Handsome Adirondack spruce top to it:
Beautiful bone nut came stock- very well done, with very narrow string spacing on this one:
Real mother of pearl "Chesterfield" logo head stock:
An all around handsome instrument.
So, I got it because of the Adirondack top on there, like I might have mentioned, all my other stuff is the much more common Sitka. Sitka is great, but I thought to try something new. Apparently there can be a fairly big difference between the two spruce tops, it's said that because Adirondack is a more firm wood that it will vibrate a little less, meaning that the guitar remains clear and doesn't "break up" at high volumes.
I'm not really sure if I'm feeling that- I feel like I'm driving the top about as much as I ever do.
It sounds great, though. It's a very loud instrument, but it's got a great dynamic range to it. You play soft, and it's nice and clear, you dig in to it and the sound just booms out. An all around winner.
I'd been reading on the Guild philosophy at the time they were making these (New Hartford under Fender ownership), and they made a lot out of the balance of the guitars. I'll agree- this guitar has a fair amount of bass, but it's not particularly dominant over the other frequencies. It certainly has less bass focus than my Gibsons, and this guitar is designed to be a direct competitor to the Martin D-18, and I'll reckon that if anyone fell in love with the Martin bass sound then they would not like this guitar as much.
Still, no complaints from me- I like the balance and will imagine that this will lead it to be a great recording guitar.
So, the thing that I was hesitant was the nut width on this one. They are sticking with the 1 11/16" nut, and that's not my favorite, I like wider nuts. And this particular nut feels even narrower than that, I'll measure it when I get it home from the office. Not only that, though, but the strings are pretty tight on the nut anyway, you can see in one of the pictures that the bass E string is pretty far in from where it could have been.
But, it's a very easy playing guitar, someone got the setup dialed in perfectly. It may not be my favorite for fingerpicking, although I spent years fingerpicking on a Martin with the same neck, but it is super fast for chording and flatpicking on. The neck is fairly thick in contour, and nicely rounded at the fingerboard... it's a wonderful playing neck.
This particular Guild was made in New Hartford, and Guild has been bouncing around a lot. At this point Guild was trying to compete by making guitars that cut no corners, they were trying to compete by making guitars better than their competitors at a cheaper price point. So, you know, I'm listening!
And I'd say they got it, it's actually a pleasure to get this because as you know I buy a lot of Gibson acoustics later.
Well, I always say with Gibson that there's a great guitar in there somewhere, and when I get those then I have to order a bone saddle, and do something with the cheap bridge pins, and pull out the stupid electronics and such. Make a plan to one day put on a good bone nut and such.
But Guild did it up on these models, it's a stock bone saddle, nut and pins, no stupid undersaddle pickups, real Honduran mahogany, mother of pearl and so on. Also, they took advantage of the Adirondack spruce's strength on these in order to make the bracing as thin and light as they could, and the top as light and responsive as they could, and so on. They also make a big deal out of making the radius of the top be 30', which is supposed to give it some projection (I think Gibson uses 25'). They also make a three piece neck on these, with a walnut stringer down the middle, which is supposed to make it be as strong as it can be.
I dunno, but I can say that Guild was determined to make a great guitar at this point and they did it. It didn't sell for a lot, so if you are interested in this type of guitar at this price point, maybe give Guild a shot. You'll want to be learning a bit about Guild, though, they've been moved around by Fender for some time now, and are now owned by Cordoba. Each of these eras is apparently strong, not to mention their earlier Westerly runs, but it took me a while to learn what I wanted.
Glad I did, though, it's a winner.
