OffsetGuitars.com

DesmondWafers wrote:This is coming in tomorrow...



Looks to be in excellent condition for 1965. This'll be my first vintage guitar ever, fingers crossed.

Well, as much as I am loathe to admit it, maybe there is something to this whole vintage guitar nonsense.



I was deathly scared of the neck angle being shot and needing a reset but was pleasantly surprised to find that I have plenty of room to lower the bridge. Is the neck angle perfect? No, but it's from 19 fucking 65. I brought it to my luthier and he told me that if I stick to 10's or 11's I may never have to get the neck reset. After quelling my paranoia, the only thing left to do was actually play the thing.

My god. I was pretty staunchly against vintage guitars, but there really is something there. From a purely functional perspective, not really, but there is a weird sense of bonding. This thing is more than twice as old as I am, and I would rather cut my arms off than seriously use the word M@J@, but it's definitely a different feeling. It's not something that can just be replaced through a retail store or website. The frets are low and kind of worn, the nut needs to be replaced, the truss rod might need a little work, but I'm having more fun playing it than any other guitar I own.

Congratulations, very cool guitar.

IIRC these Mickey Mouse pickups sometimes had a capacitor soldered on the pickup. Can't say for sure but the one pic I saw makes it look like they were wired across the pickup (in parallel) so would serve to take some highs off. Might be worth checking out. People have removed it and said their tone improved but YMMV.

Man, there's a Guild S90 at a shop back in my old stomping grounds that is calling to me after this thread, thing looks so cool. Makes me consider parting with one of my beloved Yamahas to get it...

(2015) M-120E NAT

1966 Guild Starfire XII

Looks great! What's the nut width on these?

PorkyPrimeCut wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm

Looks great! What's the nut width on these?

A very comfortable 1 11/16ths. There's more details on it in this thread.

I love it SO much

Telliot wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:00 pm

PorkyPrimeCut wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm

Looks great! What's the nut width on these?

A very comfortable 1 11/16ths. There's more details on it in this thread.

Perfect. Just shy of my Vox (1 12/16ths).

This is the slope shoulder Gibson looking one from the Westerly “Memoir” series. It’s my second acoustic in 20 years of playing guitar and is definitely a step up from my laminate Art & Lutherie from Christmas of 1999.

Solid Sitka spruce, mahogany back, sides and neck.









I know many diehard acoustic guys wouldn’t consider this a “proper” Guild or worthy of consideration, etc etc, but for my needs it’s just right. It’s a bit tame in the lows which I wasn’t expecting but I took a few strums and decided it’s a keeper. Has a great balanced singsong voice across the freq spectrum. My other thing is crisp, ringy new acoustic strings always sound clangy and sharp to my ears and I’ve noticed it’s tone rounding in a way I like as they wear in.

1964 Starfire III (artist rendering)

Here's my 2016 Starfire II. Really love the stripped-down looks and the pickups on these. Crazy resonant and expressive.

There's my New Hartford D40 Bluegrass Jubilee.

So, I had been looking for a long scale mahogany dreadnaught, and I came across this one and a Richie Havens model. I didn't know what I was looking at, so I went to the Talk Guild forum as one does and some nice folks told me about the New Hartford Guild era.

Apparently it's a very strong era even for Guild, which seems to always be very good. But at this point in the D40's history they were making it with Adirondack spruce top and bracing, and they had make the bracing be somewhat lighter, and had other top of the line appointments. I guess they were trying to compete with Martin and such on quality for cost.

Which they absolutely nailed. I paid like a thousand for this guitar, and it's just stunning. It definitely has its own sound, it's sweet and elegant, clear and articulate. Guild of that era would talk about a "balance" between the frequencies and that's exactly right, it's not a bass heavy dreadnaught like some you might find, it just... does everything perfectly.

This is a nice video where the folks at Guild were talking about this guitar, they mention how they changed the radius of the top to be 30' from whatever it had been before and so on. They mention the balance of the thing, which is accurate.

I have never found time to record with it so far, but I can imagine it's going to be wonderful when I do.

I was intrigued by the Adirondack spruce top, since that's a higher end appointment than the Sitka all my other guitars have. But I don't really notice any particular difference that I can definitely say is because of that, though. Like I say, it's a fantastic guitar in every way, and I cannot imagine how money would buy you more. But I don't notice any "Adirondack sound" or anything.

I can say that this has absolutely opened my eyes to Guild, and I feel kind of dumb that I haven't paid more attention to the brand over the years. All these great, underrated and not particularly expensive guitars right under my nose and I didn't really notice them.

Congrats, Larry. It’s beautiful.