Dubbaround said:
I would like to know what the letters, numbers, and hyphenated letters mean concerning Guilds?
HI Dubbaround: I too wondered at the start, then realized through lots of careful observation that there was a bit of order to the madness. As the model numbers got higher, the quality of materials and workmanship and ornamentation went up. That D4/D25 question for instance: originally the D4 was a "satin finish", has been referenced as having a "Morado" fretboard, and the headstock logo was silk-screened directly onto the wood. D25's had gloss finish, rosewood fretboard/bridge, and by the time the D4 was introduced (early '90's) had a pearloid inlay with black headstock overlay. Thus the D4 was known as the "poor man's D25" through several subtle economy measures.
Move up to D40 and you got a chesterfield added to the headstock ornamentation and a FLAT back. D40 maybe had a little nicer bracing but I can't remember ever seeing a specific confirmation of that. All those guitars were 'hog back/sides and rosewood fretboards/bridges in general.
Move up to D50 and you got rosewood body/sides and ebony fretboard/bridge. Move up to D555 and you got MOP inlay and G-shield headstock logo and fret position markers. And upgraded bracing, and maybe selected wood for the top.
SO, to a great degree the model numbers denoted a specific combination of woods within any body style denoted by the prefixes.
Rosewood's a price upgrade from mahogany and generally gets the upgrade to ebony fretboard as well. Same with maple as an alternative to rosewood.
Here's a GREAT place to START:
http://westerlyguildguitars.com/links.htm
Be aware, as others mentioned, specs on a given model could change over the course of time. So the models on that site should be considered according to the date of the spec sheet attached. Most frequent changes I've seen would be on dimensions of things like nut width or scale length. Sometimes models were discontinued and re-introduced under other names and more subtle changes occurred.
D25 in particular had some major changes over its lifetime. It started as an all-mahogany flatback in '68 and evolved into spruce-topped mahogany archback by '74, at least officially. There were some number of archback/mahogany-TOPPED D25's made and shipped during the transitional period. I've seen refs as early as '72 and as late as '74. The arched back is laminated by the way. More D25's were sold than any other Guild model.
OK, homework is to drool over that link I gave you. We can meet here later for more fun.