1976 Guild D-50NT Dreadnought Guitar

The D-50 is Guild's competition for the venerable Martin D-28 and I've seen a good number of these guitars in for local setup work. Compared to a same-period D-28, I tend to think most D-50s are a little more punchy and direct in their tone. They bloom a little less on the low-end, the mids are more present and less scooped, and they really suit a heavy-handed strummer best. In fact, that's the sort of player who tends to bring these in and they're almost always (like this one) strung with 56w-13 mediums.

This was also brought in for a setup, but wound-up receiving a fret level/dress, saddle adjustments and compensation, an ever-so-slight bridge shave, string ramps, and a little wrangling to get its undersaddle pickup back to peak performance. Like other D-50s, it's built with a solid spruce top over solid rosewood back and sides, the neck is mahogany, and the board and bridge are ebony.

Specs are: 25 5/8" scale length, 1 5/8" nut width and 1 7/16" nut string spacing and 2 5/16" bridge spacing, 15 3/4" lower bout width and 11 1/2" upper bout width as well as 5" depth at the endblock. I set this up on-the-dot with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. As I recall, the neck was the usual slim D-shape with a very light (~14" or so?) radius to the fretboard.

The pearloid really pops in Guild headstocks.