New (to me) D-50 Bluegrass Special!!!

theoscarpaco

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I'm the proud new owner of a 2009 Guild D-50 BG.

I couldn't be happier with this guitar. It's an absolute powerhouse with a flat pick but also sounds great played with a light finger style touch. It came with Guild's nice faux-gatorskin case.

The Adirondack top has a lovely wide grain that's visible behind a masterfully executed sunburst.

Someone had removed the factory pick guard so I ordered one from Guild's online shop and it arrived a few days ago. It doesn't quite align with the very faint marking of where the old one was, but nobody would notice without me closely pointing it out to them in the right light.

Another curious thing is the strange location of the factory-installed strap button on the side of the guitar. I may remove it at some point because it looks very funny to me there. It feels comfortable with a strap, though, so maybe I'll leave it.

For now, I'm just thrilled to have a nice Guild again.





 

txbumper57

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Gorgeous Guild, I hope you enjoy it for a long time to come!


TX
 

Rayk

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Sweet looks great congrats :)
 

Stuball48

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If I saw that out of the corner of my eye as I walked into a guitar shop, it would make me jerk a crick in my neck. A stunning looking burst and what a way to get back in the Guild ownership.
 

Kitarkus

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THAT is a simply outstanding Guild! Surely you will enjoy that guitar for many many years. Wonderful!
 

twocorgis

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My favorite Guild model. You just can't beat a good D 50 IMHO.

Definitely my favorite Guild dread for sure. I was going to pass that 2012 D50 Standard that I bought a while back to somebody here, but it's so damn good that now I have two of them!
 

adorshki

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I'm the proud new owner of a 2009 Guild D-50 BG.
Congrats, Theo!
Another curious thing is the strange location of the factory-installed strap button on the side of the guitar. I may remove it at some point because it looks very funny to me there. It feels comfortable with a strap, though, so maybe I'll leave it.
Ok, now I'm scratching my head a little bit...I thought they only put strap buttons on "e" models (the ones with UST's).. does your guitar have a UST?
Another detail about those buttons was that they installed a block inside to handle the mounting/hanging stress.
A final "qualifier" is that over the course of production they (NH specifically )may have varied what they installed the buttons on, but traditionally pure acoustic instruments never got buttons, only endpins.
 

theoscarpaco

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Thanks for the comments everyone!

Adorshki, it didn't have a pickup installed so I'm not sure why it got the strap button treatment. I wish it hadn't! In fact, during my first string change I took a look inside to see how the button was mounted and the wood block you referenced is actually a lot bulkier than I was expecting it to be. It's certainly not something I'd do to a guitar but I don't think it hurt the tone of this one..it's a beast!

I'm the second owner but after chatting with the owner before I bought it I realized I had played this guitar a few years back when it was hanging in a local shop. Avenue Guitars was clearing out their Guild stock at 50% off (yes, really!) so I drove down with a pocket full of cash. They had three Guilds left when I got there: this one, a Tacoma D-40 Bluegrass Jubilee, and a New Hartford D-55. The D-40 was the only one that didn't have a side-mounted strap button. I can't recall if the D-55 had electronics. I ended up buying the D-40 BJ because it had a natural top and also because it didn't have this strap button. That thing remains to this day the most impressive sounding guitar I've ever held, and I wish I wasn't forced to sell it for financial reasons. I posted about here it a while back. I've tried to buy it back more than once but the new owner is very happy with it and I've resolved not to pester her anymore.
 

adorshki

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Adorshki, it didn't have a pickup installed so I'm not sure why it got the strap button treatment. I wish it hadn't! In fact, during my first string change I took a look inside to see how the button was mounted and the wood block you referenced is actually a lot bulkier than I was expecting it to be. It's certainly not something I'd do to a guitar but I don't think it hurt the tone of this one..it's a beast!
Interesting and thanks for the feedback, definitely sounds like a factory install then,
And yeah something mounted on the side won't impact sound much if at all. Even the top's very vey dead acoustically, up there.
Taking a wild guess they had a few of these bodies they planned to mount the UST in and then simply didn't, as production went on (or maybe stopped?).
Be interesting to translate the s/n for the build date.
I'm the second owner but after chatting with the owner before I bought it I realized I had played this guitar a few years back when it was hanging in a local shop. Avenue Guitars was clearing out their Guild stock at 50% off (yes, really!) so I drove down with a pocket full of cash. They had three Guilds left when I got there: this one, a Tacoma D-40 Bluegrass Jubilee, and a New Hartford D-55. The D-40 was the only one that didn't have a side-mounted strap button. I can't recall if the D-55 had electronics. I ended up buying the D-40 BJ because it had a natural top and also because it didn't have this strap button. That thing remains to this day the most impressive sounding guitar I've ever held, and I wish I wasn't forced to sell it for financial reasons. I posted about here it a while back. I've tried to buy it back more than once but the new owner is very happy with it and I've resolved not to pester her anymore.
Yeah I get that.
My own D40 took years to come alive but now it's right up there with the other 2.
We saw some factory liquidation of inventory when the sale to Cordoba Music Group was being finalized and consummated, might explain the 50% off sale.
 

chazmo

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Al, Theo,

Early in New Hartford (probably inherited from Tacoma, but I don't recall), they were putting the strap buttons on the bass side, as Theo has it. I believe they stopped doing that sometime around 2010 or so and, if I recall correctly, the put the button on the treble side of the neck block.

Yeah, I really don't like the big chunk of wood that's necessary inside the soundbox to mount the button, but hey that's what you need if you like that position for it. Lots of folks do.
 

chazmo

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Yeah, that's 2009. finish day is 99th day, Julian -- 9-Apr. That's an early New Hartford production guitar (they started in January, 2009).
 

JethroTech

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Beautiful guitar! I'm on the hunt for a D-50 these days too. And I think we might live in the same city. The store you mentioned, which may or may not be closed down now, sounds very familiar :) Congrats on the guitar.
 
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