F50R Custom John Denver

[SydShanshala]

Hi everybody! This is my first post here, I figured you guys & gals might find this as interesting as I did.

This guitar was built in Corona by Dennis Galuszka, serial number DG120. It’s a custom order “copy” of John Denver’s F50R Special. The order was placed at Folkway Music sometime after JD’s death by a guy named Ron Bonine and took Guild 3 years to complete according to his wife.

It sports a 26 inch scale, Indian rosewood back and sides and factory double pickguards, which is as close to the original as Guild could do at the time the order was placed. (JD’s guitar was Brazilian with a one-piece back, possibly arched.)
Sound-wise it’s more like a prewar SJ-200 than an F50R. It rings like a bell with beautiful overtones and harmonics.

I’ve concluded this guitar is one of a kind as it doesn’t belong to the original Greco run and it’s not one of the Japanese AA-82 Denver guitars. Indeed it’s the only F50R Artist Award with Indian rosewood that I’ve seen or heard of.
George Gruhn had not seen a build quite like this one. He appraised it at “standard F50R value” due to its Corona origins but advised me to hang onto it due to its extreme rarity.
I had to have a number of minor cracks repaired but overall for its age and era it’s in nearly pristine condition.

I’m a 90s kid who was inspired to learn to play by my mom’s old John Denver albums so this has been a total dream-come-true experience for me.
I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts about this guitar as well as any info you may have about it or models like it.

Cheers!

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG and thanks for sharing the cool pix and story!

 

[davismanLV]

Very cool story and a beautiful guitar!! Thanks for the story and photos!! Welcome to LTG!!

p.s. - you playing that guitar on that narrow balcony makes me cringe! No way I'd be able to do that and not scrape one end or the other, but then I'm not super coordinated. LOL!!

 

[fronobulax]

Welcome.

We may have anticipated your arrival

https://letstalkguild.com/ltg/index.php?threads/f-50r-on-ebay.208132/

 

[SFIV1967]

Welcome to LTG!
What a great entrance to LTG, great story and great pictures! I don't think we knew about that guitar yet. Well Hans might...
Dennis did an outstanding job recreating such special guitar. Him and Chris Fleming did some masterpieces at that time.
I have a feeling the cracks developed due to the dry Colorado conditions, so try to have her humidified as good as possible, also means leave her in a case when not playing her, don't hang her in an airconditioned room or in a not humidified room. They love to have >40% humidity. (I'm not talking 50% for Colorado...)

EDIT: Now I got big time frono'd! I even posted in that thread!

Ralf

 

[HeyMikey]

Welcome! You came to the right place. Nice to know who got that special guitar. What a fascinating story this one has. Looking forward to hearing more about it, how it sounds and seeing more photos inside and out of what went into making it.

 

[sailingshoes72]

Welcome to LTG. Great story and a beautiful guitar. I really like the decorative Artist Award Model inlay on the faceplate of the headstock. How do you find the 26" scale compares tonally with the standard scale? A deeper rumble in the bass?

 

[Andrew79]

What a great first post. I love hearing stories that go with guitars. They're an extension of ourselves in some ways.

 

[Cougar]

Sound-wise it’s more like a prewar SJ-200 than an F50R. It rings like a bell with beautiful overtones and harmonics.

Just like my F50R! Welcome to the boards, Syd! Major congrats on such a notable guitar! Love those pics, too!

 

[chazmo]

Nice axe, Syd! Yeah, we did talk about your guitar a while back.... I wonder if Dennis is a JD fan. In any case, it's clearly an authentic Guild, and it looks like you've already communed with it's JD karma!

Best of luck!

 

[JohnW63]

3 years is a LONG time to wait!

Very cool guitar.

 

[Wellington]

26 inches is a very long scale length!

 

[bobouz]

It’s a treat to be able to see those pics.
Thanks for sharing, and Congrats!

 

[Christopher Cozad]

Welcome, Syd, and congratulations on scoring such a lovely guitar!

I also was inspired by John Denver's albums. In my case, I learned Travis-style fingerpicking by listening to his music. And I bought my first F-50R and F-512 because they were the closest I could get to what he played. Seeing your custom AA brings it all back... Thanks for that.

 

[walrus]

Welcome! Great entrance and astounding guitar!

walrus

 

[SydShanshala]

Thanks everyone for the warm reception! Wow! Lovely community here! I appreciate the kind words. The vast wealth of Guild knowledge here is incredible!
It’s funny, I lurked on this site for a while before I posted, reading various threads about JD’s F50R, yet I didn’t come across the thread about the guitar I bought, lol.
Thank you for sharing that!
She had definitely been exposed to a dry climate without proper humidity previously. I told my repair guy I felt like we were rescuing her when I approached him to do the work. The strings were touching the fret board, a number of frets were literally broken (due to what looked like heavy strumming around the neck), and the minor cracks I mentioned previously had developed in the soundboard and bridge.
Someone had also added a soundhole pickup and done a really poor job of it (the horror!). There was adhesive velcro all over the inside of the body that had caught tons of dirt and hair and they had drilled out the strapbutton hole for a jack.
My guy was able to remove every trace of the velcro from inside the body, and I ordered a NoJak endpin from StewMac that restored the original strap button. Overall it was incredibly satisfying to watch this guitar get returned to its former glory. She’s an absolute beast and is now stored properly in a deluxe humidified case.

I’ll post a video here when I get a moment so everyone can hear how she sounds. The 26-inch scale really brings out the highs and mids. I’ve kept her tuned down a half step with 80/20 lights and that seems to be the tonal sweet spot.
Here are some photos of the areas that needed repair. Shoutout to Micah at Olde Town Pickin Parlor for putting his whole being into this project!

Cheers!

 

[SydShanshala]

This was something I found online when I was trying to figure out exactly what this guitar was. From the “John Denver Internet Fan Club” June 2006. Really adds color to the story.

Also, I follow Dennis G on Instagram and I’ve considered sending him a DM with photos to ask if he did indeed build this instrument. I think today would be a good day to do that. I’ll let everyone know what he says!

 

[Misty Mountain Hop]

Very cool guitar! Thanks for sharing it!

 

[Cypress Knee]

Last year I took a little hike near Aspen:

 

[Christopher Cozad]

Last year I took a little hike near Aspen:

Very nice! It's almost like 1972, all over again...