My 1974 F-20 Arrived

[Colin K]

Purchased on ebay a few days ago. Shipped yesterday. Arrived a few minutes ago. I'm waiting for it to warm up to room temperature.

This guitar was incredibly maintained. It looks fairly new at first glance; looking closer only reveals details I'd say are better than most new guitars. First of all, it must be the age or the way guitars were made back then: none of my local guitar stores have had a guitar with such nice looking spruce on top. It's really quite exceptional. The back, sides and neck look excellent as well. Beautiful finish; the Martin I have right now is entry level and it has a solid Mahogany back, plain Mahogany, not dark stained with a beautiful glossy finish like the Guild has.

It looks a lot better than in the pictures. The case is a little rough, but it's exceptionally sturdy and the original case for the instrument, so I'm not getting a new one any time soon.

I can't say if it's a "tone monster" yet, but I'll update on the tone of the guitar after I played it, which should be tomorrow because I have work to do; but I will play it tonight anyway. Oh, and I'll take a few pictures as well.

 

[capnjuan]

Congratulations Colin; I have an older Guild that has the reddish stripes in the top; very pretty. I hope yours is just as fine. Pics? cj

 

[minkowski]

Excellent Colin! I love my '77 F20. It is easy to play and has a wonderful full bodied sound. Let us know how yours plays and sounds.

Glenn

 

[sausgirl]

Hi Colin.
Congrats on your new guitar!
I just got an M20, the all mahogany counterpart and couldn't be happier.
Please let us know how it sounds and post some pics please.
Take care,
Jan

 

[Colin K]

I was able to hear it for the first time today. I had to go out and buy new strings. There were new ones on it when it shipped, but the person didn't put them on properly, and I actually broke one while tuning it.

I went out and got some 80/20 bronze Elixer custom lights, which are supposed to last longer, and I really like the strings.

The guitar has a very nice, full sound. It ended up being a good one. I had questions about the volume of these guitars, and this guitar is louder than my Martin 000-1 and has a much nicer tone. Excellent volume for the size I think, even with the type of strings I have on it. I've played a lot of different newer guitars, many of them from companies with pretty good reputations (nothing more expensive than $1200 though), some of them newer Guilds, and I like the sound of the F-20 I have better than all of them.

I can't plug it in yet because of the adapter I need to do that, so I'll have to buy one of the adapters next time I'm at a store that sells them.

 

[Jeff]

I was able to hear it for the first time today. I had to go out and buy new strings. There were new ones on it when it shipped, but the person didn't put them on properly, and I actually broke one while tuning it.

I went out and got some 80/20 bronze Elixer custom lights, which are supposed to last longer, and I really like the strings.

The guitar has a very nice, full sound. It ended up being a good one. I had questions about the volume of these guitars, and this guitar is louder than my Martin 000-1 and has a much nicer tone. Excellent volume for the size I think, even with the type of strings I have on it. I've played a lot of different newer guitars, many of them from companies with pretty good reputations (nothing more expensive than $1200 though), some of them newer Guilds, and I like the sound of the F-20 I have better than all of them.

I can't plug it in yet because of the adapter I need to do that, so I'll have to buy one of the adapters next time I'm at a store that sells them.

Colin,

My F 20 is extremely sensitive to tired strings, much more so than my larger body gits. A couple weeks on a new set of strings & it loses a good deal of the magic.

I'd guess you'll find something other than the coated elixir's will give yours a boost.

I've been using Martin PB lights; 12-54. They're OK but like I said, a couple weeks & I change em. I tried a set of Martin silk & steels a week ago, they sucked so bad I changed them the next day.

I've heard Thomastics are worth the extra money, so darn expensive I've never sprung for a set. (roughly twice the cost of most everything else)

My daughter asked what I wanted for Christmas so I told her Thomastics & gave her the link.

http://www.juststrings.com/thomastikinf ... uitar.html