I am looking at a 1984 D25C. It had a repaired crack on the top. I haven’t seen it in person yet. In the pictures I can see bracing on the back. My question is, if a D25 is flat back, does that mean it is all Hog? The seller is asking it for around $500. With a cracked top I’m thinking about offering $300-$400.
Hi Kurtle, welcome aboard! Definitely not an '84. D25's were all-hog flatbacks until ca 1972 when the arched back started being phased in. by sometime in '73 spruce tops began appearing. because we've seen both typs from 1973, and most of the all-hog achback versions are from that year by far, I deduce they must have built both types during that year at least, and that may have led to the unusual configuration of this one as noted below. We've never seen actual dates as to when the "first and "last" of each version were built and I suspect they weren't even noted. Guild didn't plan their production around calendars, they just started and stopped building according to
capacity and market demand.
1974 actually. And, there you have it. Flat (solid) back, and (I think) Sitka spruce top. This is a "transitional" model.
Again, lots of misinformation out there.
Except the "transitional" models were the all-hog archbacks. Archback appeared first,
then the spruce tops.
However since they appear to have been making both types in '73, I suppose it's possible a spruce top was mounted on an old flatback body and slipped through QC, especially with the "C" finish in a period when even the "M"ahogany-stained spruce top wasn't always ID'd correctly.
I d seem to recall a very similar story from
@The Guilds of Grot about a similar piece, a flatback with a spruce top that was labeled D25, from the same period? I think we chalked it up to the then well-known labeling error problem?
Maybe even the same one?
(I bet
@SFIV1967 (Ralf) knows.
