1973 Guild D55 Questions and Mysteries!

Rooftop

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Hello fellow guild lovers!

I am in need of your expertise and help to solve some mysteries I have with a 1973 Guild D55.

I will post pictures to illustrate where my confusion lies and hope that someone can help me figure this out.

My 2 main questions are
1- Why does this D55 have a D50 top?
2- Does anyone have any idea what kind of wood is on this sides? It does not look like the Indian Rosewood on the back in grain or in color, I have had people tell me that it is everything from Koa to mahogany to Brazilian Rosewood... and I have no idea what to make of it.
Between these two mysteries I am not really sure what to make of this D55 : ) But one thing is certain, it sounds amazing!

Any help would be appreciated.

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GuildFS4612CE

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Welcome. The sides look like rosewood to me, but I'm not the expert...Hans Moust is...he'll likely be along soon to help...if he doesn't see your question you can email him at his website...you can find it in his membership profile, or someone here with better net access and great search foo will find it for you. Congrats on posting pics first try.

And everyone is going to ask you 'how does it sound?'...that's all that's important.

Fear not, the thundering hordes will pop up soon with their opinions.:welcoming:
 

sailingshoes72

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Rooftop... Welcome to the LTG Forum. That's a fine looking Guild Dreadnaught guitar you have there, with a lot of honest player wear. "Made to be played." And good job of navigating the steps to post photos!

What makes you think that the top is a D-50 instead of a D-55? Is it the rosette, the pickguard or the rosewood bridge? Those all look normal to me.

I have to admit that the sides look more like mahogany than EIR rosewood. According to the "Guild Guitar Book" (Hans Moust), the D-55 was introduced in 1968, but it was available on special order only. It became a standard model in the Guild lineup in 1974.

Yours may have been a special order with different tonewood used on the sides. There are others 'round here with more knowledge than me and I'm sure that they will check in soon.

Bill
 

dreadnut

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Boy, that sure looks like 'hog sides...

Not sure why you think the top is D-50-ish.

One thing for sure, it was made to be played!
 

chazmo

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Rooftop,

First of all, welcome to LTG. That's a pretty cool first post since there's definitely some mystery going on here. That axe has been ridden hard and put away wet. Probably literally.

I think the finish has been stripped off the sides of this guitar (and possibly the soundboard as well, but I think that's just worn). If the sides are in fact mahogany rather than rosewood, that would probably tell you that the soundbox has been rebuilt at some point (the sides should be rosewood), but I doubt it.

Anyway, great stuff!
 

Kitarkus

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The ultimate campfire guitar! (and no...not for firewood). I would say that that is a typical D55 that has been sweat upon for years and years and years.....however.....the sides really appear to be mahogany. Top looks standard.....after you pour sweat and beer over it for 20+ years. Back is most def east indian rw in my opinion. Sides?....well....sure looks like hog....but that makes no sense. Hmmm. Try soaking a piece of EIRW in beer and sweat for 20 years and let me know if it turns into mahogany.

Great first post....thanks for the photos. That guitar looks like it has been loved....then loved again....and again..... Made to be played indeed.
 

Rooftop

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Thank you all for the replies thus far! I can already tell this is an awesome community.

As to the reasoning behind thinking that it may be a D-50-ish top is that I thought that the Rosette around the sound hole on a D-55 was Abalone, while the D-50 had the ivory looking rosette, and the bridge looks rosewood to me, although it does get suspiciously dark on that left side.

It has definitely been well played and loved, It sounds amazing, easily the best guitar I have ever owned by a wide margin.

I really hope we can solve the mystery of what is going on with the sides, I love the guitar any which way, but would like to know everything about it!

Here is a pic of the neck, where you can see a little more love and wear put into it.

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GardMan

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Interesting! Rode hard and put away wet, indeed!

I was thinking that years back there was another post about a rosewood backed guitar that appeared to have mahogany sides... can't recall if it was a D-55 or D-50, tho', and couldn't find the thread in a rudimentary search.

OTOH, if you look at the 5th pic, you can see a bit of the inside of the side thru the sound hole... in that pic, it looks more like rosewood, to me.
 

GardMan

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If you are thinking D-50 top because the rosette isn't abalone... it's because the 55 didn't get its abalone rosette until ~1993.

OTOH, to me the pick guard looks as if it has been replaced. The inner edge doesn't follow the sound hole contour as well as I'd expect.

Can you post a pic of the region of the end pin area (bottom of the guitar)...
 

Rooftop

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Once again thank you all for the great insights.

Safe to say that I had some uninformed assumptions about the top. Thank you all for the info about that. All the other D55s I had seen had the Abalone rosette, so I had just made the assumption they all must have it.

Looking inside to see the sides from within is a great idea. Here are a few pics to show that. Also the end pin area and bottom region. It does look more like rosewood when seen from within and near the bottom. (At least to my untrained eye.)

If it is indeed rosewood on the sides, I wonder why the stain/color of the back and sides differ from one another so much. Is that just the way it is sometimes?

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davismanLV

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Wow.... I was like, "Wow, for sure RW back!" Then the sides, I was trying to suspend my preconceptions about "how specific woods look" but YIKES it does look like Mahogany. Our resident guru and expert on Guilds, Hans Moust, will have a better response for you. You can PM him here or look him up and his website will show up.... and he will respond. He's a good guy and he's the Guild .... what is it we called him guys? The Guild Master Jedi? Is that it? Anyway, stay tuned. There are people who will know or connect you with people who will know. Welcome to LTG. That's a SUPER cool guitar, by the way..... :encouragement:
 

adorshki

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If it is indeed rosewood on the sides, I wonder why the stain/color of the back and sides differ from one another so much.
HI Rooftop welcome aboard!
Is that just the way it is sometimes?
Basically, yes, but:
that highlight shot of the lower bout in the middle makes me suspect it was refinished at some point, and sanding the sides might have removed some of the stain.
Typically they will match, although Guild did do changeups in stain from year to year.
Gardman mentioned a "mystery guitar" with 'hog sides from years back, and while I don't remember that, I do remember that during that early '70's period we've seen at least 3 or 4 examples of D50's that I can remember with mixed Braz and EIR backs and sides, so I wonder if that's another possibility that's accentuating the color and grain mismatch .
Finally, nobody's remembered to mention that D55's actually started out as "D50 specials" ordered by Tommy Smothers: D50's with an F50 neck.
They got their own model number in '68 after appearing on the Smothers Brothers TV show and were actually called "Television D55"
So the fact that it looks so much like a D50 shouldn't surprise.
Gardman also mentioned he thinks the pickguard's been replaced, I agree, it simply looks too large and I didn't think black was used back then.
It may be oversized because removing the 'guard on those Guilds is extremely difficult and likely to cause top damage, so this one may be covering up some of that.
AHHH! Just remembered: Guild applied High Gloss finish over their 'guards. (a small part of the reason they're so hard to remove)
If it's not finished over it's absolutely not original, and it doesn't look like it is finished over, from the 'guard edge in one of the photos.
To confirm my memory I did some googling and assuming it's dated correctly, here's an '81 on Gbase showing the same very light side stain, and a black 'guard but with a smaller outline:
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Here's a '73 D50 with the tortoise shell I expected:
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Finally, love that inside shot of the sides!
I'm pretty sure they're original because of the cloth reinforcing strips. That's exactly how Guild did it in the mid-70's.
Finally, one thing we've learned over the years, Guild went "off-spec" and changed 'em so often that one just can't assume anything anymore.
 
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walrus

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You have plenty of answers, so I will just say - I love the guitar!

walrus
 

bobouz

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Gardman also mentioned he thinks the pickguard's been replaced, I agree, it simply looks too large and I didn't think black was used back then.
Actually, black pickguards did appear in the early '70s, as on my '73 F-30R, in combination with rosewood back & sides and an ebony fingerboard & bridge.

My '74 F-40 also has it's original black pickguard, this time combined with a deep red-stained maple back & sides and rosewood board & bridge.

There does seem to have been a bit of mixing & matching of appointments during the early '70s, but I do agree that the pickguard on your D-55 looks like an oversized replacement piece - and the sides are doing an absolutely perfect impersonation of mahogany!

A neat guitar with many more miles yet to go - enjoy.
 
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swiveltung

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Looks like mahogany sides to me. Both inside and out. It's Guild, anything is possible. Note how the sides look identical to the mahogany headstock back, pic in post 7.
 
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dreadnut

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Well, the abalone rosette didn't happen until much later, so there's one mystery solved.

'73 was well past the Brazilian RW era, so the back is most likely EIR.

The bridge does look like Rosewood, the fingerboard Ebony.

I'm still voting on 'hog sides...
 
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txbumper57

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Cool Guitar! The sides actually look like some of the rosewood sides I have seen on Guilds from that period. It looks like the sides may have been cut differently from what we are used to seeing on most pieces of Rosewood. Just an opinion of course.

TX
 

Rooftop

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To my eyes, looks similar to the sides on this 1977 D55 featured on dreamguitars.com,
described in the specs there as EIR.

It does bear a striking resemblance to this guitar.

Thank you to everyone for all of the info and insight. I have a much better idea of what is going on with this guitar now!

You guys rock!
 
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