I'm finally the proud owner of a Westerly-era Guild D50.....

Christopher Cozad said:

Congratulations on your Guild D-50 acquisition! When it is such a long time coming it is all the sweeter! Nicely done, both of you.

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Agree with Christopher and everyone!! Congratulations! That's a super clean and beautiful guitar! Play it in good health. :encouragement:

Congratulations! That is a beautiful guitar. I enjoyed the high res photos. The ebony on the fretboard and bridge is unbelievably clean, especially for a guitar that is almost 40 yrs. old! Best, Bill

Fantastic. Nice that it stayed in the LTG family. What an absolutely gorgeous guitar.

Hey, check the bridge pin on string 4 when you do a change. Something looks a little loose there from the picture, but it might just be out of place or just an illusion in the picture.

chazmo said:

Fantastic. Nice that it stayed in the LTG family. What an absolutely gorgeous guitar.

Hey, check the bridge pin on string 4 when you do a change. Something looks a little loose there from the picture, but it might just be out of place or just an illusion in the picture.

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Yeah, I noticed that myself when I uploaded the pictures. I put a new set on today (a light set of Elixir Nanowebs) and ensured all 6 pins were full pressed in. It sounds even better than before. In fact, it almost sounds too bright (a criticism I'd read about these Elixirs) so I have a couple of other options on the way. My usual choice of Martin Bronze Phosphor and also a set of Pyramids (11-50). I've never tried flat wounds on an acoustic before & am interested how they sound. It'll be weird to lose the squeak when sliding up & down frets.

I put flatwounds on the D65S one time, long ago. The thing is, it's such a great guitar that it sounded just fine. It was fun sliding around the fretboard without the squawk and squeak. Those Elixirs will calm down. Give them a little time.....

Lovely guitar and good vibes from the transaction. And I agree on the Elixirs. A friend of mine has been trying to wean me off them, but I'm hooked. To my ears they retain just the right amount of brightness after a week or two's steady playing - not quite as much as at first. Fingers-wise, for me a pleasure, especially on the 12.

Oh I'll definitely stick with them for a while. Now that they're on, they're on.

I'll mention another thing too. I was a wee bit freaked out as the strings tightened, one by one. This guitar makes all sorts of different noises (some quite delicate) compared to my old 1" Poly coated, mahogany Eko/anchor. Now it's all in tune & stable I'm happy to just leave it be. I'll sleep on it, pick it up in the morning, maybe tweak the tuning a tiny bit & I'll be golden.

Last observation - The resonance coming off the top of this guitar is amazing. My old guitar sounded amazing even though it defied logic (bolt-on neck, adjustable bridge & laminated top) but my god I can totally tell the difference now. This D50 sustains for way longer & the depth of tone is just phenomenal. It's way richer, deeper & more articulate.

Congrats all around...glad to see it stayed "here."

The strings have settled in nicely & the ends are snipped. I doubt I'll bother changing them for the flat wounds as I'm more than happy with what I'm hearing.

Three more photos with the rest of the family.....







'67 Vox Ultrasonic - '68 Eko J56 - '77 Guild D50 - '59 Fender Jazzmaster.

Very nice. You wait to snip string ends?

Westerly Wood said:

Very nice. You wait to snip string ends?

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Yeah, a little bit weird maybe. Kind of an old habit but I alway let them settle, then once they stay in tune I snip them.

In this case I was possibly going to change the strings & it made sense to retain their original length, should I want to use them in future.

That Vox is ultracool. Just sayin.