1990 Guild D-15M Dreadnought Guitar

US-made '90s Guilds are actually pretty great guitars for the money. They're well-built, have stable necks, and as long as they're adjusted, play well. I'm partial to the mahogany-top Guild dreads going right back to the early '70s -- yes, even those red ones. They tend seem to be a bit more open and warm to me than their spruce-topped cousins, overall. That said, I've experienced some truly great spruce-topped Guild dreadnoughts, but I've had a more consistent record with the hog-top ones.

A local friend owns this and it came with some functional repairs already done (neck reset, repaired heel, repaired side cracks), but needed a new bridge, fretwork, and a good setup.

Work included: making and installing a new rosewood bridge, cutting a new bone saddle, minor brace and crack repairs, a fret level/dress, cleaning, pickup install, and setup. It plays bang-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret, is strung with 54w-12 gauges, and has a straight neck.

Scale length: 25 5/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"

String spacing at bridge: 2 3/16"

Body length: 20"

Lower bout width: 15 7/8"

Waist width: 10 3/4"

Upper bout width: 11 5/8"

Side depth at endpin: 5 1/8"

Top wood: solid mahogany

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany sides, ply hog back

Neck wood: mahogany

Bracing type: x-braced

Fretboard: rosewood, synthetic nut

Bridge: rosewood, bone saddle

Neck feel: slim C, ~14-16" radius board

Condition notes: a few repaired top cracks, a split and repaired heel, one long repaired side crack, general finish wear and tear and a little "hazy" finish here and there, replaced bridge and saddle.

I copied the Guild shape from the original bridge. Because my buddy takes his guitars all over at all times of year up here in dry ol' Vermont, he genuinely wrecks bridges every few years on his regular-use acoustics. The last one had a hairline death crack, so this time around I made the replica bridge with almost full-thickness wings to help give it some more strength and resistance to saddle-split cracks.