Hey folks! First post here - been reading the forum on and off but thought I'd come in to show you a very very strange guitar I picked up recently. This started it's life of as a Guild D40, made in 1964 in Hoboken, serial number is in the 32000s. At some point, probably a good couple decades ago by now, someone converted this guitar to a baritone. And by converted I mean rebuilt with mostly new parts - a new top, new bracing, new bridge and new fingerboard. Only the back, sides and neck of the original Guild survive.
Baritone-converted D40.
Now I don't know who did this, why, or when exactly - the provenance of the guitar is a bit of a mystery. There are no post-Guild markings on the guitar, apart from a little lionhead thingy on the trussrod cover. I am assuming/hoping that nobody would gut a perfectly good D40 to make a baritone and that rather the original guitar was damaged beyond repair so someone thought might as well make use of what's left of it.
So it now has a new(ish) spruce top (with quite a bit of figure in it), scalloped bracing and herringbone purfling/rosette. The new bridge is ebony, as is the fretboard. The guitar has a scale of 27'', and since the neck was retained and the nut hasn't moved, the extra string length was accommodated by moving the bridge down the body. It now sits close to where it would be on a 12-fret guitar. Speaking of which, the neck no longer joins the body at the 14th fret, but rather a bit before the 13th - a 12.6th fret neck joint
. The headstock was also reshaped, the crown of the Guild headstock was sliced off and a new rosewood faceplate veneer was put on. You can even see the old Guild serial number sliced in half at the back of the headstock. Bit of a shame cause it looks nowhere near as nice now (reminds me of a Mossman) but hey it is what it is. New Schaller tuners on it as well, plus an EMG ACS soundhole pickup and a piezo undersaddle pickup (which I'm yet to test actually).
The spruce top looks pretty good, has some figure in it too - a few repaired cracks but otherwise structurally fine.
More familiar Guild sightings - the back, sides and neck of the original Hoboken D40. Lots of battle scars!
The guitar plays surprisingly well - and it sounds good too! Pretty balanced, projects well and has a very smooth, rounded and full sound. Very responsive, I think the top is fairly lightly braced for a bari. A very low, roaring sound, not surprising as it's tuned down 5 half steps. I need to tweak the setup and put new strings on it but it's looking very promising so far!
If anyone has seen this instrument before and knows anything about its provenance I'd love to hear it!
Family photo (partial) with my 1995 D4 and a 1975 Ibanez 2846 lawsuit that's trying to do a Guild-Martin hybrid thing.
Baritone-converted D40.
Now I don't know who did this, why, or when exactly - the provenance of the guitar is a bit of a mystery. There are no post-Guild markings on the guitar, apart from a little lionhead thingy on the trussrod cover. I am assuming/hoping that nobody would gut a perfectly good D40 to make a baritone and that rather the original guitar was damaged beyond repair so someone thought might as well make use of what's left of it.
So it now has a new(ish) spruce top (with quite a bit of figure in it), scalloped bracing and herringbone purfling/rosette. The new bridge is ebony, as is the fretboard. The guitar has a scale of 27'', and since the neck was retained and the nut hasn't moved, the extra string length was accommodated by moving the bridge down the body. It now sits close to where it would be on a 12-fret guitar. Speaking of which, the neck no longer joins the body at the 14th fret, but rather a bit before the 13th - a 12.6th fret neck joint
. The headstock was also reshaped, the crown of the Guild headstock was sliced off and a new rosewood faceplate veneer was put on. You can even see the old Guild serial number sliced in half at the back of the headstock. Bit of a shame cause it looks nowhere near as nice now (reminds me of a Mossman) but hey it is what it is. New Schaller tuners on it as well, plus an EMG ACS soundhole pickup and a piezo undersaddle pickup (which I'm yet to test actually). The spruce top looks pretty good, has some figure in it too - a few repaired cracks but otherwise structurally fine.
More familiar Guild sightings - the back, sides and neck of the original Hoboken D40. Lots of battle scars!
The guitar plays surprisingly well - and it sounds good too! Pretty balanced, projects well and has a very smooth, rounded and full sound. Very responsive, I think the top is fairly lightly braced for a bari. A very low, roaring sound, not surprising as it's tuned down 5 half steps. I need to tweak the setup and put new strings on it but it's looking very promising so far!
If anyone has seen this instrument before and knows anything about its provenance I'd love to hear it!
Family photo (partial) with my 1995 D4 and a 1975 Ibanez 2846 lawsuit that's trying to do a Guild-Martin hybrid thing.
