Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
I'm pretty partial to my '73 D35, it's always been special. It's got factory Grover Sta-Tite tuners, so that's a little bit unusual too. That's what drew me to it originally, that and the low price, and the low action.
Most times, I take my D5CE out. That one sounds fantastic too, but it's a tank compared to the D35. Still, I leave the D35 at home and save it for special occasions.
Out of the blue, another D35 popped up, odd tuners on that one too (vintage Kluson Safty Post*), and the usual action issues, high action, low saddle, silly low price for a 1971 in original blue velvet lined semi cheapo case.
* Here is a set of these unusual tuners. They may not be original on the D35, but they have been on a long time without any sings of installation butchery. https://reverb.com/item/6871110-klu...sqr-pI96uCmuQaAvHkEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&pla=1
I destrung it, cleaned it up, hydrated for days until the frets didn't stick out anymore, restrung it with GHS Silk & Bronze .11-49 strings, and it's quite playable.
Over the course of a few days, I played it a minute here, and minute there, getting the strings stretched, and it finally started holding tune rock solid.
So I started paying it a little more, and I noticed it's got pretty thumpy bass, and sounds pretty great.
So I get the other one out, and it sounds a bit flat, lacking bass, has that killer midrange tho, but lacking bass.
Then it dawns on me, my old standby has just been superseded. The new one sounds better than the old one. I haven't even had time to really begin to jell with this guitar yet, and in a few chords, it has made my other D35 redundant.
Except, it's got GHS Silk & Steel's on it, whereas the '71 has the Silk and Bronze, so maybe that's the difference.
I need to restring the '73 with Silk & Bronze for an accurate shootout, but it looks like my reference dreadnaught tone guitar
has just been displaced.
Most times, I take my D5CE out. That one sounds fantastic too, but it's a tank compared to the D35. Still, I leave the D35 at home and save it for special occasions.
Out of the blue, another D35 popped up, odd tuners on that one too (vintage Kluson Safty Post*), and the usual action issues, high action, low saddle, silly low price for a 1971 in original blue velvet lined semi cheapo case.
* Here is a set of these unusual tuners. They may not be original on the D35, but they have been on a long time without any sings of installation butchery. https://reverb.com/item/6871110-klu...sqr-pI96uCmuQaAvHkEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&pla=1
I destrung it, cleaned it up, hydrated for days until the frets didn't stick out anymore, restrung it with GHS Silk & Bronze .11-49 strings, and it's quite playable.
Over the course of a few days, I played it a minute here, and minute there, getting the strings stretched, and it finally started holding tune rock solid.
So I started paying it a little more, and I noticed it's got pretty thumpy bass, and sounds pretty great.
So I get the other one out, and it sounds a bit flat, lacking bass, has that killer midrange tho, but lacking bass.
Then it dawns on me, my old standby has just been superseded. The new one sounds better than the old one. I haven't even had time to really begin to jell with this guitar yet, and in a few chords, it has made my other D35 redundant.
Except, it's got GHS Silk & Steel's on it, whereas the '71 has the Silk and Bronze, so maybe that's the difference.
I need to restring the '73 with Silk & Bronze for an accurate shootout, but it looks like my reference dreadnaught tone guitar
has just been displaced.
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