The brown truck pulled up in front of the house yesterday and delivered unto me a new gad 50!
I am pleased, overall, and the rosewood gas is not really abating but rather well fed at the moment.
A couple of others have offered detailed reviews (which I found quite useful - thanks) so I won't go on too long, but just to say that I'm very impressed with the quality of the instrument - very clean inside and out. The mahogany binding, in particular, is just lovely. I spent three hours last night playing and tweaking it. Took the saddle down a bit, adjusted the truss rod for a tad more relief, and put new strings on it.
This was a factory blemish on ebay, and the only flaw I can find is that the nut is not level along the top surface, which means that the low E string (and A to a lesser extent) sit a bit high off the frets, but not so much that it affects playability. It actually took some staring to find the flaw. Why they didn't just drop in a new nut at the factory is beyond me. It's an easy fix that I will deal with in the near future.
It sounds great! Got that rosewood punch that I was jonesing for. Very good note separation and balance across the strings. A bit more bass oomph would be nice but I figure if I hit that low E string enough times and hard enough it will develop a bigger bottom end. The sustain is comparable to my Lowden (cedar/mahogany) but with those luscious rosewood overtones!
In terms of volume it seems pretty strong, but the real test will come when I get together with my playing partners and their Collings and Santa Cruz dreads. Those Collings dreads are absolute cannons, but I think the Guild will perform respectably alongside them.
I'm going to put a Highlander p/u in this one in a month or so.
Oh Happy Day!
Bill
I am pleased, overall, and the rosewood gas is not really abating but rather well fed at the moment.
A couple of others have offered detailed reviews (which I found quite useful - thanks) so I won't go on too long, but just to say that I'm very impressed with the quality of the instrument - very clean inside and out. The mahogany binding, in particular, is just lovely. I spent three hours last night playing and tweaking it. Took the saddle down a bit, adjusted the truss rod for a tad more relief, and put new strings on it.
This was a factory blemish on ebay, and the only flaw I can find is that the nut is not level along the top surface, which means that the low E string (and A to a lesser extent) sit a bit high off the frets, but not so much that it affects playability. It actually took some staring to find the flaw. Why they didn't just drop in a new nut at the factory is beyond me. It's an easy fix that I will deal with in the near future.
It sounds great! Got that rosewood punch that I was jonesing for. Very good note separation and balance across the strings. A bit more bass oomph would be nice but I figure if I hit that low E string enough times and hard enough it will develop a bigger bottom end. The sustain is comparable to my Lowden (cedar/mahogany) but with those luscious rosewood overtones!
In terms of volume it seems pretty strong, but the real test will come when I get together with my playing partners and their Collings and Santa Cruz dreads. Those Collings dreads are absolute cannons, but I think the Guild will perform respectably alongside them.
I'm going to put a Highlander p/u in this one in a month or so.
Oh Happy Day!
Bill
