NGD: Blonde Guild

danishbacon

It's a 1989 Westerley Guild. Been without a dreadnought since getting my Furch OM earlier this year but firgured I'd give something different a try. 

BigLicks67

Looks to be in great nick, really like the maple back and sides. happy ngd.

ICBM

I do like a maple acoustic... very nice!

Nitefly

Lovely!  I'd have said a D25, but for the headstock inlay - what model is it, please?

danishbacon

Nitefly said:

Lovely!  I'd have said a D25, but for the headstock inlay - what model is it, please?

D30 

jellyroll

Very nice. I’m just waking up to the joys of dreadnoughts. Enjoy. 

earwighoney

Very nice NGD.  

Of the American acoustic guitar makers, Guild are easily my favourite.  

danishbacon

I've never played any other Guilds @earwighoney, but this one has a very unique voice, probably due to the Maple. Tone is very tight with lots of bottom end and projection and sounds nice strummed and fingerpicked. 

It doesn't have the 'lightness' that my Furch OM35 SR has, rather it's more focused and direct if that makes sense. I owned a martin D16gt which was an OK guitar.

CloudNine

Looks cool, had a couple of Westerley Guilds and aside from having narrow neck/nut, were decent.

Might be optical illusion in the pics, but the saddle looks pretty low. What is the action like? Could be heading for a neck reset, which would not be overly surprising given age. I have heard they are a nightmare on older Guilds. No idea if that is true or not. Often see these with the bridge shaved first to keep the reset at bay for a while (not the greatest of solutions), but bridge looks full thickness on this.

danishbacon

The action was low when I got it, lower than my other acoustics. I had to give the truss rod a hair of relief and now it's quite nice. It had a setup before me, and I'm happy with the playability across the board but maybe the saddle was shaved more than it really needed to be. The saddle does look low, but neck feels quite set so I'm not expecting a neck reset any time soon. As for difficulty of a neck reset, a lot has been written about these old Guilds and from what I've read there seems to be a certain degree of fear mongering involved. Not a bolt off, bolt on job by any means, but something to be done by someone who knows what they're doing.

CloudNine

If it plays well, and sounds how you want it, then it's all good.

Measuring the height of the strings from the top, just in front of the bridge gives a good feel of where things are at, half inch being thought of as the optimum. Wouldn't not expect a guitar this age to be right at that height though. As that height reduces, you lose torque to the top, so the tone suffers.

Not sure what you mean about; neck feels quite set. You won't tell anything by feeling the neck.

Could run a straight edge right along the fretboard to the bridge. Although this assumes bridge hasn't been shaved.

Optimum:



Prob needing reset:




Just saying, if you just bought it and it needs a reset, you might want to haggle some money off!!