Maple jumbos

[deejayen]

I played an F-55 Rosewood about a year ago, but decided not to buy it because the high E string seemed a bit weaker tonally than I prefer.

I ended up buying a different acoustic guitar, but after recently thinking about buying a parlour guitar, my mind sprang to thoughts of the other extreme; more specifically, an F-55 Maple!

I can't seem much about these online. There's the official Guild demo video (I think there's something about the tone on that one which seems a bit 'compressed'). There's also one review where the buyer mentioned the same sort of thing I experienced with the F-55 Rosewood. I quote: "But if I am nitpicking (and in this price-range I am nitpicking) I register a smaller dynamic range on the high E and the high E is not sounding as full and satisfying as the other strings."

I just wondered if this is common with all F-55's, regardless of wood type, or is it something to do with the strings or the setup?

Unfortunately, there's no-one near me selling Guilds, so I'm unable to try an F-55 Maple for myself. I'd love to know what sort of style they might be best suited to, and how they compare to the F-55 Rosewood (although I can't remember much about the F-55 Rosewood I tried so long ago).

 

[chazmo]

Have you tried re-stringing the E-string? If you're on factory strings, they may be played out. Have you pulled the saddle out and made sure it's making good contact with the bridge bottom? If you have a UST in there, perhaps trying without it to compare? ANyway...

I haven't heard what you're saying about the Oxnard jumbos, but that doesn't mean you're not right! I will say that I have played many, many generations of previous F-50 and F-50R (and JF-55 and JF-65) guitars and I don't ever recall thinking what you said.

 

[deejayen]

Thanks, Chazmo. I only played the F-55 Rosewood once or twice in a store back in January, so I don't have it to check. The comment about the F-55 Maple was from a review I came across, and I don't know if the owner of that guitar was able to sort the problem.

 

[portsider]

I recently acquired an F50 maple jumbo and the strings are pretty well balanced. It has a dual source Seymour Duncan pickup system and the high E rings out louder than on my Fishman equipped D2612CE. In fact it has become my stage guitar for that reason. I miss the 12 string sound but the F50 sounds so good amplified that I'm going with it.

 

[Boneman]

I can't say about an F55 maple, but I do have a maple jumbo with two high E strings, lol, and both ring true and just sustain for days, no weakness on this one. Perhaps that one was a dud? You should try to find one to test drive, they are wonderful guitars

 

[deejayen]

Thanks! I'd love to try one.

I've left a comment on the review of the F-55 Maple to ask if they were able to resolve the issue. I'll update the thread if I receive a reply.

 

[Cougar]

I just wondered if this is common with all F-55's, regardless of wood type...

Well, I can't speak too specifically about your question, but generally, I'd say it's uncommon, since most often I hear about how well balanced Guilds are, jumbos included.