I ran across a listing.... has a 1982 date and a serial #DA111831.....the listing doesn't specify the woods or if flat, arched, etc.....if I get one of these in my hands, what should I look for beyond how it sounds. and how feels to my left hand? (I don't study vintage that much) questions: how were they built (specs)? how many were built (years)? I've heard that sometimes manufacturers used the "colored" finishes to "cover up" for a "less than desirable" set of wood...any truth? thanks to those who know the Guild history!
D25-Blue?
- Thread starter krugjr
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Westerly Wood
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Interesting, I thought the Guild D25 blue and different colors was Corona, not Westerly.
and by differing unique colors I mean the surf green, bright red, but now that I think on it, Westerly had black and and all those wine and brown hues.
I believe Westerly Guild owned the patent for a while on all the possible shades of brown.
j/k re that last sentence...
chazmo
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Krug, I'm pretty sure a 1982 would have an arched laminated-mahogany back and a solid spruce top. The flat-backs were much earlier (and, again, much more recently).
davismanLV
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They did colors at both Westerly and Corona. Darryl had a yellow one from Westerly. I'm sure someone has more info than I do. The Corona ones were flat backed if I'm not mistaken.
thanks for info that's coming in.....seems like the all hog D25 is kind of a players' favorite here on LTG, so I was wanting to learn a bit more about them.....as I've reduced my collection to two (more on the high end) I sometimes think I should at some point pick up that extra that can be taken anywhere, played anywhere, no worries sort of thing...$300-500.....then I weigh the "vintage" vs the newer "mini guitars" from Taylor and Martin, etc.....just thinking out loud today.....would these 80s D25s have 1 11/16 or 1 3/4 nut?
geoguy
Senior Member
Should be 1 11/16, with minor variability due to hand-shaping of the necks.
adorshki
Reverential Member
Yes they did unusual colors at Westerly too, and it's probably going to look metallic.
If this is the one you see, yes, that's a Westerly color:
Accompanying ad:
http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar-45933-Vintage-GUILD-D25-acoustic-1982-BLUE-color
In fact reading that ad I think it's member here, although that seems to be an old listing.
The strap button's not original and I don't think the electronics are either.
Not sure about the missing finish by the neck, I'd look for signs of a reset, or if it's one of us, I'd trust 'em to be upfront about anything they know. At least it was like that when I joined and it's still pretty common courtesy around here, like calling dibs on a new listing.
Arched backs started about '72 and they built both 'hog and spruce topped versions until about '74. I know of one '76 all-'hog archback here owned by member Spiderman, those are knd of a "holy Grail" due to rarity.
Suspect that one was a holdover for some reason and got sold long after production had become arch-back spruce-top only.
Also seem to recall a mis-labeled D35, labeled as a D25 with a flatback spruce top which was never a Westerly spec for D25's.
'82 specs were:
Arched laminated 'hog back, solid 'hog sides/neck, EIR fretboard and bridge, solid sitka spruce top, not sure about tuners, probably Gold silkscreen rooftop logo.
25-5/8" scale and 1-11/16" nut although it wouldn't surprise me to see an oddball with 1-3/4".
I'm not sure even Hans can answer that due to the poor record keeping in the early years.
Do you mean blue or colored ones? I'm positive not even Hans will know, based on responses he's made before to similar questions about other models..
Even Guild's s/n charts don't have records of s/n's by model for 70-79, which was a critical period of high volume production for them:
http://guildguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/history_of_your_guild.pdf
There is statement in the first issue of the Guild Gallery (dated "Winter '97-'98") that "More D25's have been sold than any other Guild" so that's gotta be a LOT from '68-'98, 30 years at that point!
I'm guessing even if they only averaged 500/year that's 15,000 right there but I bet it's significantly higher like by 30% at least.
Introduced '68 as all-'hog flatback, shift to archback with spruce or 'hog top ca 72, with the most archback 'hog tops reported here dating to '73, by '75 archback spruce top only (except for those "glitches").
Still on '01 Westerly price list (last year of Westerly production), carried over to Corona as re-launched all-'hog flatback formula '02-'03, replaced by GAD25 in spring '04 price list and absent until Cordoba re-launch as "D20" all-hog flatback.
I remember very early on one of our members who actually worked at Westerly made a comment "Black guitars were'n built, they happened" (LOL!!) in a discussion that brought up that point. Yes I've heard that before too, but with Guild I suspect the vast majority of the colored tops were done strictly for aesthetic/marketing appeal reasons.
A lot of those finishes were trans- or semi-transparent too so flaws weren't easily disguised in any case.
Also at the time things like "bearclaw" were considered cosmetic flaws whereas nowadays they're considered attractive and possibly even a sign of tighter-grained more resonant wood for a top.
For one thing Guild bought directly from producers, this allowed Guilds' grader(s) to be very selective about what they actually bought, because their volume demand was low enough to do that instead of relying on brokers to accumulate huge lots from varying sources and having to kind of "live with the lower quality pieces that came with the volume".
I should mention that all this background is from my memory of discussions about the issues before, and while I have extremely high confidence in it right now, it just occurs to me that some of it is second hand info, like the issue about how they selected wood.
Can't remember who first explained that, but I considered the source highly credible, possibly even Hans?
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Westerly Wood
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hey, I like the color on that one. great shade of blue!
adorshki
Reverential Member
Even goes up to the front of the headstock.
Great! My wife saw the picture & thinks she wants it.
She loves blue guitars & her blue burst yamaha FS720S started it all. (Her affinity for Guilds comes from me lol)
She loves blue guitars & her blue burst yamaha FS720S started it all. (Her affinity for Guilds comes from me lol)
taabru45
Enlightened Member
Flat backed and all mahogany..sounded great?
taabru45
Enlightened Member
Flat backed and all mahogany..sounded great.
adorshki
Reverential Member
A-a-a-n-d...........it was Translucent White:
Only in Corona.
Betcha thought we forgot about that!
Edit: Think it might actually "White Blonde" as shown here:
https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/214034783-Instrument-Finish-Color-Chart
AHA! NOW I remember, "D 25 Honey Blonde":
But not sure if those are 2 different colors or just lighting differences.
IN fact, by golly, I found this really old thread and the Blue Westerly's in it as well as Your D25 which you describe as "more of a cream color, and more of a wash than paint".
I never forgot that.
Hmmm. Photobucket no workee, but you can see it here:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?167848-Sea-foam-green-Acoustic/page2
Understand at that time I was only a coupla year member but I've become a lot more confused since then.
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adorshki
Reverential Member
Wouldn't surprise me if that's actually the same one we've seen here a couple of times, I suspect that'll take a lot of long hard looking.
Corona offered a Transparent Blue satin finish (pic doesn't really do it justice):
And other models had blue available, like the F65ce and JF30's, but that particular '82's the only version of that "blue" I can recall.
F65ce's Sapphire was particularly attractive:
Woodgrain Blue on a JF30-12:
I'm sorry, I'm trying really hard to kill that cruel streak in me, posting pics like that.
I oughta be ashamed.
Now that guitar is BLUE!
walrus
walrus
adorshki
Reverential Member
It's the blue that made Tom go blue.
westerlyborn
Member
As long as they're not trying to cover inferior woods, I have no problem with them. Nice lookin' rig.