This evening, I spent an hour or so in the acoustic room of the music store all by my lonesome. I'll admit straight off that I was in search of one of the new Martin Grand J12-40E Specials (F-512 clone). But, alas, not yet. They still have a leftover Tacoma F-512 on the rack that I really enjoyed playing anyway, but then I saw a couple of unfamiliar Guilds...
Yup, they had two brand-new Ensenadas. My aborted search for the Martin turned out to be an exploration of these two new beasties.
I'll start off by saying that I didn't have USA-built versions of these two axes to do any A/B-ing. I tried to just judge them on their merits/drawbacks.
OK, summary first... The DV-4 is a wonderful-sounding, highly balanced mahogany sweetie. And with a store price of just about $700, I think it's fantastic. It fits the Guild paradigm of sounding and playing like a MUCH more expensive guitar. In fact, this thing is a downright bargain.
The DV-6 on the other hand didn't give me the rosewood punch and depth that I've come to expect. Part of the problem is they also had a leftover Tacoma D-50 and D-55 on the wall, and maybe that's just not a fair comparison. I mean, this thing is around $800... Not even close to the territory of the others. But, oh, how I love that Tacoma D-50... All that said, the DV-6 is not a bad guitar, just not all that special to me. The DV-4 was the unquestionable standout between the two of them.
OK, I'm not done... There are some very clear signs that neither of these is a high-end guitar. Let's start with the crown at the top. The cut was very sloppy and looked like a child had done it with a bandsaw. More likely, the sander was too agressive and made some flat spots in the rounded areas, but you get the picture. Not a lot of care taken in that aspec.
Next, let's discuss the finish. *WHAT* finish??? OK, the bodies are satin, which is fine for what it is, but the neck -- as far as I could tell -- is RAW. Definitely sanded well, and frankly I've always liked a satin-finished neck, but raw wood??... I'm probably wrong, but if there's ANY finish on that neck (and back of headstock) it's gotta be thinner than my wallet! ANyway, it really shows that it's a multi-piece affair.
Another item on these guitars... Someone earlier mentioned that he thought they might be bolt-on necks. I think this is correct. Looking at the neck block through the soundhole there is a square cover with the "Guild" emblem on it. I suspect this covers the bolt, a la Taylor and others. I've got no qualms with bolt-ons, by the way, just something to make note of.
So, despite its flaws, I'd steer someone to a DV-4 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I've played mahogany dreads most of my life, and this one is just great.
I hope the Ensenada folks get some time to clean up the details and work on finish. It's a little ironic since we bitch and moan a bit about how over-glossy the GADs are. The Ensenada DVs are about as raw as you can get.
Yup, they had two brand-new Ensenadas. My aborted search for the Martin turned out to be an exploration of these two new beasties.
I'll start off by saying that I didn't have USA-built versions of these two axes to do any A/B-ing. I tried to just judge them on their merits/drawbacks.
OK, summary first... The DV-4 is a wonderful-sounding, highly balanced mahogany sweetie. And with a store price of just about $700, I think it's fantastic. It fits the Guild paradigm of sounding and playing like a MUCH more expensive guitar. In fact, this thing is a downright bargain.
The DV-6 on the other hand didn't give me the rosewood punch and depth that I've come to expect. Part of the problem is they also had a leftover Tacoma D-50 and D-55 on the wall, and maybe that's just not a fair comparison. I mean, this thing is around $800... Not even close to the territory of the others. But, oh, how I love that Tacoma D-50... All that said, the DV-6 is not a bad guitar, just not all that special to me. The DV-4 was the unquestionable standout between the two of them.
OK, I'm not done... There are some very clear signs that neither of these is a high-end guitar. Let's start with the crown at the top. The cut was very sloppy and looked like a child had done it with a bandsaw. More likely, the sander was too agressive and made some flat spots in the rounded areas, but you get the picture. Not a lot of care taken in that aspec.
Next, let's discuss the finish. *WHAT* finish??? OK, the bodies are satin, which is fine for what it is, but the neck -- as far as I could tell -- is RAW. Definitely sanded well, and frankly I've always liked a satin-finished neck, but raw wood??... I'm probably wrong, but if there's ANY finish on that neck (and back of headstock) it's gotta be thinner than my wallet! ANyway, it really shows that it's a multi-piece affair.
Another item on these guitars... Someone earlier mentioned that he thought they might be bolt-on necks. I think this is correct. Looking at the neck block through the soundhole there is a square cover with the "Guild" emblem on it. I suspect this covers the bolt, a la Taylor and others. I've got no qualms with bolt-ons, by the way, just something to make note of.
So, despite its flaws, I'd steer someone to a DV-4 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I've played mahogany dreads most of my life, and this one is just great.
I hope the Ensenada folks get some time to clean up the details and work on finish. It's a little ironic since we bitch and moan a bit about how over-glossy the GADs are. The Ensenada DVs are about as raw as you can get.