I have been in the market for a D25 arch back. I was originally thinking one from the 70's that seem to be more common. However, there are a few from the mid 90's with a natural top that are currently on the market. Can anyone tell me more about the D25's from this era or have any experience? Thanks
Fender bought Guild in November '95 so their influence wasn't truly felt on the production floor until sometime in '96.
Years ago one of our members Hideglue who actually worked in Westerly at the time, made a statement that caused a bit of debate here, that Westerly QC reached a zenith under Fender.
A lot of folks questioned that and he had to explain that what he meant was that Fender introduced a checklist system to ensure no steps were missed and thus the overall percentage of "good" guitars reached its high point, not that the guitars themselves were actually built any better.
I bought my D25 new in early '97 and discovered the Oct 31 1996 date stamp on the heelblock about a month later.
The primary selling point was that the neck was the best feeling and easiest playing I'd ever felt in my life.
It's seen about 1400 hours of playing time over the years, about 80% of that in summer weekend afternoon extended outdoor jam sessions.
It's had 2 refrets and a couple of ding-causing "oopsie" drops.
It's still tight as a drum and having been always strung with the factory spec'd light gauge strings, the neck is still almost perfectly aligned, although it's finally starting to show an ever-so-slight dip: a straightedge extended from the neck falls less than a 32nd below the top of the bridge now.
When I first bought it, it was my first really "good" guitar and I used to spend 5 or 10 minutes just eyeballing all the workmanship details when I'd pull it out to practice:
Every seam (like the fretboard, the heel joint, and the binding) perfectly smooth, gapless, and aligned.....fret ends perfectly dressed and consistent so that when you looked down the side of the board they all blended into a single line...the kerfing perfectly consistent and nary a drop of excess glue squeeze to be seen.
You just know that when an instrument looks as good inside as it does outside, then real craftsmen were paying attention to their work when they built it.
Before New Hartford ramped up and enough guys had a chance to find out how good they were and report back here, there was a sizable chunk of us who believed late Westerlys were the best Guilds of all.
Absent experience with product from the other factories (and even
after handling some of the others' output), some of us still do.
Sorry to rant, I just had to tell you how I really feel.
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