guild d44
- Thread starter kydog
- Start date
hansmoust
Enlightened Member
kydog said:
Hello kydog,
You mean info on D-44s or guitars without serial numbers?
Over the years I've seen some Guild guitars that didn't have serial numbers on the back of the peghead even though they wer from a period that you would expect a number in that location.
Was it a very early '70s guitar?
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl
I was told that it was late 60's looked to be in good shape and they wanted in the range of 7 to 8 hundred with hard case. I'll try to get the serial number that was on the tag inside the guitar. without pics I was just wondering if this is a fair price. looking on the westerly site there was not a d44 but a d44m. anyway thanks for the input 
The D44 was originally solid pearwood back and sides, later changed to D44M with solid maple. It did not have the ply archback of other Guild maple models. I have a D44M that I bought new in 1974. The D44 shows up on Guild's price list from 1965 - 1973. The D44M appears in 1972 running through 1977. The M may have been produced a year or two after that but my recollection is that the D44 was gone altogether by 1980. For a long time these guitars didn't appreciate. They sold for $400 - $500 in the 1970s and you could buy fairly mint players for that range as late as circa 2002. In the past five years I've seen D44 of both types begin to rise, with mint M going for over $1,000. If the D44 Pearwood you have an eye on is sound and cosmetically appropriate, $800 seems fair. These guitars took years to fully break in. Mine really began to open up at about 20 years, and past 30 it's sonically transformed.
Phil
----
D44M 1974
D55 1979
JF100C 1992
JF65-12 1992
X500 1992
Artist Award 1994
G-B Stuart 2000
Phil
----
D44M 1974
D55 1979
JF100C 1992
JF65-12 1992
X500 1992
Artist Award 1994
G-B Stuart 2000
adorshki
Reverential Member
Say Phil, just for the sake of comparison (to my D25 primarily), do you have an estimate of how many playing hours that represents?213Cobra said:
>>...just for the sake of comparison (to my D25 primarily), do you have an estimate of how many playing hours that represents?<<
Gosh....no.
Well, for the first 10 years of my D44M's life, I played it every day and then I began to accumulate more guitars plus work crowded out alot of my playing. And I'm a fingerstyle player, so perhaps I put less energy into the soundboard than some others. Over now nearly 37 years, that guitar must have a couple thousand hours of playing time. It got better faster after I moved from four-seasons New England to drier California.
The long break-in isn't a complaint, by the way. Guilds are pianos compared to Martins, and you buy them knowing that. My D44M has a voice my life and the places it took that guitar has helped to shape. I own Martins and Gibsons. A Guild is neither, which is one of the best attributes of the brand.
Phil
Gosh....no.
Well, for the first 10 years of my D44M's life, I played it every day and then I began to accumulate more guitars plus work crowded out alot of my playing. And I'm a fingerstyle player, so perhaps I put less energy into the soundboard than some others. Over now nearly 37 years, that guitar must have a couple thousand hours of playing time. It got better faster after I moved from four-seasons New England to drier California.
The long break-in isn't a complaint, by the way. Guilds are pianos compared to Martins, and you buy them knowing that. My D44M has a voice my life and the places it took that guitar has helped to shape. I own Martins and Gibsons. A Guild is neither, which is one of the best attributes of the brand.
Phil
Cypress Knee
Member
I had both a D44M and a D44 pearwood. I sold the M and kept the pearwood. To me it sounded a lot better than the Maple. But I bought the Greco dred and other dreds have languished since then. This one needs a neck reset and some TLC, the heel cup has fallen apart, some old time dings and scratches, but the sound is still there. Email me backchannel at jim@baltimorerunning.com if you want to discuss, I am planning to put it on ebay and/or craigslist later this year.
GardMan
Enlightened Member
I paid $825 for my pearwood '71 D-44 2 years ago... knowing it needed a 3" top crack glued and cleated and a split tailblock repaired (repairs with a full setup including bone nut and saddle were <$200). It's in the roughest condition of all my dreads. It has a brightness and openness of tone similar to mahogany, but with stronger bass and a bit more richness/overtones (comparing it to my '72 D-35). It has a nice folksy tone that I like for fingerpicking (think "This land is your land" or "Freight train"), but not so much for strumming (guess I've gotten use to rosewood). Only reason I would sell mine would be to buy one in better condition.
Nigel Wickwire
Member
Cypress Knee said:
PM sent.
~nw
adorshki
Reverential Member
Yeah that's all I meant. Thanks! My '25 has 1350 give or take maybe 20 but the other two are barely crackin' 350-400. Seems to me the '25 really "woke up" right after the first fret job at around 250 hours/couple of years.213Cobra said:
hansmoust
Enlightened Member
kydog said:
That serial number should date it to 1972 but no serial number on the back of the headstock during that period is somewhat unusual. The ones that I've seen were all from the very early '70s.
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
GardMan
Enlightened Member
That's just 45 numbers in front of my D-35.kydog said:
Added: If you look at again, borrow a mirror from the shop and look at the braces surrounding the soundhole for a date. For kicks, I just looked at mine again... I had forgotten, the ink is very smudged, but it appears to read 9 July 1971. Yet the SN date places it in the first couple months of '72. Shows how long a top asembly can hang around before the guitar gets completed and a SN assigned... even on a common model like the D-35.
I have a guild d44-m-amber that has a serial number on the back of the headstock the number is 62334. I bought this guitar in the late 70's for $150. It's owner before me was a good friend his name was Terry Dafoe. He got in an auto accident and the guitar had some neck damage, which was repaired. I cherrished this guitar through out my 20's into my 30's. There has been alot of work put into this guild. Back in April 1993 a family friend and great guitarist Luthier Michael McConville of Stratford, Ontario repaired this guitar. In the latest years it has become difficult to tune and be a playable guitar. I have a lot of fond memories of this guitar and may see if anything can be done to have it made playable. I recently have had it looked at by a luthier Rowan Poots in London Ontario in 2015. Pretty much said it would cost plenty to repair, but would serve nice as a wall hanger. Any responses welcome.
Steve Tredenick
Steve Tredenick
GardMan
Enlightened Member
Steve,
Welcome to LTG!
Can you tell a bit more about the problems? It's hard to say much with the info we have.
According to the SN, your D-44M was completed 1972... same as my D-35. If you use a mirror to look at the thin top brace next to the soundhole, you should find a date stamp... wouldn't be surprised if it reads sometime in the second half of 1971 (that's when the top assembly was completed).
Depending on condition, it might be worth anywhere from $800-1400... if it was mine, and had sentimental value, I wouldn't mind putting some $$$ into it to make it playable. Maybe even up to the low end of its value.
Good luck!
Welcome to LTG!
Can you tell a bit more about the problems? It's hard to say much with the info we have.
According to the SN, your D-44M was completed 1972... same as my D-35. If you use a mirror to look at the thin top brace next to the soundhole, you should find a date stamp... wouldn't be surprised if it reads sometime in the second half of 1971 (that's when the top assembly was completed).
Depending on condition, it might be worth anywhere from $800-1400... if it was mine, and had sentimental value, I wouldn't mind putting some $$$ into it to make it playable. Maybe even up to the low end of its value.
Good luck!
adorshki
Reverential Member
Welcome aboard Steve! Sounds like it needs a neck reset, one of the hazards of aging for most guitars.
Can you check the neck alignment?
Details here:
http://frets.com/FretsPages/Musician/Guitar/Setup/NeckAngle/neckangle.html
Maybe I'm just having a bad day but that "wall-hanger" comment raised my hackles big time.
My knee-jerk response would be to run not walk and find another luthier who understands that old Guilds are way undervalued and have wonderful sounds in them.
After calming down a bit, I guess at least Mr. Poots didn't try to sell you on fixing a guitar that wasn't worth it, and if he's unfamiliar with the brand that's excusable.
Still, old Guilds have a reputation of being difficult to reset (based on some valid but not universally occurring characteristics), so it may still be worth finding a luthier who's aware of that and still willing to take on the job.
A reset that included all possible supplementary work like new nut, saddle, frets, and finish touch-up could easily go upwards of $1000.00 here in CA, but could be much more reasonable depending who, where, and what is finally needed.
And at that point you should once again have a guitar that won't be easily matched, if at all, by anything new in that price range.
We've got a couple of members here who are former Guild employees running their own shops now, let us know if you want more info.
It does occur to me that shipping in and out of US and Canada will require some extra paperwork to satisfy the current restrictions on rosewood (the fingerboard and bridge).