Shout out ot LTG and F25'ers

Bonneville88 · Mar 4, 2017

Shout out to LTG and F25'ers

Just wanted to shout out to LTG, been lurking and reading and
very much enjoying this excellent forum.

Posting a photo of some my Westerly Guilds, in
order of appearance: '89 F212XL , '93 JF-30 BL-E , '78 F50 BLD , '76 D25M (arch back) , '93 F25-NT

The plain-jane F25 on the far right has been getting
most of the love lately, the folks I typically jam with (banjo,
mandolin, upright bass) testify that they can hear it noticeably better than
any of the others - I'm usually banging on it pretty good - and I'm wondering
why that might be. I keep fresh Elixir Nanowebs on everything.

Been looking and can't seem to find many F25s for sale - might grab another if
I could find one as I'm so pleased with it. I'm guessing it's considered the "budget" sibling
to the F30?

Any comments on this guitar appreciated.

Thanks again for an awesome forum!

hansmoust · Mar 4, 2017

Bonneville88 said:
Been looking and can't seem to find many F25s for sale - might grab another if
I could find one as I'm so pleased with it.

Hello Bonneville88,

Welcome! Noticed your posting and looked at your F-25 in the photo.
The reason why you see so very little F-25s like this one is because it's not an F-25; it's a GF-25 that was mis-labeled as an F-25. This happened during a particular period, mostly during the end of the '80s.
Your guitar might even be from that period as well. If you give me the serial number that's stamped into the back of the peghead I will tell you when exactly your GF-25 was completed.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Bonneville88 · Mar 4, 2017

Hans,

Honored to hear from you! - have been reading your wonderful book!
Found a soft cover version on Amazon...savoring every page, reading just a few pages a night,
hoping I'll retain at least some of the gold mine of information there!
I'll own that book until I die.

Serial # GF250478

Thanks so much for responding!

rampside · Mar 4, 2017

Greetings Bonneville88,

Sure glad you decided to finally jump in. That's an impressive group photo, I must say.

You mentioned, "some of your Westerly Guilds", I sure, we all, would like to see what else you got!

Love the color on the F-212XL.

walrus · Mar 4, 2017

Welcome, Bon! Great first post! Beautiful guitars!

walrus

Bonneville88 · Mar 4, 2017

Thanks rampside and walrus - good to have found LTG - will be spending way too much time here
... already have

eaceful:
That's all the guitars I could fit in the wall rack at one time,
although guess could have used the extra hanger on the wall for something - my bad!

davismanLV · Mar 4, 2017

Wow, impressive collection of Guilds!! Thanks for sharing. There's no one better than Hans to give you the scoop on your GF-25!! He's our resident expert. Welcome to LTG!! :encouragement:

killdeer43 · Mar 4, 2017

WELCOME TO LTG!
Great looking wall you have there. I'm a big fan of the GF25 and wish I still had the one I let go (it happened in my bonehead period).

Cheers,
Joe

Rich Cohen · Mar 4, 2017

Really nice group! Where's the rest of 'em?

txbumper57 · Mar 4, 2017

Those are some Good Looking Guilds Bonneville88. Congrats on a nice looking wall and way to introduce yourself with a great first post, Welcome to LTG!

By the way, Don't be alarmed if your responses are not showing up immediately after you post them. Since you are a new member the first few posts have to be approved by a moderator before they will show up. Just a fail safe to make sure you are a Person and to keep the spammers out. Have a Good One!

TX

kdavid · Mar 4, 2017

Welcome to the Forum & nice collection you got there!

Bonneville88 · Mar 4, 2017

Thanks everyone for the hearty welcome!

Bonneville88 · Mar 5, 2017

killdeer43... long gone, looks as if it sold on Reverb over a year ago, but I'll probably be Jonesing for this for the foreseeable future.
This and a GF 30... just two of my bucket list Guilds

eaceful:

https://reverb.com/item/1253465-1987-guild-gf-25-acoustic-guitar-in-sunburst

hansmoust · Mar 6, 2017

Bonneville88 said:

Hello Bonneville,

As far as your Guild F-25 is concerned, it is what I thought it was. The official model designation should be GF25-NT and the serial # you gave me indicates it was completed during the year 1988.

Actually, the sunburst guitar of which you posted the photo is a GF-25 as well albeit with a sunburst finish. It was made the year before the one that you have.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

adorshki · Mar 6, 2017

Bonneville88 said:
The plain-jane F25 on the far right has been getting
most of the love lately, the folks I typically jam with (banjo,
mandolin, upright bass) testify that they can hear it noticeably better than
any of the others - I'm usually banging on it pretty good - and I'm wondering
why that might be. I keep fresh Elixir Nanowebs on everything.

Our member Chris Cozad made an interesting observation once about the relationship of bout sizes and body depths and that not only do those relationships affect which frequencies are most predominant but that the box itself is an air pump whose efficiency is determined by the relationships.
Not to forget about the top either.
Anyway my guess is you've got a very nice coming together of all the elements in that guitar and it's particularly suited to the group's overall acoustic profile.

Bonneville88 said:
I'm guessing it's considered the "budget" sibling
to the F30?

Actually it's a little larger than an F30 (16" lower bout vs 15" F30) and I always thought of it as the "jumbo-shaped" version of a D25.
This link says Guild was out to achieve what your bandmates seem to corroborate:
http://westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/gf25.html
Looking at those specs again, this is actually more like an F40 with a 'hog back.
Oh yeah, I'm always off on weekends so missed this first post/thread.
Welcome aboard!

Bonneville88 · Mar 6, 2017

Thanks Hans - and thanks adorshki for the welcome and the great observations and info!

Paid $200 for the GF25 on local CL last year... had the neck professionally reset, another $200...
very happy with how it all turned out... no plans to ever part with this smaller, plain jumbo with
one helluva honk!

eaceful:

Still, will be curious about how a maple GF30 sounds compared to mine - and one day, will find out.

adorshki · Mar 6, 2017

Bonneville88 said:
Thanks Hans - and thanks adorshki for the welcome and the great observations and info!

Yer welcome!

Bonneville88 said:
Paid $200 for the GF25 on local CL last year... had the neck professionally reset, another $200...
very happy with how it all turned out... no plans to ever part with this smaller, plain jumbo with
one helluva honk! eaceful:

If I didn't have a family of my own I could be jealous. :biggrin-new:

Bonneville88 said:
Still, will be curious about how a maple GF30 sounds compared to mine - and one day, will find out.

If it's an archback (not clear from spec sheet but I think it is like the GF25), I suspect it's what was filling in for the F40 when that model number wasn't in use, but I'm not sure exactly what that time period was.
George Gruhn played around with the model numbering system during his tenure and that's where the "G" in "GF" comes from.
One of the details was the introduction of what we call the "snakehead" headstock but it's also been reported here that in conjunction with Guild's new master luthier Kim Walker he tried to lighten up the builds for better resonance.
So suspect bracing was tweaked as well but tht's one subjetc for which we have very little documentation except for whether they were standard, shaved, or scalloped, on different models at different times.
I can tell you one thing, my 3.5" deep, F40-shaped F65ce maple archback gives up very little to the D40 in volume and sustains about 30% longer.
(The D25's still the king of the heap for volume and sustain)

davismanLV · Mar 6, 2017

Where in the world do you live that you can get a Guild's neck reset for $200?? WOWZA!!

Bonneville88 · Mar 6, 2017

adorshki - more great info, wow!...it's an arch back - gimme those curves on her backside, hell yes!

davismanLV - there's a guy that does the serious repairs at my long-time go-to shop, Music Folk in St. Louis...
just so happens he's a bit of a vintage Guild guy.
Owns a D66, not sure what else. Pleased with what he's done so far - the GF 25 pretty much went from unplayable to
wonderful.
Everything's cheaper in St. Louis from what I've been told... houses - wages - food - rent - etc - compared
to some other major metropolitan areas in the US...

kdavid · Mar 7, 2017

Woah! With that im about ready to try to talk the wife to move up to St Louis! :cool-new:

Shout out ot LTG and F25'ers

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