Wood quality on Guilds over the years

[matsickma]

What is the general thinking about the quality of wood used on Guild archtops over the years? I understand that T50's annd T100's were lower cost instruments so the wood grain is plain. The best examples of what I am referring to is seen in Starfires. If you look at maple top SF 4's and 5's from the 60's and 70's they are pretty plain. When you look at them in the later 80's to early 2000's they have great looking maple tops. In many ways the beauty of the later DF 4&5 tops look like the top of the 60's and early 70's SF6's. Is this just a simple matter that better grade laminated woods became more available in the later decades? I also am not saying the newer woods sound better. In fact I personally like the tone of the earlier Guilds. The wood us thinner and more resonant. That may not be desirable at higher volumes but do sound better when played acoustically. Opinions?

M

 

[AcornHouse]

Highly figured wood wasn't a high priority pre-80s. Everyone regularly discarded bearclaw spruce soundboards that command a premium price nowadays, for example. Even the famed '59 Les Paul bursts don't compare, figure-wise, to the dreck Gibson sells now (they just sound/feel/cost about 100 times better.)