Guild D-55 Update

Taylor Martin Guild

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I posted that I was thinking about selling my D-55 to get a smaller guitar.
After looking at a lot of smaller guitars, I realized that my ear is tuned to a Dred sound.
Yes, there were some great sounding smaller guitars but none of them had the tone that I was looking for.

One reason for wanting a smaller guitar was to get a shorter neck to help with shoulder pain.
The Grand Auditorium, 000 and OM size guitars felt comfortable but didn't give me the tone that I was looking for.
Anything smaller just sounded too thin and lacked any bass.

A few days ago, I decided to try dropping the tuning on the D-55 down to D to D tuning and then capo at the second fret.
This made the neck smaller than any of the smaller body guitars that I tried.
A poor mans 12 fret guitar.
It also gave me my Dred sound.

For now I will keep the Guild in D to D tuning and my Martin in standard tuning.
This gives me a fuller range of playability and sound.
The Guild feels great with the capo at the second fret or higher.

Why didn't I try this sooner?
 

dreadnut

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Best of both worlds. Congrats on being successful at trying something new. It's hard to beat the tone of a nice Guild dreadnaught.
 

Cypress Knee

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If you ever get the chance, check out the Martin Norman Blake 000s - the 18 in hog and 28 in EIR. They are hard to find. The thing is, they took a 1 3/4 fourteen fret neck and moved the bridge back and attached at the twelfth fret. That also meant they had to come up with a unique bracing pattern. When you first pick one of these up, it feels like the guitar is in Capo II position when it is still open. Very easy on the shoulder. And it holds its own at bluegrass jams for fiddle tune leads or regular boom-chick rhythm - not intimadated at all by D 28's, J 45's and the like.
 
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Taylor Martin Guild

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My wife and I are playing music for Senior Centers and Assisted Living Homes.
I am currently using a nice Washburn GA size guitar for this.
It is my most comfortable guitar but I will give the Guild a try at our next show and see if the D tuning and capo
will make the Guild even more comfortable for our 1 hour shows.

The one problem with the Guild is that the pickup in it has no volume control and it is very loud.
I can live with that though.
 

GuildFS4612CE

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Some systems have 'internal' settings to control gain etc...If nothing else you should be able to run it thru a pre to control the output...if you tell us what pickup/UST/system you have in it, one of our resident sound pros like Nuuska, can likely give you an easy way to do so...
 

Taylor Martin Guild

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I think that my 2005 Tacoma built D-55 has the Matrix Natural in it.
It's a UPS with a battery inside the body in a Velcro case.

I don't see any place to lower the volume on it.
I run it through a Yamaha mixer which does allow some volume lowering but I would like less coming from the guitar to start with.
 
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