Pics of my D-50

toolie27 · May 6, 2022

Hi! I love Guild guitars, own a ‘67 D-50 and a newer GAD F-130 (which I love, it is an excellent guitar).
I was cleaning my D-50 this afternoon and the light hit it just right and really made the wood grain stand out. The sides are pretty cool looking. Got me wondering if anyone can tell where this rosewood is from without me having to scratch it?
Anyways enjoy the pics, hard to capture the sides correctly with my old iPhone.

PreacherBob · May 6, 2022

Wow! The sides are like…half East Indian, and half Brazilian! I’ve not seen that. Pretty back as well. I’d be staring at the side while I’m playing, mess me all up!

Coop47 · May 6, 2022

Wherever it's from, it's spectacular.

Cougar · May 6, 2022

A rosewood by any other name would sound as sweet.....

Cougar · May 6, 2022

Cougar said:
A rosewood by any other name would sound as sweet.....

BTW, congrats on a real beauty!

toolie27 · May 7, 2022

Here’s a pic of the front, and I will share the story. I bought the guitar about 8 years ago in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The gentleman that owned it had been a touring musician for a C&W band for years and this Guild was his backup touring guitar.
I bought it thinking it was a ‘70 (that’s what he had advertised), he told me he bought it brand new in Ottawa in 1970. In 1971 he broke the headstock off and it was repaired in Quebec City. I was a bit concerned about the headstock but couldn’t pass on the opportunity to own a vintage Guild (and he gave me a pretty good deal. I think I paid around $650 CAD for it, around $500 US) He toured all over the globe with this guitar. It came with the original case as well, and it’s also fairly beat up. I fell in love with the guitar’s character and it’s a treasured guitar in my house. And it’s LOUD!!! What a voice this Guild has

Does anyone know if these came with Grover tuners from the factory? Or were these maybe switched out?

davismanLV · May 7, 2022

It's possible that the sides could be Brazilian Rosewood, if it's a 1967. The back I'm pretty sure is East Indian Rosewood. That's a transitional time for rosewood. Sometimes the sides were Brazilian and the back EIR. Beautiful guitar!! Thanks for sharing the photos!!

HeyMikey · May 7, 2022

davismanLV said:
It's possible that the sides could be Brazilian Rosewood, if it's a 1967. The back I'm pretty sure is East Indian Rosewood. That's a transitional time for rosewood. Sometimes the sides were Brazilian and the back EIR. Beautiful guitar!! Thanks for sharing the photos!!

I’m thinking the same. We have seen members with late 60’s D50s that have Brazilian sides and EIR looking backs. Though if early enough it could possibly be straight grained Brazilian. Maybe look inside at the neck block for a date or send the S/N to Hans. In any case the guitar looks terrific and must sound wonderful!

Sats · May 7, 2022

Oh my, that is lovely. To me, Guild acoustics from the mid- to late-60’s are the best of the bunch: that balanced sound seemingly inherent in all Guilds, but light weight and ‘softer’(?) than Guilds from the late 70’s and 80’s. And player grade! Love axes with stories and character. Question though: was it ever set up as lefty? The saddle says… yes?

twocorgis · May 7, 2022

davismanLV said:
It's possible that the sides could be Brazilian Rosewood, if it's a 1967. The back I'm pretty sure is East Indian Rosewood. That's a transitional time for rosewood. Sometimes the sides were Brazilian and the back EIR. Beautiful guitar!! Thanks for sharing the photos!!

HeyMikey said:
I’m thinking the same. We have seen members with late 60’s D50s that have Brazilian sides and EIR looking backs. Though if early enough it could possibly be straight grained Brazilian. Maybe look inside at the neck block for a date or send the S/N to Hans. In any case the guitar looks terrific and must sound wonderful!

I'll add a +2 to that. The guitar looks a lot like my 1970 Guild/Henderson D50. Wayne thought that the sides were BRW and the back was EIR when he re-topped it, and I agree.

Hard to say if the tuners are original, but they look to be. My '70 and '73 both have the Guild branded Schaller type machines, that I'm not sure were made by Schaller. I seem to remember Mark Dronge saying at one of the New Hartford factory tours that his father didn't like the company, so they may have been knock-offs. I do know that Govers were popular with a lot of other Hoboken Guilds, like the '67 Starfire V my lead guitarist has (courtesy of @richardp69).

wileypickett · May 7, 2022

As Sats noted, the saddle was set for a lefty guitar at some point. If you expand the first picture, you can make out where the saddle was originally.

You'll have to have it repostioned if you want the guitar to play in tune.

chazmo · May 7, 2022

PreacherBob said:
Wow! The sides are like…half East Indian, and half Brazilian! I’ve not seen that. Pretty back as well. I’d be staring at the side while I’m playing, mess me all up!

I've seen a number of the '70-ish guitars with sides like that (that look like two pieces of wood, that is). I think what you're looking at might be stump wood (probably Brazilian) to account for the wild grain that you see at the transition point between normal grain and the weird stuff. I think they used this stump (if that's what it is) for several guitar sides during that era.

As everyone said, toolie, that is some very beautiful wood (all around), regardless of its species!

davismanLV · May 7, 2022

wileypickett said:
As Sats noted, the saddle was set for a lefty guitar at some point. If you expand the first picture, you can make out where the saddle was originally.

You'll have to have it repostioned if you want the guitar to play in tune.

Wow, I didn't even notice that at first! But yeah, the intonation on this must be way off. They can switch it back.

Charlie Bernstein · May 7, 2022

davismanLV said:
It's possible that the sides could be Brazilian Rosewood, if it's a 1967. The back I'm pretty sure is East Indian Rosewood. That's a transitional time for rosewood. Sometimes the sides were Brazilian and the back EIR. Beautiful guitar!! Thanks for sharing the photos!!

That makes sense. They probably figured that people look at the sides more than the back.

davismanLV · May 7, 2022

Charlie Bernstein said:
That makes sense. They probably figured that people look at the sides more than the back.

I think it was mostly that the larger sized pieces for bookmatching were used up. Only the narrow bits for sides. I think.

PreacherBob · May 7, 2022

Wow those are old Grovers. That dating goes about right. I know early 60’s the rear covers were flat and stamped. Mid 60’s they went to a convex or dome cover like yours. That lasted until they moved production to Taiwan in 82 or 83. I’ve seen the flat covers on a guitar before. Maybe correct, at least period correct

Charlie Bernstein · May 8, 2022

davismanLV said:
I think it was mostly that the larger sized pieces for bookmatching were used up. Only the narrow bits for sides. I think.

Yeah, I almost mentioned the width difference. That makes sense.

twocorgis · May 9, 2022

davismanLV said:
I think it was mostly that the larger sized pieces for bookmatching were used up. Only the narrow bits for sides. I think.

Charlie Bernstein said:
Yeah, I almost mentioned the width difference. That makes sense.

Martin introduced the D35 (three piece back) in the late '60s explicitly to use up the bits of Brazilian rosewood they had that were too small for backs. It proved to be such a popular model that it stayed in the lineup after the switch to EIR.

Charlie Bernstein · May 10, 2022

twocorgis said:
Martin introduced the D35 (three piece back) in the late '60s explicitly to use up the bits of Brazilian rosewood they had that were too small for backs. It proved to be such a popular model that it stayed in the lineup after the switch to EIR.

Yeah, I had a seventies D-35 for a while. Clear, ringing, not too boomy. Nice. Can't remember what I did with it.

chazmo · May 10, 2022

twocorgis said:
Martin introduced the D35 (three piece back) in the late '60s explicitly to use up the bits of Brazilian rosewood they had that were too small for backs. It proved to be such a popular model that it stayed in the lineup after the switch to EIR.

I've always loved the three-piece back on the 35 series. Here's a particularly beautiful version of the D-35 up on Reverb:

Martin D35V 1985 Gloss | Reverb

Martin D35 V. 20th Anniversary Brazilian. Sweet guitar. Chris Martin III and Chris Martin IV signatures. Collectors item.

reverb.com

Pics of my D-50

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