Guild D-25

My Guild D-25 is a 1990 model, clear finish, your basic dreadnought. No real "features" to speak of. Tuners have always been rock solid. Finish is holding up decently considering how hard I've beaten on the thing.

The sound on this Guild has always been outstanding. Full, rich bass, crisp, clear but not-tinny highs. When choosing acoustics, I was between a Martin, a Taylor and the Guild. The Martins and Taylors sounded great, but the Guild was right up there with them, maybe even a little better for my tastes (which is pretty much rock and roll and honky-tonk). The clincher for me was how solid the Guild felt. Here was a guitar I didn't have to worry about banging around when I played.

The one knock on the Guilds from this era was that the action was a bit high out of the factory, and this was the case with mine as well. I had mine adjusted by an acoustic tech not long after I bought it. Lowering the action had no discernable affect on the tone. Playability-wise, sometimes it feels like it plays itself. Post-adjustment, it's a '10'.

This thing is a rock. I can beat the crap out of it for two hours, put it away for a week, pull it out of the case and it will still be in tune. I've played hundreds of gigs with this guitar and it has never given me a problem (other than popping strings about once every couple years, but that's my fault anyway).

Never had to call Guild on this one.

I own a couple of other acoustics (an ancient f-hole Kalamazoo and a late '60s Yamaha FG-110), but as far as I'm concerned, this is the only acoustic for me. I always highly recommend the 'new' Guild guitars (after the rebirth of the company in the late '80s) for sound a reliability. They can't be beat.

Made in the USA, hot dot electronics, purchased and made in '79, case included

Sounded good to me. I liked Guilds. Mary McCaslin, Utah Phillips, and other people I liked played Guilds. So did my partner, so our guitars sounded good together. Suited my folk and country style.

OK action, no flaws, pretty cherry finish

Held up well, a workhorse, stays in tune, always dependable, took a beating on the road and treated me more kindly than I treated it...I am thankful

Never had to deal with the company.

Great guitar, served me well, I like the sloped back, I like the color, I like its sound and dependability. It's a good, solid, basic guitar, no pearl inlay or fancy stuff. I got my money's worth on this one.

This is a 1988 D25 with solid spruce top, solid mahogany sides and arched mahogany back. It has large Grover tuners. This large dreadnaught is much heavier that my Martin, Gibson or Taylor guitars and the construction is very heavy-duty. The fit and finish is absolutely suburb for a guitat this old. Its finish is superior to my 1999 Gibson WM 45 and I feel the guality is also superior. In my coments, I am comparing this guitar with more recent Taylor, Gibson and Martin models.

The sound is very accurate and neutral. It does not have a distinctive "Martin" or "Gibson" sound (though there is nothing wrong with that). The guitar is very musical and one that is suitable for many music styles. The bone saddle and ivory nut on this particular guitar are excellent for Bluegrass fingerpicking. When I first audiutioned this guitar, I thought it sounded poor but I realized the strings were ancient. I offered to contribute a new set of basic Martin strings. I was willing to give them up if I still disliked the sound. With the average, new strings, the instrument sounded wonderful and I bought it. The previous owner took very good care of it, as it was in near mint condition. I find it to be in its own category but I would compare it to the sound of a decent Taylor (which I feel is an accurate, neutral instrument).

This guitar featured flawless construction for a real handmade guitar. Much nicer than my newer Gibson and almost as precise as my four-year old Martin. The Martin is more "perfect" in finish while the Guild looks like a highly crafted handmade instrument. The Gibson WM 45 looks handmade but is more crude in appearance. I would not be afraid to use medium gauge strings on this guitar.

This is built like a battleship. Yet is still sounds very delicate and is able to produce incredible musical nuiances. There is some very minor lacquer checking on the back but it is barely noticeable.
For a 13 year old guitar, it has maintained a very pristine appearance.

I never dealt with Guild on a personal level.

I wish this guitar was as light as my Martin. The construction is very heavy-duty, but the sound is still very delicate, when necessary. If I lost all of my guitars and my insurance company paid their value, I would buy the current version of the Guild D25 and not replace the others. Better yet, I would try to find another near-mint 1988 model.

A 1973 D-25 bought in 1999 used, solid mahogony everthing, pretty plain, enough said.

Bought this guitar after compairing it to my yamaha, no comparision, much more complex and rich sound, the guitar when i bought it had a crunch on the top and needed to be set up, had the crunch repaired and did the setup myself, this guitar is very BRIGHT!, great for finger picking and ok for flat picking, not really a punchy enough bass for serious stuff though, and not real good for strumming, a little to bright. I give it an 8 because of it's lack of versatility.

I bought it used and it was a mess setup wise, but knowing guild and having seen others i will give it an 8.

It's a guild, built very solid and made to last, heck it was 25+ years old when i got it....lol

never dealt with them except for their web site, and for that i will give them an 8, great web site!

Overall I give this guitar an 8, like I said it was not very versatil, had a friend that was strictly a finger style player and he loved it, so I sold it to him for a song....lol not meant to be a pun, now he would give it a 10, but then he is from the 60's, what do ya expect....lol

Made in USA (1972). I bought it in 1973. This guitar has a lovely red finish on mohagany. It is much ighter than other D-25's I have played from the 70's. And the lightness of my guitar gives it a brighter tone.
Typical Guild neck - not very inspiring. But it's rosewood. Also the machine heads are of mediocre quality. They don't hold their tune well.

It's a very sweet sounding guiar. More bright than warm. Very crisp and very resonant. A classic Guild sound. This is a guitar for finger-picking and for strumming. It is not a Bluegrass lead guitar. It's neck isn't good enough, and it's sound, while bigger and more resonant than all but the loudest Martins, is not quite as clean as a Martin. Although, its brightness and resonance make it a good guitar for dramatic Jazz, Rock or Fusion leads. It's neck will crimp your style on any lead passages. This is a great fingerpicking guitar. Not a lead guitar. Still, strum one chord on this little red dreadnaught, and it will overpower all but the loudest Gibsons and Martins.

Beautiful red finish. And it's still beautiful, despite being beat-up and banged around, for the 26 years I've owned it.

Mine has a couple of small cracks from a stupid kid who dropped it on a hard floor and a couple of table bumps. At one point insect repellant smudged some of the finish on the back of the neck.
The neck is still straight after 26 years. And it sounds better with each passing decade.

Never needed it.

The guitar is irreplacable. The new D-25's aren't red. I don't know if they sound as good as mine. Maybe, but I doubt it.

My D-25 is a 1996 model; I got it used, but it appeared barely played. It was made in Rhode Island at the old Guild factory (Guild makes all their guitars there just like they always have). It's finished in black, with a solid (not laminate) maple top and mahogany sides and back. The black finish is unspectacular but well-applied, although there is a little orange-peel effect near the strap button. The tuners are Grovers and appear stock to the guitar; they're very substantial. The bridge is rosewood, as is the fingerboard. It has no pickup or electronics; I might install some later, but I am afraid to mess up the sound, because it sounds super nice. The construction, except for the orange peel effect I mentioned earlier, is flawless inside and out.

I play original music, roots music and blues, and the D-25 sounds good with all of it. Guilds as a rule have a darker tone than other acoustics, and the D-25 has a nice rich sound that still has enough cut when played hard to be effective. I have never owned an acoustic that was this nice, and could cover this many bases all around. If I sound bad, I know it's my fault, because there's certainly nothing wrong with the guitar! The sound is basically ringing but not too bright, full, round, and very "woody."

The action could be a bit lower, but as I said I got it used, and with a little tweaking of the truss rod I got it in perfect shape. Other than that I found no structural flaws worth mentioning. The frets are nice and even with no wear. The fretboard has a nice little arch to it and is well rounded. The neck oddly enough reminds me of an archtop guitar, with the same good feel. I saw a glob of glue on one of the braces deep inside the guitar- big whoop. Other than this everything was perfectly set up.

This is a very solidly built acoustic guitar. I have used it without a backup already, and it has withstood live playing very well. The finish has stood up well. I needed an additional strap button, which I mounted in the neck joint. This didn't affect the neck stability at all, and both strap buttons are solid and wide, with no danger of falling out of the strap. This guitar seems like the kind of guitar you could keep maybe the rest of your life, as far as durability goes.

I have never dealt with the company, because I've never had a need to. I hear that in spite of the fact that Fender has bought the company, their service is still quite good, but there's nothing wrong with my guitar, and it doesn't seem likely that there will be. I am told that Guild offers a lifetime warranty on all their instruments, and their website says that in spite of the sale to Fender they will honor lifetime warranties on pre-and post-Fender Guilds.

I've been playing since 1974. I have about seven guitars and have owned many different types over the years. This Guild has rapidly become my main acoustic guitar and I could not really think of doing without it; if it was stolen I most certainly would buy another one. The things I like about it are its solidness and its responsiveness. Tonally it is everything that I would want, with a warm, woody sound, and structurally it's excellent. The one thing I wish was that it had a pickup of some sort, but I plan to buy a Fishman Rare Earth within the year so that should take care of that problem. In a way I'm glad it didn't have a pickup, because I don't like the sound of piezo pickups most of the time, but it is a bit of a pain to mike it up when I play live. That's going to happen with any acoustic guitar without a pickup, though. It records quite well, although the low end is quite prodigious and requires you to aim the mike a little south of the soundhole to get the best reproduction of the sound. I really cannot speak well enough of this guitar; it's not the most expensive Guild but it certainly beats out many guitars costing two or three times as much. It's eminently playable and very tonally satisfying.