D50 No Label

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New person to forum. A friend of mine loaned me his D55 for about 2 years and I learned how to play guitar using this fine instument. So now I am looking for a Guild for myself. I see one online, D50, no label, 1988 with electronics. Legit or not? Photos look like a typical guild head. Looks to be in good shape. Where else on the guitar shows the model and year built. How much of a hit on price for no label?
 

fronobulax

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Welcome. If you are really concerned about our opinions about accuracy of listing and authenticity then pictures or a link to the listing would help a lot.

Short answer to posting pictures is host them somewhere else and link to them here. Long answer is at http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?185122-FAQ-Posting-pictures-to-LTG

Labels fall out so no label does not have to be a red flag. Serial number should be on "punched" into the back of the headstock. If that is there then we have a pretty good chance of identifying features that are, and are not, consistent with the time period.

If it 'checks out' the label loss has a minor impact on value. I think most people would be more concerned if the punched serial had been obscured because that, with the missing label, might mean the instrument had been at one time stolen and so the title is potentially murky.

There does not seem have been a lot of Guild counterfeiting going on that is not a big concern. Again sharing the info with us can resolve that. If you are afraid someone might snag it out from under you, that's understandable but only you can balance the fear of missing this one with the fear of buying something that ain't what it claims to be.

For what it's worth, D50s and D55s are not especially rare. I'm sure if you posted your desire to find one you would get a lot of suggestions :)
 

chazmo

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Welcome Carter,

As fronobulax said, we need some pictures or a link to an advertisement to help you out (hopefully).

If the guitar is, indeed, from the 1980s then the back of the headstock will be branded, as frono said. More late-model guitars, since 2005 in fact, do not have this branded serial number, and that makes it harder to judge legitimacy...

Anyway best of luck and welcome to LTG!
 

Stuball48

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Welcome and "LTG members know a thing or two because they have seen a thing or two."
 

adorshki

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Would a 1988 D-50 have the Gruhn era headstock?
Brad
Can't recall off the top of my head, but that's late enough for 'em to have become fairly common, D25's got 'em in '87.
Also D52's and DV52's had 'em standard "IIRC" so maybe they were just following the existing D50 standard of the time, having been derived from 'em in the first place.
 
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Finally got some info and pic from the seller. I will try and post it. Headstock on back Is stamped with D500145, made in USA, 9-87. Seems to look like other Guild serial numbers, font size etc. I looked up the number and it seems to fit into that years numbers.

It has electronics, would that be a stock item?

Where would it have been made?

Sitka or adi top?

Thanks
 

geoguy

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Does it look like this, with a cutaway & "barn door" electronics?

http://westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/d50ce.html

Or does it look like this, without a cutaway?

http://westerlyguildguitars.com/guitars/d50.html

Specs are available by clicking a link beneath each of those listing's photos.

I would expect Sitka spruce for the guitar that you described in your initial post, built in Westerly, RI.

Oh, and if Hans Moust responds to this thread, he can probably tell you anything you might like to know about this guitar. :subdued:
 

Westerly Wood

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my label fell out years before i bought it. check for its footprint, i bet it is there.
 

adorshki

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Finally got some info and pic from the seller. I will try and post it. Headstock on back Is stamped with D500145, made in USA, 9-87. Seems to look like other Guild serial numbers, font size etc. I looked up the number and it seems to fit into that years numbers.
That date on back of headstock is almost a guarantee of authenticity, they only did that for a very short time, I think all the examples I've seen here were from '87.
It has electronics, would that be a stock item?
Would have been optional in any year unless it was a "ce" which meant "Cutaway Electric"
That's one place the label might have been handy because if they had factory electronics, the label normally showed that with an "E" after the model number, ie, "D50e".
$195.00 option (at list) in '87:
http://westerlyguildguitars.com/files/87PL1.jpg
Where would it have been made?
Westerly RI, in operation from '67-'01.
Sitka or adi top?

Thanks


Top's 99-44/100 % sure to be Sitka.
In several discussions about possible use of Adi in Westerly by Guild, nobody has ever offered concrete evidence either from a Guild employee or literature or even Hans Moust, that Adi was ever used let alone spec'd prior to '05.
Besides which, Ad had been severely over-harvested during WWII and wasn't really available in quantities and size suitable for guitar making until early '90's when it began to be shown as a topwood option by boutique makers like Santa Cruz.
Guild didn't spec any use of Adi until '05 in Tacoma.
 
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