1800 bucks, yes, abalone rosette so I presume this JF55 was made between 1995 and 2001?
Yeah, think you're right about when they got abalone, I think late '94 earliest.
Something else to know about the Fender Westerly period (Fender's purchase of Guild was finalized in November of '95 so their influence wasn't really felt until early '96):
Many years ago one of our members who actually worked there, Hideglue, made the casual observation that Westerly QC reached a zenith under Fender.
This caused a fair amount of controversy when some members interpreted that as meaning the guitars were better under Fender (who had a fair amount of irritated members here due to their later goofs with the brand); and understandably there were also members who believed other periods produced better guitars, to boot.
So Hideglue had to take pains to explain that what he meant was that the
percentage of guitars
passing QC reached its highest point ever under Fender because they introduced a checklist system to insure that no QC step was missed;
not that the guitars were somehow "better".
That resonated with me because my '96 D25 was my first real "GOOD" guitar and one thing I noticed while still getting to know it over the first couple of months were the fit and finish were
flawless.
I mean, you look inside the thing and there's not even a stray glue squeeze coming out of the kerfing.
THAT'S the sign of pride in workmanship, when it looks just as good on the inside as it does on the outside, and to this day there's still a contingent that believes late Westerly was "the BEST".
I've only modified my perspective myself from seeing all the glowing reviews from New Hartford owners, especially guys like TXBumper who've owned both.
Anyway, there's the reason why I say chances of getting a late Westerly dud are very low indeed, from the original construction quality standpoint.
And they were also some of the lightest builds Guild had done up to that time as well.
I chalk it up to all the development work done on the "
Vintage" models, and maybe the George Gruhn/Kim Walker influence from the late '80's into the early '90's.
OH Yeah:
Up until '97 or '98 (I forget) they actually put a date stamp on the end of the heel block, usually on a beveled edge so it's easy to miss unless you know what you're looking for.
That's when the rim was completed just before top was installed, so not a true "born on date" but somewhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months from actual completion date.
And Guild s/n lists actually stop at '97, anything after that can be nailed down precisely by our guru Hans Moust.
And one more thing:
During that time all dreads were shipped with L350 strings, Guild's private label version of D'Addario EJ-16 pb lights, except Guild used an .025 G in their L350 sets whereas the current D'A set uses an .024.
I actually buy an .025 single from 'em to replicate the OEM set exactly.
That'll probably also contribute to balanced tone over potential "boominess" and might be good to know when auditioning for optimum sound.