Fair Price for an '83 D-15?

[midwest-native]

I've been playing guitar for 25+ years. I bought a Gibson CL-10 when I was 18 that has been my main guitar for most of that time. I actually owned a Guild D4 for about a minute. Great little guitar, but I had a friend wind up with a broken guitar while on tour, so I loaned the D4 to him to get through the rest of his tour and he wound up falling in love with it and talking me into selling it to him. So now I'm back to hunting for MY Guild. My uncle had a 70s D-15 that I always loved, so I'm heading down that all mahogany road. A D-15 or a D-25M. I'm actually kicking myself for missing out on the D4 Mahogany someone sold on the forum just a couple of weeks ago.

I've been looking at this guitar on Reverb—talking to the seller a bit and I think I can get it for about $850-900 shipped. Any thoughts from more knowledgable members than myself? (That would be all of you.)

Guild D-15 Mahogany Rush | Reverb

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[adorshki]

I've been playing guitar for 25+ years. I bought a Gibson CL-10 when I was 18 that has been my main guitar for most of that time. I actually owned a Guild D4 for about a minute. Great little guitar, but I had a friend wind up with a broken guitar while on tour, so I loaned the D4 to him to get through the rest of his tour and he wound up falling in love with it and talking me into selling it to him. So now I'm back to hunting for MY Guild. My uncle had a 70s D-15 that I always loved, so I'm heading down that all mahogany road. A D-15 or a D-25M. I'm actually kicking myself for missing out on the D4 Mahogany someone sold on the forum just a couple of weeks ago.

I've been looking at this guitar on Reverb—talking to the seller a bit and I think I can get it for about $850-900 shipped. Any thoughts from more knowledgable members than myself? (That would be all of you.)

Guild D-15 Mahogany Rush | Reverb

Reverb is a marketplace bringing together a wide-spanning community to buy, sell, and discuss all things music gear.

reverb.com

Welcome aboard Midwest! Given a couple of condition issues, I'd want to do a little better than $850 shipped, but it's not too unreasonable given that prices have been up lately.

Biggest concern would be neck angle, is it likely to need a reset soon? Is it bad enough for it to be hard to play right now? (Actually saddle and bridge height look very good so suspect neck angle is ok.

2nd thing I see is frets appear to have been "dressed" and have a pretty flat crown.

Some folks actually like that, easier for bends but maybe not so good for finger-picking, but if I was in the market I'd be considering a full fret job runs around $250.00 around here including new strings, set-up, and free follow-up adjust.

So just some "food for thought" but overall these days a bird-in-the-hand is definitely worth 2 in the bush when it comes to these.
And note D16's and D17's were same build formula with slightly upgrade appointments, if that's good to know for broadening the search base.

I'd also defer to anybody who watches the market more actively than I do when it comes to pricing.

 

[davismanLV]

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the D25M sometimes mahogany stained spruce? M can mean color, or wood. @adorshki knows this I'm sure. But maybe not in the 70's?

 

[adorshki]

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the D25M sometimes mahogany stained spruce? M can mean color, or wood. @adorshki knows this I'm sure. But maybe not in the 70's?

Technically a D25M is supposed to be a spruce top stained Mahogany color and it was first used when the spruce-top archbacks came out, the all-hog archbacks of ca '72-'74 were simply "D25's". I think there must have been production overlap and the "M" was introduced to denote the new spruce-topped model.

But we have seen a couple of examples of all-hog models being labeled "D25M" and such errors probably contribute to the confusion.

 

[midwest-native]

Man, you guys are fast. Thanks for the info and quick reply @adorshki .

 

[donnylang]

That seems high for an ‘80s Guild that was a lower end model, particularly one with a good amount of wear. You could get a ‘68-‘72 all-mahogany D25 in that price range.

Guild stopped the mahogany top on the D25 during 1973. I’m not too sure, but I don’t believe the D15 existed in the ‘70s.

 

[Rambozo96]

With the finish on the neck eaten up like that even at $850 would be a hard pass from me. If you’re patient you can pick up an example in much better shape for $600-$700.

 

[dreadnut]

Overpriced. You can do better than that.

 

[adorshki]

That seems high for an ‘80s Guild that was a lower end model, particularly one with a good amount of wear. You could get a ‘68-‘72 all-mahogany D25 in that price range.

Guild stopped the mahogany top on the D25 during 1973. I’m not too sure, but I don’t believe the D15 existed in the ‘70s.

BUT if he wants arched back all hog that was D25 from about '72-'74, a "grail" for some, and the original example of that particular build formula.

Probably the lowest production of all D25's til Corona but by far the majority of the ones (all-hog archbacks) we've seen reported here are from '73.

Think they started phasing in the spruce tops in '73, by '74 most of 'em seem to have been spruce, and virtually no all-hog archbacks by '75. (We did have a guy with a far out-lier many years back, Spiderman, with a '76, though.)

 

[midwest-native]

I really appreciate all the help and advice. It sounds like everything I'm seeing on Reverb and eBay right now is priced high. I'll probably try to show some semblance of patience and watch the classifieds here on the forum for something to pop up.

I remember seeing someone in another thread mention that he had a couple of D-25s (not sure if they were spruce or mahogany) that might be available towards the end of September. Can't find the thread now though. Does anyone else remember seeing this?

 

[adorshki]

I really appreciate all the help and advice. It sounds like everything I'm seeing on Reverb and eBay right now is priced high. I'll probably try to show some semblance of patience and watch the classifieds here on the forum for something to pop up.

I remember seeing someone in another thread mention that he had a couple of D-25s (not sure if they were spruce or mahogany) that might be available towards the end of September. Can't find the thread now though. Does anyone else remember seeing this?

I recall that too but not who posted it. Keep checking the "For Sale" sub-forum, he'll probably list there.

 

[davismanLV]

Our member @Bonneville88 has quite a collection of D-25 Guilds and sold one back in August. Not sure if he's selling more or not. Is that who you're remembering MWN?? He's in St. Louis, MO.

 

[Bonneville88]

midwest - long-time D25 fanatic here - my advice would be to keep looking, eyes on the
prize for a D25 in good shape - that D15 is a bit rough and ime asking price is high.
I sold all my D25s (except for two), a D15 and three D4s over the past year.

 

[midwest-native]

midwest - long-time D25 fanatic here - my advice would be to keep looking, eyes on the
prize for a D25 in good shape - that D15 is a bit rough and ime asking price is high.
I sold all my D25s (except for two), a D15 and three D4s over the past year.

Thanks @Bonneville88 . You had the D4 Mahogany, right? Man, I wish I'd seen that in time.

I'm just down I-44 from you in Springfield, btw.

 

[cupric]

I've been playing guitar for 25+ years. I bought a Gibson CL-10 when I was 18 that has been my main guitar for most of that time. I actually owned a Guild D4 for about a minute. Great little guitar, but I had a friend wind up with a broken guitar while on tour, so I loaned the D4 to him to get through the rest of his tour and he wound up falling in love with it and talking me into selling it to him. So now I'm back to hunting for MY Guild. My uncle had a 70s D-15 that I always loved, so I'm heading down that all mahogany road. A D-15 or a D-25M. I'm actually kicking myself for missing out on the D4 Mahogany someone sold on the forum just a couple of weeks ago.

I've been looking at this guitar on Reverb—talking to the seller a bit and I think I can get it for about $850-900 shipped. Any thoughts from more knowledgable members than myself? (That would be all of you.)

Guild D-15 Mahogany Rush | Reverb

Reverb is a marketplace bringing together a wide-spanning community to buy, sell, and discuss all things music gear.

reverb.com

This looks good!

Guild D-25 1974 - 1986 | Reverb

Reverb is a marketplace bringing together a wide-spanning community to buy, sell, and discuss all things music gear.

reverb.com

 

[adorshki]

This looks good!

Guild D-25 1974 - 1986 | Reverb

Reverb is a marketplace bringing together a wide-spanning community to buy, sell, and discuss all things music gear.

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'78's a spruce top, the correct "D25M" for finish on label, too.

I did a quick 'net photo survey a couple of years back and got the impression the Mahogany finish graduated from fairly light at first to the almost chocolate brown darkness of this '78 (s/n does match Guild s/n list for '78)

 

[wileypickett]

Is the year of production the only way to tell true Mahogony top from Mahogony-stained spruce top?

 

[adorshki]

Is the year of production the only way to tell true Mahogony top from Mahogony-stained spruce top?

You can usually recognize the difference with good enough photos, these aren't quite good enough but there's a couple of spots on the top where finish is gone and it sure looks too light for it to 'hog although can can be very light, almost honey color.

But for sure majority of 'hog top/archback D25's are reported from '73, I think '74 was mixed production, by '75 they were all spruce barring maybe an oddball (I do know of one).

 

[donnylang]

Don’t forget the spruce top flatback D25.




It’s called a D35.

 

[davismanLV]

Sounds like you want a more "vintage" D25 (see recent discussion of vintage) but the years are screaming by and if you would consider an all mahogany and flat backed one, Guild did them really nice in a variety of colors between approximately 2002-2004 ish in Corona, CA. You can find some good deals on the Corona made Guilds, but even those are creeping up in price. Just putting it out there as an option MWN.