Introduction and 1969 D50

[RLane]

Hello, just joined the website hoping to get some feedback and thoughts on the 1969 Guild D50 that i recently acquired. I have been a guitarist/luthier for 60 + years and had never owned a Guild!! Played and admired a few in fact my father is a Guild player. I do luthier work for a local shop and was asked to repair 4 instuments as part of an estate settlement. I ended up buying the 69 Guild D50. It needed alot of work on cosmetics, a neckreset,frets, missing pickguard and a couple side cracks,a loose and warped headstock overlay, loose back brace.
It took a month or so to source the correct tinted lacquer formula for the neck and the period pickguard material.
The neck had to be refinished as the original owner had removed the finish from the playing zone (he did this to all his guitars). What awesome sounding instrument this is. I own some very high quality guitars including a 52 J45 and a Adirondack/Brazilian D28 and this is all their equal but better balanced. Now i need to determine of my financial situation will let me keep it. I look forward to some feedback from some Guild pros.

 

[Norrissey]

Welcome! Beautiful! Love it. Very nice restoration/repair. A '60s D50 is one of my dream guitars.

 

[Rambozo96]

Wild grain on that rosewood there.

 

[ReevesRd]

Very nice! Welcome to LTG.

 

[JohnW63]

Nice you were able to bring it back . Well done.

 

[jeffcoop]

That's a heck of a way to make an entrance and a very nice piece of work. 1960s D50s are very highly regarded, both here and elsewhere.

 

[wileypickett]

Looks like Brazilian sides and back to me. My old D50 from the same time period had a Brazilian back, as confirmed by Guild, but they were uncertain about the sides.

The sides on this one are much richer looking (more "Brazilian-y") than mine.

 

[RLane]

My experience with Brazilian RW is petty extensive, especially sanding finger boards and bridges. This one passes the sanding smell test for what that's worth. LOL. Someone PMed me about the refinish, the only thing refinished was the neck. I only did drop filling and buffing on the body. The top was hardly touched as the cracks were repaired long before it came to me.

 

[walrus]

Welcome! That's a beauty!

walrus

 

[wileypickett]

Very nice job refinshing the neck. Did you mix your own lacquer color?

I've done this too, but it can be tricky getting the color even. You basically get one shot, as the color gets darker with each coat.

 

[RLane]

Very nice job refinshing the neck. Did you mix your own lacquer color?

I've done this too, but it can be tricky getting the color even. You basically get one shot, as the color gets darker with each coat.

Its actually a laying technique of the 3 colors that would be used to create a blend to get close to the redish/orange guild used.. makes color matching easier but sanding much harder.

 

[CLMacPherson]

Killer old Guild. I bet it plays like silk.

 

[GGJaguar]

That rosewood is fabulous!

 

[chazmo]

Welcome aboard, @RLane . That's a beautiful, old Guild. Congrats on bringing her back to life! Thanks for sharing your pictures with us! Looks great!

 

[twocorgis]

Now that's the way to make an entrance here! This guitar might have been one of the last D50s with Brazilian sides and back. Like @wileypickett, my '70 is a hybrid of both BRW and EIR, but mine has Brazilian sides, and an EIR back. By that point, Guild was just using up whatever they had left, I think. Mine was retopped with a prewar Martin bracing scheme by Wayne Henderson, so it doesn't really sound like a Guild, but it sure plays like one, and that's fine with me. It's a nice complement to the '73 that I've owned since high school.

1970 Guild/Henderson D50

A truly extraordinary guitar, thanks to a superb re-topping job by Wayne Henderson. I'm so lucky to own it.

flic.kr

If you ever decide to sell it, let us know first! You did a great restoration job.

 

[RLane]

Now that's the way to make an entrance here! This guitar might have been one of the last D50s with Brazilian sides and back. Like @wileypickett, my '70 is a hybrid of both BRW and EIR, but mine has Brazilian sides, and an EIR back. By that point, Guild was just using up whatever they had left, I think. Mine was retopped with a prewar Martin bracing scheme by Wayne Henderson, so it doesn't really sound like a Guild, but it sure plays like one, and that's fine with me. It's a nice complement to the '73 that I've owned since high school.

1970 Guild/Henderson D50

A truly extraordinary guitar, thanks to a superb re-topping job by Wayne Henderson. I'm so lucky to own it.

flic.kr

If you ever decide to sell it, let us know first! You did a great restoration job.

Now that's the way to make an entrance here! This guitar might have been one of the last D50s with Brazilian sides and back. Like @wileypickett, my '70 is a hybrid of both BRW and EIR, but mine has Brazilian sides, and an EIR back. By that point, Guild was just using up whatever they had left, I think. Mine was retopped with a prewar Martin bracing scheme by Wayne Henderson, so it doesn't really sound like a Guild, but it sure plays like one, and that's fine with me. It's a nice complement to the '73 that I've owned since high school.

1970 Guild/Henderson D50

A truly extraordinary guitar, thanks to a superb re-topping job by Wayne Henderson. I'm so lucky to own it.

flic.kr

If you ever decide to sell it, let us know first! You did a great restoration job.

Wow i really enjoyed looking at your library of photos on Flickr! If they are all yours.... you got it BAD! would like to know the back story of why that D50 needed a new top.

 

[twocorgis]

Wow i really enjoyed looking at your library of photos on Flickr! If they are all yours.... you got it BAD! would like to know the back story of why that D50 needed a new top.

Thanks! Quite a few of them have been sold, but quite a few of them remain as well. If you look in my sig you can match a lot of them up.

The story on the '70 D50 was that is was bought by a fellow forum member in need of quite a bit of TLC, and he somehow managed to secure Wayne's services to do the work. As often happens with Wayne, he decided to retop the guitar, with probably the prettiest set of Adirondack spruce I've ever seen. You can see in the photo set that the old top really wasn't that bad, and probably could have been saved, but it is what it is.

It then proceeded to stay in Wayne's shop for almost five years. In that intervening time @c70man decided that it would be too risky to get it back to his native New Zealand due to its Brazilian rosewood content and CITES regulations, so it ended up with me, and I feel very blessed to own it. It's a truly wonderful guitar that sounds nothing like the '73 I've owned since high school (and the only acoustic guitar I owned when I joined here; you've been warned!), but it feels and plays exactly the same.

 

[davismanLV]

Welcome to LTG!! That's a beauty!! Love the rosewood and the neck looks great!! Cheers!!

 

[RLane]

Thanks! Quite a few of them have been sold, but quite a few of them remain as well. If you look in my sig you can match a lot of them up.

The story on the '70 D50 was that is was bought by a fellow forum member in need of quite a bit of TLC, and he somehow managed to secure Wayne's services to do the work. As often happens with Wayne, he decided to retop the guitar, with probably the prettiest set of Adirondack spruce I've ever seen. You can see in the photo set that the old top really wasn't that bad, and probably could have been saved, but it is what it is.

It then proceeded to stay in Wayne's shop for almost five years. In that intervening time @c70man decided that it would be too risky to get it back to his native New Zealand due to its Brazilian rosewood content and CITES regulations, so it ended up with me, and I feel very blessed to own it. It's a truly wonderful guitar that sounds nothing like the '73 I've owned since high school (and the only acoustic guitar I owned when I joined here; you've been warned!), but it feels and plays exactly the same.

Thanks for that, looks like I should update my signature, was not sure what to put down.

 

[twocorgis]

Thanks for that, looks like I should update my signature, was not sure what to put down.

FWIW, I only put my Guilds in my sig here. I have a few others that I love, too.