So, the guitar was shipped today:
Absolutely wonderful sound to it. A little hard to describe, but I can say that it's certainly different from the Martin, Taylor and Gibson sound that I'm more familiar with. It's got great sound all around, very clear and present high end, crisp and powerful, with tight bass that can boom out but can also stay in the back if you want it to. It's not the most bass heavy instrument I've ever played, I guess you could just call it very well balanced like Guild says it is for lack of a better word. It's very nice.
The nut seems even more thin than I had thought, slimmer than my Martins that had the 1 11/16" nuts in feel anyway. Not only that, but the strings are pretty close on the nut itself (a beautiful nut), making the strings pretty tight. It plays very well, though, although it would probably take some time to get my fingers used to fingerpicking with it as well as I do with my other guitars. The neck is fairly thick, and this guitar is very fast playing especially for chording.
It also has a tremendous dynamic range to it, also, which is very pleasant. A fair amount of sustain, which is pretty nice with this guitar- I have a few Gibsons that have the nice dry and woody Gibson sound, and I love that, but this guitar has that haunting sustain that dreadnaughts have and you can't go wrong with that, either.
Bear in mind that I'm saying all this with the stock strings being on there, and I don't even know what they are. They seem to have some life to them but I'll write more when I get it restrung.
One thing I will not have to do is any kind of setup to it, whoever had this guitar before me has it dialed in just perfectly, so all I need to do is string and play. Also, Guild seems to have been very much wanting to compete on quality, the nut is beautiful and much better than the stock plastic ones that come on my other guitars. The saddle is great and the bridge pins seem of very high quality also. Usually, I have to upgrade that stuff.
One thing is, though, I had heard that Adirondack would remain clear all the way through the range of sound, but really, I'm finding it to break up about at the same point that my Sitka tops do. Maybe my ear just hasn't gotten used to what I'm hearing, or maybe the new strings will help, maybe it's my right hand and my thin picks, I dunno. Not a big deal... it sure does sound good.
All in all, it was the guitar I was hoping it would be, so thanks for all the advice! Great forum here.
Absolutely wonderful sound to it. A little hard to describe, but I can say that it's certainly different from the Martin, Taylor and Gibson sound that I'm more familiar with. It's got great sound all around, very clear and present high end, crisp and powerful, with tight bass that can boom out but can also stay in the back if you want it to. It's not the most bass heavy instrument I've ever played, I guess you could just call it very well balanced like Guild says it is for lack of a better word. It's very nice.
The nut seems even more thin than I had thought, slimmer than my Martins that had the 1 11/16" nuts in feel anyway. Not only that, but the strings are pretty close on the nut itself (a beautiful nut), making the strings pretty tight. It plays very well, though, although it would probably take some time to get my fingers used to fingerpicking with it as well as I do with my other guitars. The neck is fairly thick, and this guitar is very fast playing especially for chording.
It also has a tremendous dynamic range to it, also, which is very pleasant. A fair amount of sustain, which is pretty nice with this guitar- I have a few Gibsons that have the nice dry and woody Gibson sound, and I love that, but this guitar has that haunting sustain that dreadnaughts have and you can't go wrong with that, either.
Bear in mind that I'm saying all this with the stock strings being on there, and I don't even know what they are. They seem to have some life to them but I'll write more when I get it restrung.
One thing I will not have to do is any kind of setup to it, whoever had this guitar before me has it dialed in just perfectly, so all I need to do is string and play. Also, Guild seems to have been very much wanting to compete on quality, the nut is beautiful and much better than the stock plastic ones that come on my other guitars. The saddle is great and the bridge pins seem of very high quality also. Usually, I have to upgrade that stuff.
One thing is, though, I had heard that Adirondack would remain clear all the way through the range of sound, but really, I'm finding it to break up about at the same point that my Sitka tops do. Maybe my ear just hasn't gotten used to what I'm hearing, or maybe the new strings will help, maybe it's my right hand and my thin picks, I dunno. Not a big deal... it sure does sound good.
All in all, it was the guitar I was hoping it would be, so thanks for all the advice! Great forum here.