I just got to share this with you!

[Fstpicker]

In the past 2-3 weeks, I've been drooling at a new Martin D-28 located at my local Sam Ash. This Martin sounded really good to me, and it was one of the better sounding ones that I've heard in a while, especially for a new, unbroken-in rosewood guitar. Well, I went back tonight with an ultimatum. I would either have to figure out a way to purchase it, or get it out of my mind forever.

So I played it again...and again. Yep, it sure sounds great to me. I also compared it with a D-35 and a HD-28. I came to the conclusion that it was better sounding than the D-35, and pretty much an even draw with the HD-28. I also played an awesome sounding Taylor 410 with the Ovangkol back and sides.

As I was getting ready to leave, I decided to take a quick look over on the other side of the room and check out a couple of the Guilds that they had on the wall. I had recently played a particular one, a beautifully done sunburst GAD-50, in the last couple of weeks or so. So I pulled it off the wall and decided to take it for a spin, taking it over to where I had been playing the Martins, so I could truly get a fair sound comparison being in the same location as before. After tuning it up to pitch, which is something that I have to do with every guitar that I try out there it seems, I put it through the paces. Hmm...this sounds pretty good. Played it again.....hmm...yes, it sure does. Certainly, it won't sound as good as the D-28 though, I'm thinking. So I pulled the D-28 off the wall and played it. Then back to the GAD-50 and back to the D-28. After going back and forth, my ears started to reveal the truth. This GAD-50 actually had more growl, "Martin growl" to it, than that particular D-28 did. In fact, the D-28 seemed to sound brighter than the GAD-50. The bass on both was pretty equal, with perhaps a very slight edge going to the D-28. The GAD-50 seemed to sound a tad "thicker" in the mids in its overall resonance and ambience. I played it again and it seemed to start to "warm up" and resonate even more. It was getting my attention indeed.

To make a long story shorter, after getting them to knock $50 off the already discounted price, I asked him to show me the case. After getting a ladder to get it off a high shelf in the storage area, he brought it out. Wow! That is one beautiful looking case. Much better than the cases that come with the D-28. That sold me, although I was sold already before I saw the case, it was the frosting on the cake!

A few minutes later, I'm walking out the door with a beautiful, sunburst, GAD-50. The interesting thing about all this, is that this month I will be celebrating my 50th Birthday. As I was checking out, I realized that here I was purchasing a GAD-50 for my 50th Birthday! A cool coincidence in my book.

I know some of you may want to see some pictures of it, so I will supply some for you to look at after this weekend, which I have to work 3rd shift tonight first, and then I am going out of town for a Folk Festival the rest of the weekend. By the first of next week, I'll try to have them for you to peruse.

Thanks for listening to my long story!

Jeff

P.S. I will probably be selling my beautiful 2001 Taylor 310 in near mint condition if anyone is interested, to fund this recent purchase.

 

[wordlesschorus]

Thats a great story! Would love to see some pix of your new guitar. Happy Belated by the way...hehe

 

[Graham]

Nice going!

Several months ago I was looking to get a GAD-50 and I played one against several guitars, including Martin, Taylor, Larrivee. At the time I posted here my thoughts on the GAD vs Martin and Taylor. There was a bit of flack, but it's what I heard in the guitars.

 

[coastie99]

50, eh !!

PARTY, PARTY, PARTY at Fatpickers !!

Have a great 50th old fella !!

 

[Merc]

fstpicker,

You picked the right guitar, I bought my GAD 50L last month, my 50th as well.
I did the same dance between Martins and the GAD 50L :shock:
GAD won out hands down 8)

Happy Birthday :lol:

 

[coastie99]

FATPICKER ?????

Sorry; geezer vision !

 

[Fstpicker]

FATPICKER ?????

Sorry; geezer vision !

Ha!! No one's ever called me that before! Yes, I do need to lose a few pounds....how'd you know? :lol:

Merc...that is so cool about you getting one on your 50th last month as well. I recommend everyone getting one, even if it isn't on their 50th!

Thanks guys for the congrats! I am enjoying this guitar so much. The action is so perfect, I don't even need to do a set-up on it, which is something quite rare when I get a new guitar. Plus, I won't have to add a bone saddle since it already has one, which is another plus.

Do you guys know what guage strings these come with? I'm thinking lights. What type of strings and namebrand are they? Phosphor bronze, or 80/20 Bronze, and Guild strings perhaps?

Thanks everyone! Oh, by the way, I got the antique burst one, which has more of a redish tint in the top, which I prefer over the yellowish orange tinted amber burst tops. The burst on this one was done perfectly. The fit and finish are this guitar are flawless. The inside cross-braces where they fit into the side perfling are good as well. Every bit as good as a Martin IMO. The only fault I have with this guitar is that the string spacing at the nut is a tad narrower than I prefer, for a 1 & 11/16" nut. Compared to my other dreads with 1 & 11/16" nut widths, it is slightly narrower, just like my Aria AD-80 was when I got it. I may have to change the nut out and widen the string spacing just a tad someday, if I still feel the need to.

By the way, I own a Martin D-16RGT, which is a great sounding guitar. The trebles on the Guild sound fuller and clearer to me. The bass is deeper on the Martin, although its had a 5 year headstart.

Jeff

 

[West R Lee]

Happy Birthday FST!

West

 

[Oubaas]

Similar story for me two years ago. Headed to store thinking Martin HD-28V, planning on $3,000 or so. Played various Martin -28's and -18's. Spotted a cutaway dreadnought and asked to see it. Did a side-by-side comparison with the various Martins, playing first one then the other. The Guild buried the high end Martins for tone. This was confirmed for me by my musician wife (piano, mandolin, violin, guitar), who has an amazing ear for music.

So I went home with a Guild GAD-40C instead of the Martin HD-28V I had planned on buying. Regardless of the name on the headstock or the prestige of the price tag, I buy one thing when I go guitar shopping - TONE.

I've since added a GAD-30, and I'm now looking at the D-40 Bluegrass Jubilee, and the D-55. And maybe an F512. And those vintage Guilds I see advertised, LOL!

Oubaas :wink:

 

[Siwash]

Great story! Great guitar. It parallels my experience, with the GAD50 beating one Martin of the two I tried. It's a nice surprise. Sonically, too, what you say is what I experienced and heard. I like that deeper sound.

 

[Siwash]

fastpicker: mine's the same kind of sunburst. I, too, agree with you about the nut spacing. I've had mine for about six months-eight months and I'm starting to weigh whether I should get a nut cut for it.

Look at it this way, too: if you ding it (which happend to mine, courtesy of my 3 year-old), you're not going to cry a ton into your beer, either.

 

[Fstpicker]

fastpicker: mine's the same kind of sunburst. I, too, agree with you about the nut spacing. I've had mine for about six months-eight months and I'm starting to weigh whether I should get a nut cut for it.

Look at it this way, too: if you ding it (which happend to mine, courtesy of my 3 year-old), you're not going to cry a ton into your beer, either.

I decided to try medium strings on it last night, and in taking the original strings off, the nut came right off. Looks like it wasn't even glued in, or not glued well enough. So, since it was already off, I hurriedly tried to put a wider bone nut on it late last night, as well as medium PB strings. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the nice, clear, ringing sound out of the B & E strings like the original nut and strings gave me. No, the nut slots were not cut too low either. It wasn't a buzzing sound, but a sort of muted sound, kind of hard to explain. Unfortunately, I broke some of the original strings, so I bought some more tonight. I'm putting the old bone saddle back in and light guage strings on to get the original sound back, hopefully.

The guys at Sam Ash told me that Guild uses D'Addario strings on their guitars. Is this true? I'm putting some EJ-16 PB lights on tonight to try to get the original good sound back.

Jeff

 

[Squawk]

I decided to try medium strings on it last night, and in taking the original strings off, the nut came right off.
<snip>
The guys at Sam Ash told me that Guild uses D'Addario strings on their guitars. Is this true? I'm putting some EJ-16 PB lights on tonight to try to get the original good sound back.

Jeff

Jeff - easy to tell - since you took the original strings off, look at the ball ends. If they're colored - specifically: 1(E)=silver; 2(B)=purple; 3(G)=green; 4(D)=black; 5(A)=red; and 6(E)=brass - then they're D'Addarios.

 

[Dr Izza Plumber]

I have a GAD 50 Burst, and it is a great. great, axe!

The sounds that it creates, just boggles the mind!

 

[Fstpicker]

I have a GAD 50 Burst, and it is a great. great, axe!

The sounds that it creates, just boggles the mind!

I know what you mean!

Your antique burst looks very similar to mine. The closest looking one I've seen so far of any of them.

I put some light guage D'Addario EJ-16's on tonight and aside from being initially bright, as usual with new strings, they sound do like the original strings did, especially with the clarity in the trebles like I had before. I'm so glad and relieved.

For now, I'm going to leave everything the way it is, and not change the nut.

Jeff

 

[Siwash]

Fastpicker:
I bought mine at the Sam Ash in Lombard, Illinois (incidentally, my home towm ) and it had those D'Addarios, with the colored balls.

I took it for a test drive, took it to a local luthier, saying it was TOO LOUD. (I'd been using a pretty dead guitar and couldn't sing over the Guild). He popped on 11s, which took the sound down a bit. But my voice or method has changed a bit, so now I'm at 12s and happy with the loud.

I've been thinking about getting a new nut cut, just for ease of making chords. But perhaps I should talk a bit with the luthier about it all. I'm apprehensive: what made your nut not work?

 

[Oubaas]

Regarding the nut cut, I play mostly fingerstyle and Travis picking, though I do flatpick now and then. The string spacing on my GAD-40C is about as narrow as I've seen, especially at the nut, and at first it was just too narrow, so I thought I'd save the guitar for flatpicking and bought a GAD-30.

I love the GAD-30, but still wanted to see the GAD-40C more often, so I just refused to take no for an answer and kept clumsily fingerpicking the GAD-40C anyway, with my extra large hands.

Well, my fingerstyle playing on that narrow nut-cut GAD-40C smoothed out increasingly as I went, even with my big paws, and now I actually sort of prefer it to the 1-3/4", wider cut nut on the GAD-30 (though I still love that guitar, too).

I guess I'm unusual, liking a dreadnought with narrow string spacing to fingerpick and play fingerstyle, especially with big hands, but I like that deep dreadnought resonance and now that I'm used to it, I find my changes and moves faster on the narrower neck.

My advice would be to maybe to stick with the stock nut cut and keep playing awhile. Like me, you may be glad you did if you give it some time.

BTW, if you glue a nut down, bear in mind that you'll want to get it off again someday. A drop of glue should do. Don't perma-weld it in place with a heavy coat of super glue, or you might damage something getting it off later.

Oubaas :wink:

 

[plaidseason]

I just wanted to take this moment to give a shout out to Lombard, Illinois - which is my wife's home town.

-chris

 

[Siwash]

Plaid; have you ever run into Jason Ringenberg of Jason and the Scorchers?

 

[sharkblues]

lot of us 50 year olds hangin out here

You saved enough buy buying the Guild to buy a D-55, or 3 more GADs!

Well sure a lot of us 50 year olds hangin out here. I like the Martin sound, but never enough to keep one. I’ve had 3 pass through since I bought my GAD-50. This was the first Guild acoustic I owned, but I now have a Tacoma D-55, GAD-30R, Westerly StarfireII, and I’m trying to hold myself back from buying a Tacoma D-50. Martins, Taylor both great guitars, but the new Guilds have become the most satisfying to me.

Another fine Chinese guitar - I just bought a Johnson JO27 and I’m loving it!