Does Anyone Own a D-60?

[wileypickett]

Those fish-eye lens photos though -- yikes! Looking forward to seeing what it really looks like!

Congrats!

 

[chazmo]

The JF-65 is a jumbo maple -- the renamed version of the iconic F-50, banjomike. There's also an F-65ce which is a shallow-bodied acoustic-electric. There's a picture of one here: http://westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/f65ce-rb.html

FWIW, there is some reference material out there, the best of which is Hans Moust's "The Guild Guitar Book." But it doesn't cover models after 1977, as I think both of the ones you asked about are. Not sure. In any case, if you don't have Hans' book, look for one.

Anyway, again, welcome aboard!

 

[doctormrd]

There is a 1988 Guild D-60 (Johnny Cash) also on Reverb. It is described as mint and it does look good.
The guitar is located in Atlanta, Georgia.
A bit pricey for me at $7650, but for someone that wants one, maybe not.
D

 

[banjomike]

There is a 1988 Guild D-60 (Johnny Cash) also on Reverb. It is described as mint and it does look good.
The guitar is located in Atlanta, Georgia.
A bit pricey for me at $7650, but for someone that wants one, maybe not.
D

Thanks, Doc.

Yup. That guitar sent me looking around the net for others like it. The one that's coming looks almost as good as this guitar, and I bought it for less money.
$7,000 can buy a handmade custom guitar made to my specifications. I'm not quite ready to go that high yet on a factory made instrument.

I have some firmly set price limits on guitars. At least I did for a long time... it seems the limits are more flexible than they were in the past. as I paid more for this guitar than any I've ever owned.

I don't buy a guitar very often either! Buying two expensive guitars in less that two years is something I haven't ever done in my life until right now. Both Guilds, too. Guild fever, I guess...

 

[banjomike]

Oh, man... I have a bad case of nerves.
The guitar was sent using USPS, and it's here in town; it arrived on the last shipment of the day from the closest mail distribution center, 50 miles away.
So it won't be spending the night in an unheated warehouse in the -16º temps that are expected here tonight. But it will go out for delivery in the -13º daytime temps forecast for Monday. With 20 mph winds, the wind chill would be close to -30º on Monday, so I hope the winds die down before the sun comes up tomorrow.

That's going to be a mighty cold guitar box when it arrives no matter what. So I'll have to let the box warm up to room temps before I open it, then allow the case to warm up to the room before I get my first look at the guitar. That could be Wednesday!

 

[GGJaguar]

Well, you have a good plan for unboxing and, really, it's all you can do. You can't control the weather or USPS. Fingers crossed!

 

[richardp69]

I've owned several, both the RW and Maple varieties. The Maple was my clear favorite but both were nice. I don't own any now.

 

[banjomike]

After 3 anxious days, the D60 arrived this morning. It was cold, but had been protected from the worst of the cold snap. I
t hit -30º here on Monday night, setting a new record for the date. The previous record came in 1988 when the temps dropped to -27º.

This is the first time I've ever seen a guitar shipped with no box. The guitar came in its original hardshell case, which was wrapped in 2 layer of the 1/4 foam sheeting that's used for padding, and then was wrapped with several layers of plastic box wrap. The entire case including the handle was tightly wrapped.
There was no shipping damage at all to the instrument or the case.

I put it in a guest bedroom that's seldom used and has the heat register turned off. I put the case on the bed, resting on one edge of the case. Then I left it alone for the next 18 hours. I was going to open the packing tomorrow after a full 24 hours of warming up, but after checking the case itself (I cut a small hole in the packing) I decided the guitar was warm enough to give it a quick look-over.

It was actually warm enough that I took it out and played it for a little while after giving it a close inspection.

The guitar looks like it was only played lightly a few times and then was put away in a closet inside the case. The finish is immaculate. The frets and board look like new, though the fretwork is oxidized, as are the strings, which look to be as old as the guitar. The strings are unworn.
There are 2 case latch lid dings in the top, one typical, the other very small. These dings happen when a guitar is put back into the case and the lid is closed but not latched. Someone picks the case up by the handle, the lid falls open and the guitar falls onto the lid. The dings come from the metal tongues on the latches, the male latch fittings. They're common, and usually pretty deep, though small in size.

The neck has a bit of warpage from 3 decades of string pressure pulling on it, but the truss rod will straighten it out OK. The action is a bit high, but fully playable. Since I have an ace tech/repairman who lives a block and a half away, I'll probably call him and let him tweak everything, as he can likely fill the dings too.
But if he's busy, I won't mind waiting for a while before I take it to him. I'll put a new set of strings on it and spend some time getting to know it.

Right now, it's very hard to say anything about it's tone quality, The old strings are too corroded. But even with completely dead strings, it's a very powerful guitar.

 

[GGJaguar]

Sounds like it's gonna be an excellent guitbox once it's tweaked and set up! Congrats!

 

[banjomike]

Thanks, Jag!
I agree- even with dead strings, the D60 has the right stuff for me.
After I posted, I decided to let my guy know about the guitar, but I'm not going to let him have at it right away. I want to change the strings and get to know it a little bit before he works on it.
heGuild lan
Some firstt impressions: The spruce top is definitely AAAA quality. It's gorgeous, hard, and appears to be European Alpine Spruce. The rosewood is also as good, as is the ebony used for the bridge and fingerboard. The pick guard is larger than others, and much thinner.
The neck shape is rather hefty but still very comfortable. All the work is very clean except for one side of the dovetail block, which needed a little wetter wipe down. The excess glue was wiped away, but it left a little track on the wood due to an over-dry cloth.

It's fancier than the D-21, and about as fancy as the Advanced Jumbo. The 21 is now 59 years old, and has Brazilian rosewood, while the AJ is close to the same age and is more similar to the Guild in about everything than to the Martin. Right now, I tend to think the Guild lands right in the middle between them- all similar, but with each a standout individual in its differences.

For sure, its my kind of guitar. I think I will really enjoy playing it, and I'm looking forward to how it will sound once broken in. I doubt it has been played for more than an hour at the most.

 

[doctormrd]

Congrats on finding "one" that you are probably going to like.
I usually know after about 5 or ten minutes of noodling that the instrument is going to be a player for me.
They almost have to play themselves before I am happy.

Presently, I am watching a Santa Cruz D-12 Custom that is too high priced for my budget. I could special order one to my specs for not much more money.

And what a strange way to ship a fine instrument! But I guess if it made the journey with no apparent damage, so be it.

Thanks for the guitar "unwrapping" report. It was interesting to me because I don't expose mine to the room and hands for at least 24 hours when delivered during below freezing temps.

Keep us posted.
D

 

[adorshki]

I really don'tnow very much about Guilds.
I remember the D-60 from the 1980s though, mostly because Johnny Cash played one so often.
I know they are more scarce than the D-55, but is there some big difference between the 2 models?
Which one is most preferred?

Tell me something about them, please. Or something about the F-65 or any of the others in that guitar series. Thanks!

First thing to know is that an F65ce has a 16" lower bout and arched maple back with 3" deep body.

While the "number" usually called out higher levels of materials and bling, they didn't always mean the same thing across model types. In this case, though, "65" called out the highest bling level.

And in Tom's case, when they mounted a D55 neck (abalone fretblocks and railroad tracks with G-shield) on a maple archback dreadnought body, they called it a D65, I assume because the D60 model number had already been assigned.

I was about to say Fender apparently didn't care if they"re-used" the model number for a new and different guitar, but after thinking about it I realized Guild has a LONG history of changing specs on an existing model without changing the model number. So what else is new?

Even new owners CMG did it to the F40, much to my ire. The F40 was Guild's second flattop model, 16" bout archback maple jumbo, and that platform has provided more combinations of body woods/back type and scale length/nut width options than any other platform in Guild's history. And CMG has simply abandoned it and called a 17" jumbo body, in 'hog, yet, an F40.

I gave up on 'em after 5 years of keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Westerly Wood]

And in Tom's case, when they mounted a D55 neck (abalone fretblocks and railroad tracks with G-shield) on a maple archback dreadnought body, they called it a D65, I assume because the D60 model number had already been assigned.

So it wasn't on a total whim? lol oxnard

 

[adorshki]

So it wasn't on a total whim? lol oxnard

I visualize a wheel of fortune with 120 random model numbers arrayed around the circumference. Where it stops, nobody cares.

 

[Westerly Wood]

I visualize a wheel of fortune with 120 random model numbers arrayed around the circumference. Where it stops, nobody cares.

"Ok people, I am fired up, I am so stoked for our new line of US Guilds which is really like some of the old line, but we gonna change it up a bit, we gonna have some fun, you ready??? Instead of F50.....I am thinking....F55!!!!!"

cheers all around.

 

[GGJaguar]

Ha! That reminds me of an old Isuzu commercial for the I-Mark model where the marketing staff in Japan are sitting around a table trying to come up with a name for the new model. As they go around the table, the guys are shouting out names like "Squid", "Skunk" and then finally "I-Mark" and they all look at each other and agree. Sounds about right for what Guild has done.

 

[adorshki]

Ha! That reminds me of an old Isuzu commercial for the I-Mark model where the marketing staff in Japan are sitting around a table trying to come up with a name for the new model. As they go around the table, the guys are shouting out names like "Squid", "Skunk" and then finally "I-Mark" and they all look at each other and agree. Sounds about right for what Guild has done.

"The Squid". Isn't that the name of Rick Nielsen's guitar?

 

[fronobulax]

Ha! That reminds me of an old Isuzu commercial for the I-Mark model where the marketing staff in Japan are sitting around a table trying to come up with a name for the new model. As they go around the table, the guys are shouting out names like "Squid", "Skunk" and then finally "I-Mark" and they all look at each other and agree. Sounds about right for what Guild has done.

Or the old joke about the Japanese car company that hired a German consulting firm to help them find a name. When informed that a name was needed in 24 hours, the consultant replied "Dat Soon?"

 

[adorshki]

Or the old joke about the Japanese car company that hired a German consulting firm to help them find a name. When informed that a name was needed in 24 hours, the consultant replied "Dat Soon?"

How about a Guild Gun?

 

[banjomike]

First thing to know is that an F65ce has a 16" lower bout and arched maple back with 3" deep body.

While the "number" usually called out higher levels of materials and bling, they didn't always mean the same thing across model types. In this case, though, "65" called out the highest bling level.

And in Tom's case, when they mounted a D55 neck (abalone fretblocks and railroad tracks with G-shield) on a maple archback dreadnought body, they called it a D65, I assume because the D60 model number had already been assigned.

I was about to say Fender apparently didn't care if they"re-used" the model number for a new and different guitar, but after thinking about it I realized Guild has a LONG history of changing specs on an existing model without changing the model number. So what else is new?

Even new owners CMG did it to the F40, much to my ire. The F40 was Guild's second flattop model, 16" bout archback maple jumbo, and that platform has provided more combinations of body woods/back type and scale length/nut width options than any other platform in Guild's history. And CMG has simply abandoned it and called a 17" jumbo body, in 'hog, yet, an F40.

I gave up on 'em after 5 years of keeping my fingers crossed.

Yup.
I've been cross-checking GAD's fine bunch of old catalogs on his blog. The oldest catalogs have a very natural progression of sizes and types, but the names Guild used gets confusing and so do the model numbers.

I'm old friends with Ren Ferguson, and he said one of his biggest problems when he became the Fender guy put in charge of getting more Guilds out the factory door was Fender. The management always put Fender's needs of the moment ahead of Guild's.

He said he didn't ever fight with the management when he gave them suggestions on what to change; he said Fender is a really big ship, so it takes a lot time for the company to make a turn and change directions. Any change would have to trickle its way trough a big corporation before anything would change.

When we both worked in Gibson Montana, that division was more independent from headquarters in Nashville. The acoustic guitar division did things differently than in the big Nashville shop, and was a much smaller shop. So when a change was needed, it could happen fast unless there was something major involved in it.
Nashville had over 250 workers, while Montana only had 90 at most, and quite often, fewer than that. And 90 was quite a large acoustic shop for the times.
Nowadays, CAD technology is so good at producing semi-finished parts that are perfect that a smaller crew could be used to do all the fine handwork that's needed to make a high-quality acoustic guitar. 30 years ago, when I first went to work there, Gibson intentionally limited their CAD work and used human labor more.
The shop was built to restore the Gibson reputation for fine hand crafting at at time when Norlin had almost destroyed that reputation. We never made more than 90 guitars a day using all that hand labor at a time when some of the competition were making 200 a day, but we made enough good guitars to bring Gibson back into the acoustic market again making them like they were made 50 years earlier.

I was always proud of being a part of that. The work burned me out pretty fast, so I didn't last on the job very long, but it was a good job that I enjoyed while I could still do it.
I'm tall and light-boned and light-muscled. Building guitars is actually a very strenuous job when someone is doing it 8 hours a day. It was hard on my joints and tendons, but I still hated to have to quit the work.