I've been a member here for a few years now, and a Guild fan my whole life, but this is my first post... Being a Guild fan was not easy, growing up in NE Pennsylvania in a Martin family! My first guitar was a 1968 Martin D-28 (stolen in 1997 when my house was robbed), and my whole family played Martins. For me, my holy grail (if you will) guitars were always the D-55 and the F-512, probably a lot of John Denver influence on the latter.... I got to play a D-55 a long time ago, and the balance and sustain was forever etched in my mind. (Not to mention the looks!) Over the years I've had a number of Guild's GAD series F150, F1512, D150, but the only one still with me is a D 125-12, the rest never really talked to me... Over the years, when I was in the position to buy a new US Guild, the company seemed to always be in turmoil, and availability was scarce, and I didn't want used. So when Guild was re-organized/moved this last time, and after a health scare, I decided it was time to fill the "bucket list" of guitars, and I ordered a D-55 and an F-512. Still waiting on the F-512, but the D-55 arrived Friday!
Initial impressions are this...sustain and tone are exceptional, bass is tight, not muddy, and the highs are bright without being too tinny. It is truly only a couple weeks out of the factory, and I believe when it opens up it will be amazing, it's already a canon. In truth, I was slightly disappointed with a few aspects of the guitar, the AAA top, which I believe has a little too much tone variation (very tight, straight grain though, but was hoping for a top that was "buttery" with smooth tight, almost invisible lines...probably just my preference), the ebony fretboard and bridge don't match perfectly (bridge is a little light), and there is a scratch on the low-E side of the nut, I thought it was a crack initially, but after looking at it under a magnifying glass, was just superficial with a little production "smudge" in it. Other nitpicks, was that there was a little glue on the edge of the nut, and some tiny sawdust-ish pieces of binding from production that were not cleaned out inside that "rattled".
Overall I was slightly disappointed at first, expected the heavens to open up I guess (for a $3k+ guitar), but after 24 hours of acclimating, when I tuned it up, the D-55 tone and sustain I remember is there in spades, and will improve with age and a string change (IMO, it has the wrong strings on it from the factory).
Sound? Compared to my 1998 Martin D16-RGT, the D-55 has tighter, but slightly less bass, better note separation, and more sustain...initial impression, the Martin may be better for fingerpicking (possibly expected) but for everything else, I think the D-55 will win out...and the looks, well it is a D-55 after all.
I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how, and when the F-512 comes in, I'll update how it fairs against my Martin J12-16GT and the GAD 125-12 (but they are Sitka/Hog...Hog/Hog might be apples to oranges. I think the future looks good for the new USA Guilds, maybe some attention to detail improvement in manufacturing, but the "bones" are there as far as I'm concerned, and they definitely got the tone right!