it records better.
Flip-flopping again, the D25 (archback) has the
woodiest tone of the bunch, evoking the "floppy" sound of a stand-up bass (which, coincidentally, are arched on
both sides) when I do it just right, the '40'll never get that "dirty".
So the '25's probably the most versatile guitar in the bunch. It
can be played pretty cleanly, with restraint.
I made an analogy once that folks seemed to like:
Archbacks are like parachute flares, throwing out a wide diffused light over
everything, flatbacks are like spotlights, with a clean focused beam.
When I finally got that I understood why people called their D40's "punchy", and truth to tell, it took me several years to really hear it.
But it grows on me all the time.
any any other considerations.
Thanks!
Depending on what kind of condition you're looking for, I can only mention that the older the instrument the more likely it's not going to be in optimum shape even allowing for
simple aging issues .
Late ('95-'01) Westerlys have stellar quality reps (mine's a 96 so I'm biased), but I notice those don't seem to be as available as the earlier vintages.
Maybe their owners don't want to let them go?