I bought this 1973 D55 from famous Arthur's music store, as I know, 73 was the last year this was a custom built. If anyone knows more about anything about the process or craftsmanship used in 1973 I would love to know more guild history!!!! Fantastic guitar.
Welcome aboard Ben!
It's true D55's were "Special Order" starting in '68 and became "regular production" in '74.
I'd make a distinction between a special order and a "custom build" (meaning a unique guitar as opposed to one they would make to order using a standard set of specs), but that might just be casual usage of the term on your part.
In any case, the best insight available for that period is to be found in Hans Moust's "The Guild Guitar Book", covers up to '77.
Since it might be a little hard to find right now, I will share one of his observations that during those "early" years the entire production process was more like a custom shop than a "cookie cutter" production line like Martin and Gibson.
To me that implies that every guitar got similar standards of workmanship whether it was a production model or a special order or a custom.
This thread is already one of the better ones to be found on the subject, but there's another that deals with differences between the D50 and the D55.
Oh yes, in case you didn't know this yet, the D55 was born when Tommy Smothers started ordering D50's with F50 necks (Wide headstock with G-shield, block fret inlays, and "railroad tracks", in ebony) shortly after they were introduced in '63. Those were labeled "D50 Specials".
Of course a lot of us suspect that a little extra special care might have been taken with a flagship like the D55, in terms of maybe the most senior or skilled builders doing the work, maybe selecting for the best available woods in stock, that kind of thing.
Also don't worry if your next couple of posts get delayed, moderators vet new accounts before your posts start showing up in real time, and will post in the order and time sequence they were first submitted.
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