D-55 on its way to Guild for warranty service

[kostask]

I would be leaning towards the replacement as well. Whether you take any new D55, or one that Chris has compared is up to you, but I don't see any issue with letting him compare them. Just keep in mind that whatever he hears and considers to be a "good/great/better than the old guitar", even if being completely honest, will only be heard through his ears and his concept of what a guitar should sound like, not your ears nor your ideal guitar. On the other hand, he will have a number of D55s on hand to choose from.

Guild may have had a number of issues with that guitar. The finish peeling is either related to an issue with the finish itself (nitro I am assuming) or the pore filler used beneath the finish creating an adhesion problem. Either way, the only real way to properly fix the guitar is to strip it, sand it all the way down to raw wood, and then refinish it from the ground up, from pore filling to nitro top coat. Unless done by hand, by a very skilled luthier, the result may not be acceptable. I personally don't see the factory doing that.

 

[Vid]

New; You have to wonder if this is the post covid world we live in in terms of craftsmanship and ”customer service“. While this is in general statement, this is more and more prevalent in many manufacturing aspects across the commerce spectrum. It would make me think long and hard before purchasing a new instrument; Searching the used market for an instrument built prior to the Covid world makes more and more sense to me because of the craftsmanship. I understand it’s a general statement but as they say once bitten twice shy.

 

[dwasifar]

After all this time I'm going to have to reacquaint myself with the instrument. I've been playing my Taylor 710 every day, and it has a much flatter neck radius than the Guild. So when I start playing the Guild again, I'm probably going to miss notes when picking for a while because of the curve, until I readjust.

Am I alone in sometimes imagining what it would be like if guitars were aware of their players? I am not one of those woo-woo people who actually believes inanimate objects are sentient, but it's fun to spin what-if stories in your head; and if my guitars were actually aware, the Taylor would be basking in the four months of renewed attention and unaware it's about to experience another jilting.

Back to hardheaded reality. I just restrung the Taylor. It was built for, and sounds best with, 13s. The D-55 came stock with 12s. I tried 13s on it but the 12s actually sound better, and 13s are harder to play on the Guild than they are on the Taylor for some reason. A little irritating because I have to stock two gauges now. And it will take me a lot longer to use up the bulk-buy Martin 13s I got a couple of years ago, because except for these last four months, I've played the Taylor a lot less.

 

[West R Lee]

After all this time I'm going to have to reacquaint myself with the instrument. I've been playing my Taylor 710 every day, and it has a much flatter neck radius than the Guild. So when I start playing the Guild again, I'm probably going to miss notes when picking for a while because of the curve, until I readjust.

Am I alone in sometimes imagining what it would be like if guitars were aware of their players? I am not one of those woo-woo people who actually believes inanimate objects are sentient, but it's fun to spin what-if stories in your head; and if my guitars were actually aware, the Taylor would be basking in the four months of renewed attention and unaware it's about to experience another jilting.

Back to hardheaded reality. I just restrung the Taylor. It was built for, and sounds best with, 13s. The D-55 came stock with 12s. I tried 13s on it but the 12s actually sound better, and 13s are harder to play on the Guild than they are on the Taylor for some reason. A little irritating because I have to stock two gauges now. And it will take me a lot longer to use up the bulk-buy Martin 13s I got a couple of years ago, because except for these last four months, I've played the Taylor a lot less.

So don't leave us in suspense. What have you decided.........or are you still waiting for the A/B comparison?

West

 

[davismanLV]

I think the A/B comparison is tomorrow, Wednesday!!

 

[GGJaguar]

I think the A/B comparison is tomorrow, Wednesday!!

Oh, what channel is it on? I need to tune in.

 

[Bill Ashton]

Take the replacement!

Relative to my post above, after 5 years the finish on the neck of my Tacoma-built D55 was flaking; different from yours,
as it was along the walnut center strip. I returned it to Guild, with my dealer's blessing, at LMG VI. (~Sept 20, 2013). Some weeks later
I get a call from Guild's Customer Service rep in New Hartford telling me they had to build me a new neck, as the channel had been
done wrong and the walnut was actually squeezing out of the neck, clouding and chipping the finish. They agreed it was a warranty
repair and had to do it, but due to different tooling it would take time. I asked, seeing it needed a new neck, couldn't I just get a New
Hartford one (meaning neck), as I liked the profile better? He said "Hold that thought, I will call you right back!" Within about ten minutes he called back and I was offered a new production guitar...which at the time was backlogged, but I picked my new one up in New Hartford week before Thanksgiving 2013. Difference with my situation was, it was the Fender/Guild operation and customer service truly acted as a advocate for me. The guitar was set up so well I thought it had Light strings on it instead of Mediums, and it still plays that way today.

I am very pleased that you finally got the offer you deserved from the beginning. I think it best you take them up on it, so that you
are able to maintain whatever the new warranty is. Get paperwork or an invoice or something...the one failing in my situation was that
I never got any paperwork, so I essentially now have an "undocumented" D55 and no way to get any warranty work done...though, now
under a new owner, that is sort of a moot point as they may not feel responsible for NH. "Undocumented" and rosewood...guess I cannot
travel with this guitar outside of the United States

Did I say it before, take the new guitar!

 

[jeffcoop]

I also have a problem with the finish on my Tacoma F30 neck delaminating, and sadly, as I am not the original owner, I do not have a warrantee. Although, given the difficulty that dwasifar has had, that may not be a bad thing. The guitar is still beautiful and still plays well, it's just losing the finish on portions of the neck.

 

[beecee]

Quoting Frono...."I'll be the guy".

Great news but just worried about the current weather here in the NE. I have 4 inches of snow on my car and the thermometer reads 27.

Hopefully you're in a more temperate area of the country!!

 

[bobouz]

If it were a new car that shortly after purchase required major warranty work (such as an engine block replacement), and then ended up in the shop for many months - I'd probably not have much faith in it & would want to sell it almost immediately.

This guitar gives me that same feeling.

 

[fronobulax]

Today's the day.

I'd wait for the report and comparison but it needs to be a landslide in favor of the old guitar to justify that choice. In addition to the benefits of "new" there is a chance that the "new" one was hand selected at the factory by someone knowledgeable. So in at least one person's opinion, the new one will be better than at least one other example of the same model.

 

[GAD]

I also have a problem with the finish on my Tacoma F30 neck delaminating, and sadly, as I am not the original owner, I do not have a warrantee. Although, given the difficulty that dwasifar has had, that may not be a bad thing. The guitar is still beautiful and still plays well, it's just losing the finish on portions of the neck.

I’m pretty sure CMG doesn’t honor Tacoma warranty anyway, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

 

[jeffcoop]

I’m pretty sure CMG doesn’t honor Tacoma warranty anyway, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

One of the things that appalled me when I studied Corporations in law school was the ease with which an acquiring corporation could shed the obligations of a selling corporation. There's something to be said for continuity, in those rare occasions when it exists. I prefer Guilds to Martins, but I couldn't help but be impressed by how Martin handled things a dozen years ago when my stepmother sent in her then-forty-year-old D18 for work under warranty.

 

[fronobulax]

One of the things that appalled me when I studied Corporations in law school was the ease with which an acquiring corporation could shed the obligations of a selling corporation. There's something to be said for continuity, in those rare occasions when it exists. I prefer Guilds to Martins, but I couldn't help but be impressed by how Martin handled things a dozen years ago when my stepmother sent in her then-forty-year-old D18 for work under warranty.

The "unfairness" to the consumer has been much discussed although there are occasional anecdotes of some flavor of Guild honoring a warranty that they were not obligated to do because of changes in ownership.

We pretty much know that when FMIC sold Guild to CMG the liability for Guilds made in New Hartford was also transferred to CMG.

There is an open question as to whether the liability for the remaining FMIC years somehow remained with FMIC or disappeared when FMIC sold Guild.

The memory is painful and this hazy but I seem to recall something involving General Motors and Delphi that ended up with a stockholder owned company that had no assets, just liabilities, and filed for bankruptcy leaving stockholders with nothing but a capital loss.

 

[dwasifar]

One of the things that appalled me when I studied Corporations in law school was the ease with which an acquiring corporation could shed the obligations of a selling corporation. There's something to be said for continuity, in those rare occasions when it exists. I prefer Guilds to Martins, but I couldn't help but be impressed by how Martin handled things a dozen years ago when my stepmother sent in her then-forty-year-old D18 for work under warranty.

I once shamed Empire Level into providing me a replacement for a defective American Level after they acquired the company. The American had had a lifetime warranty and Empire initially would do nothing. I made a minor fuss and now I have two very nice Empire levels, and a smattering of Empire swag.

 

[West R Lee]

I once shamed Empire Level into providing me a replacement for a defective American Level after they acquired the company. The American had had a lifetime warranty and Empire initially would do nothing. I made a minor fuss and now I have two very nice Empire levels, and a smattering of Empire swag.

So today is Wednesday.........we're on the edge of our seats!

West

 

[dwasifar]

So today is Wednesday.........we're on the edge of our seats!

Information coming shortly.

 

[GGJaguar]

Information coming shortly.

Egads, the suspense!

 

[Bill Ashton]

No pressure man, you'll do the right thing for you...

 

[dwasifar]

Okay. I just got off the phone with Chris at Guild. He says both guitars sound amazing, but my original one currently sounds broken-in (naturally) where the other does not. That will change with time, and I told them to go ahead and ship the replacement instrument. This was actually his recommendation too, along with virtually everyone here. He said there was a small but detectable finish flaw near the bridge, too; that wasn't exactly the clincher, but it weighed into my decision. I had also asked him to inspect the replacement, which he says looks flawless.

It will probably not ship today. I asked him to check the expected transit times, and if a stay over the weekend in a FedEx warehouse (or truck) can be avoided by waiting until Monday to ship, I instructed him to do that. But if that would happen either way, then I said just ship tomorrow.

Now we wait.