c.1971 Guild D-35 Dreadnought Guitar

Another customer's guitar, this D-35 is a good, warm, powerhouse. Essentially Guild's "D-18," the D-35 is spruce over mahogany and rather than the Guild-style laminate arched back, it has a solid mahogany flat back. This gives it much more of a traditional dreadnought guitar tone, with a bit of that extra Guild creamy midrange vs. a similar period Martin, for example, which would have more sparkle.

I didn't do much to this guitar as it didn't need much: it had been back to Guild in recent history for a new bridge and crack repairs, so as far as setup was concerned it just needed a little adjustment at the nut.

What I did do was replace the old Fishman undersaddle piezo pickup for a twin-sensor K&K. Apparently, when the factory work was done, the wrapping around the piezo element had been mucked up, hence the pickup was humming really loud (which was the reason it was brought in: to figure out that problem). There's a note here to you doing home repairs: if you have a piezo undersaddle pickup, be careful with that wrapping on the element! If it gets bunged up or damaged at all, the element must be replaced... and for those of us who can't stand battery packs in guitars (yes, I hates them, me hearties...!) ... that means removal entirely.

Replacement bridge is plenty "good enough for government work." After I took the undersaddle pickup out, I shimmed the saddle up slightly with some hardwood below it.

Enclosed tuners like these are a big step up compared to the rather general 3-on-a-plate types Guild used on most of their gear.

Strap button placement like this seems risky to me, but fortunately it was installed into the neck block on this guitar.