c.1993 Guild FF5CE Cutaway Jumbo Guitar

Number 9 of a total production of 150, this is a very cool jumbo guitar. It was built at Guild's Westerly, RI plant and definitely has its "own thing going on." Its body is a typical Guild jumbo shape with a 16" lower bout, but it sports an oval soundhole with cutaway and deep, dreadnought-depth sides. Add to that a slim, fast 60s Gibson-esque neck and the familiar long scale and you have a real killer depth of tone and volume mixed with lots of playability up the neck.

Aesthetically, I'm generally not a big fan of flattop cutaways, but the sort-of Selmer-Mac gypsy-jazz guitar look of this model and it's "sister ship" (click here) does do it for me.

Work on this guitar included a light fret level/dress, cleaning, and setup at the nut and bridge. It plays great with spot-on action and has a huge, booming acoustic tone.

The finish has nicely "buttered up" on the front of this guitar and while there are a few weather-checking finish cracks it's in overall extremely good shape.

Nice, medium-brown rosewood board with pearl dots.

Rosewood bridge, too. Note the string ramps I added for better downpressure on the saddle. This also feeds more energy into the undersaddle pickup/preamp system this guitar is loaded with.

Indian rosewood back and sides with a mahogany neck... the back is press-arched and laminate but I'm not sure about the sides.

That arching helps to project and compress the sound of the guitar meaning richer fundamentals and more oomph.

This has a quick neck! Right next to the nut there are wear spots in the finish that I can only assume were made either by a rolling-style capo or someone's sweaty hand.

I like that vintage-style strapjack.

An original, hard, arched-top Guild case is with the guitar.