cjd-player
Senior Member
I recently took delivery of a 2007 D-55, Antique Burst. Kudos for G&G Classic Guitars (http://www.gandgclassicguitars.com). What an awesome internet dealer. Absolute rock bottom price, and Chris Rosato was incredibly friendly, accommodating, and professional in all of our communications and dealings. It was an enjoyable and fun purchasing experience. He worked with me to obtain some details I wanted (but was partially stifled by the Guild rep) and to coordinate some special shipping timing. Highly recommended to anyone looking to purchase a new Guild. (The Guild rep seemed to have a “Take what we ship” attitude. Not a please-the-customer attitude.)
The guitar:
I play mainly finger style, and my two Taylors suit me very well for that. I used to have an old Epiphone dreadnought as a beater, but I sold it when I purchased my Seagull S6 Folk as a better “casual” guitar. Although a smaller body folk model, the Seagull is a cannon with volume and sustain like a dreadnought, and it and the memories of the Epiphone got me looking at dreadnoughts for a strumming guitar.
I’ve never liked Martins, never played a Gibson that really thrilled me, and all of the Taylor dreadnoughts I tried sounded too similar to my 814ce. So I was looking at Guild dreadnoughts. Long story short, I ended up going with the new sunburst D-55, ‘cause I missed out on purchasing an older Westerly sunburst D-55. I confess I got hung up on the aesthetics of the sunburst D-55, and after reading lots of good reviews of the new Tacoma Guilds, decided to go with a new sunburst rather than an older natural-top Westerly off of e-bay.
Well I could not be more pleased with the tone and playability of the new D-55. I used to say that my Taylor 814ce was a guitar that sang. Still true, but I would have to say that the D-55 is a choir. The Taylor 814 can not handle heavy strumming, but the D-55 just sounds better and better the more you lay into it.
Someone in an earlier post referred to the sound of a D-55 as regal or majestic, or something like that. I would agree 100%. Its not a real punchy dreadnought like a more classic bluegrass dred, but it is full and rich and very evenly balanced between the strings. For me, it’s the sound in my head that says dreadnought for strumming to accompany vocals.
Its not the type of guitar that I like for finger style because the sustain and response time are too much. The notes blend together too much. But that’s just my taste. I also do not like it as well for finger style because of the 1-11/16 inch nut. I prefer the 1-3/4 nut (wider string spacing) of my Taylors for finger style.
But all in all its just a wonderful guitar, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a dreadnought.
I replaced the tortoise shell pick guard with a black one that Chris Rosato got for me. But that’s just aesthetics. I didn’t like the look of the tortoise guard. I’ll post a separate thread about changing the pick guard ‘cause there was a surprise.
Nitpicking:
The new Guild catalog that I received with the guitar lists the D-55 as the flagship model of Guild’s line. So since Guild is promoting it as the best they can do, I don’t think it is unfair on my part to critique the quality of the build. So here are some opinions on fit and finish. I have no issues with the really important issues of tone and playability; they are great.
The pluses: The rosette and the peg head inlays are perfect. The frets are very neatly polished and dressed and properly leveled - no buzzing or other issues. The nut is cut correctly. The body binding, peg head binding, and back inlay strip are perfect. The finish on the sides and back is perfect. It has side fret marker dots in the binding at the 14th and 16th frets, even though it is not a cutaway; I wish my Taylor cutaways had these. I dropped the action down about 1/64th to 6/64ths on both sides, but that is just a personal preference issue. From the factory it was not bad.
Where Guild/Fender could have done better -
The fret board inlays themselves are very well done, but larger fret board inlays, up to the 7th fret, have a small dimple in the ebony fret board at each corner of the inlay. Perhaps locating marks or something, but they should have been filled with wood dust and glue.
The fret board binding on the treble side is perfect, but on the bass side, the binding has small areas chipped out between the 14th and 20th frets. Not real easy to see with the naked eye. The chipped-out areas appear darker. They will probably get darker still with time as they collect dirt. They can be felt if you run you finger tip over them.
The finish on the spruce top is o.k., but not perfect. There are numerous small pores that were not completely filled with finish and leveled with the top. It could have used more finish sanding and another coat or two. (In contrast, the tops of my Taylors are absolutely glass smooth, all over. No pores.)
The truss rod cover is misaligned. The bottom screw is about 1/16 inch off center, so the truss rod cover is crooked.
The bridge pins are not all the same color. Three of them are a matte white, and three of them are a glossy off-white color. The colors are alternated across the bridge. Maybe this is some assembler’s idea of artsy, but I don’t like it. With all of the abalone on the fret board, I think this guitar needs pins with abalone dots, Not a huge deal, but I’ll probably replace these sometime.
Guild boasts about having a strap button support block inside the guitar, but in my opinion, the strap button at the neck is in the wrong place. Oh its in the support block, but the guitar is neck heavy. So if you’re standing using a strap, and you let go of the guitar, the neck falls toward the floor. (I even use a suede strap, not a slippery nylon or leather one.) The button should be on the bass side of the heel, like a Taylor, or the bass side of the body so that the heavy neck is supported by the strap and the guitar is balanced when wearing a strap.
The strap button at the bottom of the guitar pulled out when I put the strap on. No big deal to me, but if I were a less experienced player I might think that the guitar was broken and be very upset! Normally, I would just glue it back in, but I installed a K&K pickup system with an end pin jack. So that replaced the pin anyway.
Finally, the case. The case is well constructed, but its not the snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug fit that I’m used to with my Taylor cases. The guitar can slide around about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch when inside the case. Thus, in my opinion, the case should have about 3/8 inch thicker padding to snug the guitar better. The lid strap is so short that the lid does not open to 90°. Thus, you have to be careful to not bump the guitar against the exposed latches, and to hold the lid open to protect against case bite. I’ll probably cut the strap and sew on an extension.
Overall, this is a great guitar. I think it is a superb value. My Taylors cost about $700 and $600 per pound. This D-55 cost a bit more than $300 per pound. So it is a lot of guitar for the price. I’m only nitpicking because of the “flagship” marketing. I think they could do better. For fit and finish I would give it a low A with my Taylors as the reference at an A+. Or to use another analogy, for fit and finish it’s a Cadillac, but not a Mercedes. I guess its what I would expect from a Fender company; good but not top shelf.
I’m just so pleased that it sounds as great as it does. I did not buy this as a museum or collector's piece. Like the Guild motto: “Made to be Played”, and that’s what I bought it for. It gives me that other voice that I’ve been missing in my guitar family. At a bit more than half the price, it will do things that my Taylors (and the 810 Taylors that I’ve played) cannot do. I would buy another one with no hesitation. It’s a great guitar! Here are sone pics, but the colors are not this bizarre. Not a good color rendition from my digital camera.
And here is my new extended guitar family (acoustics).
The guitar:
I play mainly finger style, and my two Taylors suit me very well for that. I used to have an old Epiphone dreadnought as a beater, but I sold it when I purchased my Seagull S6 Folk as a better “casual” guitar. Although a smaller body folk model, the Seagull is a cannon with volume and sustain like a dreadnought, and it and the memories of the Epiphone got me looking at dreadnoughts for a strumming guitar.
I’ve never liked Martins, never played a Gibson that really thrilled me, and all of the Taylor dreadnoughts I tried sounded too similar to my 814ce. So I was looking at Guild dreadnoughts. Long story short, I ended up going with the new sunburst D-55, ‘cause I missed out on purchasing an older Westerly sunburst D-55. I confess I got hung up on the aesthetics of the sunburst D-55, and after reading lots of good reviews of the new Tacoma Guilds, decided to go with a new sunburst rather than an older natural-top Westerly off of e-bay.
Well I could not be more pleased with the tone and playability of the new D-55. I used to say that my Taylor 814ce was a guitar that sang. Still true, but I would have to say that the D-55 is a choir. The Taylor 814 can not handle heavy strumming, but the D-55 just sounds better and better the more you lay into it.
Someone in an earlier post referred to the sound of a D-55 as regal or majestic, or something like that. I would agree 100%. Its not a real punchy dreadnought like a more classic bluegrass dred, but it is full and rich and very evenly balanced between the strings. For me, it’s the sound in my head that says dreadnought for strumming to accompany vocals.
Its not the type of guitar that I like for finger style because the sustain and response time are too much. The notes blend together too much. But that’s just my taste. I also do not like it as well for finger style because of the 1-11/16 inch nut. I prefer the 1-3/4 nut (wider string spacing) of my Taylors for finger style.
But all in all its just a wonderful guitar, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a dreadnought.
I replaced the tortoise shell pick guard with a black one that Chris Rosato got for me. But that’s just aesthetics. I didn’t like the look of the tortoise guard. I’ll post a separate thread about changing the pick guard ‘cause there was a surprise.
Nitpicking:
The new Guild catalog that I received with the guitar lists the D-55 as the flagship model of Guild’s line. So since Guild is promoting it as the best they can do, I don’t think it is unfair on my part to critique the quality of the build. So here are some opinions on fit and finish. I have no issues with the really important issues of tone and playability; they are great.
The pluses: The rosette and the peg head inlays are perfect. The frets are very neatly polished and dressed and properly leveled - no buzzing or other issues. The nut is cut correctly. The body binding, peg head binding, and back inlay strip are perfect. The finish on the sides and back is perfect. It has side fret marker dots in the binding at the 14th and 16th frets, even though it is not a cutaway; I wish my Taylor cutaways had these. I dropped the action down about 1/64th to 6/64ths on both sides, but that is just a personal preference issue. From the factory it was not bad.
Where Guild/Fender could have done better -
The fret board inlays themselves are very well done, but larger fret board inlays, up to the 7th fret, have a small dimple in the ebony fret board at each corner of the inlay. Perhaps locating marks or something, but they should have been filled with wood dust and glue.
The fret board binding on the treble side is perfect, but on the bass side, the binding has small areas chipped out between the 14th and 20th frets. Not real easy to see with the naked eye. The chipped-out areas appear darker. They will probably get darker still with time as they collect dirt. They can be felt if you run you finger tip over them.
The finish on the spruce top is o.k., but not perfect. There are numerous small pores that were not completely filled with finish and leveled with the top. It could have used more finish sanding and another coat or two. (In contrast, the tops of my Taylors are absolutely glass smooth, all over. No pores.)
The truss rod cover is misaligned. The bottom screw is about 1/16 inch off center, so the truss rod cover is crooked.
The bridge pins are not all the same color. Three of them are a matte white, and three of them are a glossy off-white color. The colors are alternated across the bridge. Maybe this is some assembler’s idea of artsy, but I don’t like it. With all of the abalone on the fret board, I think this guitar needs pins with abalone dots, Not a huge deal, but I’ll probably replace these sometime.
Guild boasts about having a strap button support block inside the guitar, but in my opinion, the strap button at the neck is in the wrong place. Oh its in the support block, but the guitar is neck heavy. So if you’re standing using a strap, and you let go of the guitar, the neck falls toward the floor. (I even use a suede strap, not a slippery nylon or leather one.) The button should be on the bass side of the heel, like a Taylor, or the bass side of the body so that the heavy neck is supported by the strap and the guitar is balanced when wearing a strap.
The strap button at the bottom of the guitar pulled out when I put the strap on. No big deal to me, but if I were a less experienced player I might think that the guitar was broken and be very upset! Normally, I would just glue it back in, but I installed a K&K pickup system with an end pin jack. So that replaced the pin anyway.
Finally, the case. The case is well constructed, but its not the snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug fit that I’m used to with my Taylor cases. The guitar can slide around about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch when inside the case. Thus, in my opinion, the case should have about 3/8 inch thicker padding to snug the guitar better. The lid strap is so short that the lid does not open to 90°. Thus, you have to be careful to not bump the guitar against the exposed latches, and to hold the lid open to protect against case bite. I’ll probably cut the strap and sew on an extension.
Overall, this is a great guitar. I think it is a superb value. My Taylors cost about $700 and $600 per pound. This D-55 cost a bit more than $300 per pound. So it is a lot of guitar for the price. I’m only nitpicking because of the “flagship” marketing. I think they could do better. For fit and finish I would give it a low A with my Taylors as the reference at an A+. Or to use another analogy, for fit and finish it’s a Cadillac, but not a Mercedes. I guess its what I would expect from a Fender company; good but not top shelf.
I’m just so pleased that it sounds as great as it does. I did not buy this as a museum or collector's piece. Like the Guild motto: “Made to be Played”, and that’s what I bought it for. It gives me that other voice that I’ve been missing in my guitar family. At a bit more than half the price, it will do things that my Taylors (and the 810 Taylors that I’ve played) cannot do. I would buy another one with no hesitation. It’s a great guitar! Here are sone pics, but the colors are not this bizarre. Not a good color rendition from my digital camera.
And here is my new extended guitar family (acoustics).
