GardMan
Enlightened Member
It’s been a year since my DV-73 arrived, and except for the few weeks that it was with Tom (Fixit) for a little R&R (Repair and Restoration) in Florida, I have been playing and A/B/Cing it against my ‘76 D-50 and ‘92 D-55 all that time. I thought it was about time I posted my impressions. I posted a brief review in the appropriate section of LTG, but thought I would share a bit more in-depth.
So, meet the “playees.” All are Guild dreadnaughts with Spruce tops and IRW back/sides. My...
1976 Guild D-50, which I bought used in Sept 2009. It came to me with a hairline crack in the bridge, now repaired to invisibility. Aside from that, it has hardly a scuff. It has a beautifully figured Indian rosewood back. Shortly after I purchased it, I noticed that its braces had been shaved. Hans assured me that the braces were shaved after it left the factory. I am sure this had some effect on its acoustics... so I wouldn’t consider my characterizations typical of a factory original D-50.
1992 D-55, purchased used in Feb 2007. Shipped from New Jersey thru a New England ice storm to Salt Lake City (via Petaluma, CA? explain that!), it suffered from moderately extensive lacquer checking. I was VERY careful about letting it acclimate before I opened the box, so I believe it was the absolute temps it endured (could have been below zero), rather than rapid change, that caused the checking. A nice straight-grained IRW back, beautiful spruce top. One of the early 55s with scalloped bracing. It also has the slimmest, fastest neck of any Guild I have ever played... it’s a breeze to play.
1995 DV-73, purchased used in August 2012 after a two year search for a DV-7X I could “afford.” You might recall, I was a bit disappointed when it first arrived... smelling of smoke, mile high action, a separating fretboard, and no break angle. I was sure it was in need of a neck reset. However, even with dead strings and horrid action, I could hear the potential. The smokey smell turned out to mostly be in the case, and has now faded completely. With a little fiddling (filling the too deep nut slots with bone dust and ACC, and tightening the truss), I was able to get the action close to what I like, while raising the saddle to a reasonable height. In April, I shipped it off to our own “Fixit,” who did a beautiful job restoring a missing piece of NS trim in the first fret marker and repairing the fretboard separation. After dressing the frets and adjusting the relief, Tom got the action to ~0.115" at the 12th fret... just ~0.01" higher than my “ideal.” In the end, we decided NOT to reset the neck now. It may happen in the future, but it plays and sounds great now. When it arrived, I was also surprised by its obviously “beefy” neck... after playing it for just a few days, I got out my digital caliper, and discovered that it has what can nominally be described as a 1-3/4" nut (measured at 1.74"). It has a beautiful, straight-grained IRW back, nicely silked spruce top with scalloped bracing, and, of course, the beautiful nickel silver, black onyx, coral, and turquoise inlay of the DV-73.
I changed the strings on all three in early July to new sets of John Pearse PB lights, and have been A/B/Cing them since. I’ll often switch between all three in mid song, playing a verse and chorus on each. Or, playing a song thru on each. My repertoire is mainly folk ballads and cowboy tunes... a mix of fingerpicking and strumming: Stan Rogers, Lightfoot, Bill Staines, Marty Robbins and other old folk and cowboy tunes, etc. Despite the difference in nut sizes, they are all easy players... at least thru most of my range (I do have a bit more trouble getting clean barre chords beyond the 9th fret), and I have very little trouble moving between the three (or any of my 8 Guild dreads, for that matter).
Continued in next post...
So, meet the “playees.” All are Guild dreadnaughts with Spruce tops and IRW back/sides. My...
1976 Guild D-50, which I bought used in Sept 2009. It came to me with a hairline crack in the bridge, now repaired to invisibility. Aside from that, it has hardly a scuff. It has a beautifully figured Indian rosewood back. Shortly after I purchased it, I noticed that its braces had been shaved. Hans assured me that the braces were shaved after it left the factory. I am sure this had some effect on its acoustics... so I wouldn’t consider my characterizations typical of a factory original D-50.
1992 D-55, purchased used in Feb 2007. Shipped from New Jersey thru a New England ice storm to Salt Lake City (via Petaluma, CA? explain that!), it suffered from moderately extensive lacquer checking. I was VERY careful about letting it acclimate before I opened the box, so I believe it was the absolute temps it endured (could have been below zero), rather than rapid change, that caused the checking. A nice straight-grained IRW back, beautiful spruce top. One of the early 55s with scalloped bracing. It also has the slimmest, fastest neck of any Guild I have ever played... it’s a breeze to play.
1995 DV-73, purchased used in August 2012 after a two year search for a DV-7X I could “afford.” You might recall, I was a bit disappointed when it first arrived... smelling of smoke, mile high action, a separating fretboard, and no break angle. I was sure it was in need of a neck reset. However, even with dead strings and horrid action, I could hear the potential. The smokey smell turned out to mostly be in the case, and has now faded completely. With a little fiddling (filling the too deep nut slots with bone dust and ACC, and tightening the truss), I was able to get the action close to what I like, while raising the saddle to a reasonable height. In April, I shipped it off to our own “Fixit,” who did a beautiful job restoring a missing piece of NS trim in the first fret marker and repairing the fretboard separation. After dressing the frets and adjusting the relief, Tom got the action to ~0.115" at the 12th fret... just ~0.01" higher than my “ideal.” In the end, we decided NOT to reset the neck now. It may happen in the future, but it plays and sounds great now. When it arrived, I was also surprised by its obviously “beefy” neck... after playing it for just a few days, I got out my digital caliper, and discovered that it has what can nominally be described as a 1-3/4" nut (measured at 1.74"). It has a beautiful, straight-grained IRW back, nicely silked spruce top with scalloped bracing, and, of course, the beautiful nickel silver, black onyx, coral, and turquoise inlay of the DV-73.
I changed the strings on all three in early July to new sets of John Pearse PB lights, and have been A/B/Cing them since. I’ll often switch between all three in mid song, playing a verse and chorus on each. Or, playing a song thru on each. My repertoire is mainly folk ballads and cowboy tunes... a mix of fingerpicking and strumming: Stan Rogers, Lightfoot, Bill Staines, Marty Robbins and other old folk and cowboy tunes, etc. Despite the difference in nut sizes, they are all easy players... at least thru most of my range (I do have a bit more trouble getting clean barre chords beyond the 9th fret), and I have very little trouble moving between the three (or any of my 8 Guild dreads, for that matter).
Continued in next post...
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