D55 in depth

My D55 order has been placed and I have some questions which maybe the membership has the answers or can tell me where to find them.
The D55 offers Solid Triple AAA Spruce soundboard. What type of spruce is used by Guild on the D55?
The D55 offers Solid Bookmatched Rosewood back. What is the meaning of book matched and if superior to any other type of back, in which ways?
The D55 offers a 3 piece Mahogony/Maple/Mahogany neck. Other than for strength & anti warping are there other reasons for such a neck?
The D55 offers an Ebony fretboard. What does ebony bring to the table in terms of a fretboard wood?
Thanks
Benee Wafers

This is a couple of explanations of bookmatch cutting.

In the illustration of the three milling techniques, Quarter sawn is the method most often used to yield bookmatched wood. If you look at any one of the quarters in the log and pick out the center piece or longest piece and split it down the middle with at banc saw and then "open" the two pieces like opening a book then you get the look that is in the "Cybozone" picture of the East Indian Rosewood.

I hope this helps you understand.

http://www.cybozone.com/luthier/instruments/bookmatched.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-quartersawn-wood.htm

Wow P, you're much more eloquent than I. I would have just said, "Well you take a piece of wood and slice it in half widthwise and lay it open so both sides look like a mirrored image and match". But that's why you get the big bucks and I'm just a dumb old "Bubba" from Texas.

I am curious about the top on a D55. I would have thought Sitka or Adirondack?

Benee, I think another reason for the neck wood choice might simply be looks. Nice contrast between the mahogany and maple.

Great explanation and links P,
West

Thank you very much P. You too WRL.
Still some questions unanswered.
Lets go Guilders!
Benee

I'll take a shot at the fretboard question.

Ebony is considered by many to be harder and smoother than rosewood. Some say it sounds better. Just like some say a Telecaster with a maple fretboard sounds hotter than a Tele with rosewood. I never met a Guild neck I didn't like - no matter what the shape, scale or wood.

I have a couple of rosewood fretboard Guilds and a couple of ebony fretboard Guilds. All I can say is that I like the ebony better than the rosewood in all cases.

I think it is the overall feel underneath the strings. However, some of the rosewood fingerboard guitars sound better than some of the ebony fingerboard guitars.

All in all, I think the player makes the guitar, not the fretboard.

On the spruce question, I don't know. I thought the D 55 came with the best spruce that Guild used in non-custom instruments. My '80 D55 looks like it has some big dings in the finish, which disappointed me at first until I found out that they were "bearclaw" marks, which evidently is highly prized in some circles.

CK

Yes I have researched and seen Sitka Spruce described as " with bearclaw" I do not know if " bearclaw " is exclusive to Sitka or not.
I think that Sitka is not , however, considered the "best" of Spruce.
Again, we're prolly getting into those indefinable things about guitars.
Benee

With regards to AAA I found this on a site, which means nothing to me, except that AAA is more expensive. But what do they mean by the siting of guitar styles with an A rating system?

Guitar Tonewood Pricing:

D-style:

"A" $75-$100, would be at home on pre-war D-18

"AA" $125-$150, would be at home on pre-war D-28

"AAA" $175-$200, would be at home on D-45

Benee

Benee,

I, like you need someone with a bunch of spruce knowledge to come around with some "spruce" answers here. My understanding (very little) has always been that the "grade" of the various spruce tonewoods lies for the most part in the "tightness" or closeness of the grain. With a "AAA" being the tightest.

I have heard people refer to the "grade" of spruce in some guitars as "AAAA", although I'm not sure if they are actually talking about the the "tightness" of grain in the spruce or the cut (feathered cut) of the wood, or both.

I know I'm not much help, but you have me interested.

West

EBONY
Ebony is commonly used in fingerboards. It is quite heavy, but has a very bright attack, good sustain, and excellent durability compared to rosewood.

The above from Ultimate Guitar.com. An interesting and informative piece there on tone woods.

Hey CK with regards to your Bearclaw read this from Colonial Tonewoods:

Master Grade is the cream of the crop and only occurs in maybe 1 out of 500 tops so they are rare and costly. In the case of bearclaw Sitka spruce, we grade our tops according to the amount, distribution and intensity of the bearclaw. You can expect a master grade bearclaw Sitka top to have fine, even grain with intense bearclaw over the entire top.

AAA is an excellent grade bearclaw Sitka spruce soundboard with a minimum grain count of 16+ per inch. These bearclaw Sitka spruce tops are quarter sawn, even colored with consistent annular ring spacing, and exceptionally stiff. You might see a small area of localized runout in a bearclaw Sitka spruce AAA top.

Types of Spruce for Soundboards:
Additional Soundboard Species

Carpathian Spruce Caucasian Spruce Englemann Spruce German Spruce Red Spruce Sitka Spruce

Go here, at the bottom of the page click on the type of soundboard wood and learn all about it:

http://www.colonialtonewoods.com/cgi-bi ... oundboards

Benee

By the way I am rather dismayed at learning that the gold hardware on the D55 actually wears away!? Something about oxydization?
Jeez I didn't know that about gold hardware. Is it the same with all make of guitars, the gold wears off?
Anyway to prevent that from happening? Anyway of getting it back?
I've got to admit it was a lot to do with the beauty of the D55 that really sold me, that Antique Burst with the gold hardware, man I couldn't resist.
Benee Wafers

Is it the same with all make of guitars, the gold wears off?

Click to expand...

So you begin to see young grasshopper....

Anyway to prevent that from happening?

Click to expand...

Next time you order, specify nickel hardware.

Seriously...The only way to prevent it is not to play it. Since that's not an option, just try to wipe it down with a good cotton cloth after every use.

aw, you don't often have to tune a good Guild anyway, the gold plating shouldn't wear off on account of tuning.

Now I'm jealous, Benee, a new D-55? And I'm a sucker for the antique burst finish. I just played a brand new Tacoma D-55 at Elderly yesterday, very nice.

I also played a $13,900.00 F-style Collings mandolin hand built by Bill Collings. What a great place to hang out, Elderly Instruments, you can play every maker's top of the line instruments, they're just hanging there waiting to be carressed by the likes of me....

Aw c'mon Dred tell me all about the D55. Mine will only arrive on June 6 and I won't get my hands on it till maybe June 8 or 9.
Spill the beans about the new Tacoma D55's will ya?
Benee Wafers

Well I'm going to try this again, some of my osts seem to be disappearing for some reason.

Benee, the D-55 was a thing of beauty, I've played a couple others here too before. excellent workmanship, nicely bookmatched rosewood, the sides sre bookmatched as well, and big Guild sound. I had to laugh, two guys were trying out Taylors and when I started picking the Guild one of them looked at me and says "That Guild sounds pretty nice, too!" I said "yeah...."

Enjoy yourself and report back to us, hear?

Thanks Dred. You bet.
Benee