Guild D-50 Bluegrass Special

Dreadnought, solid Indian rosewood back/sides, solid red (Adirondack) spruce top, solid/one-piece mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge. Nitro-cellulose gloss finish. Tortoise-shell binding and rosette inlay. 20 frets, 25.5" scale. Bone saddle, bridge pins, and 1-11/16" nut, nickel Grover tuners, pearl dot inlays.

My D50 is natural top, although a sunburst top is available. No pickup. The case is good quality, although not the absolute best I've seen. Does the job and appears to be sufficient quality that will last for a long time.

Fairly subdued appointments; not flashy, gaudy, or over embellished, which is exactly how I like my guitars.

The tone of the guitar is one of the primary reasons I bought it. My search was for a dreadnought, rosewood/spruce guitar. I took my time and played a wide range of brand name instruments ranging from good to very good quality. I considered a few different Martins and a Guild D55. In the end the D50 had the best tone for my taste. I was surprised the D50 tone was much fuller and complex than the D55 (Guild's flagship).

The sound is deep with good midrange, yet the high notes are clear and round. I was (and still am) astounded at the high volume of the guitar. As the name of the guitar implies, the guitar is excellent for bluegrass. However, I also fingerpick and the sound is equally suited for that. A versatile guitar.

Over the past 30 years I've owned dozens of high quality acoustic guitars. No need to name them all but you would recognize some outstanding guitars. I've loved most of them for their uniqueness, but the D50 is the most pleasing guitar I've ever own, and among the best I've every played regardless of price.

The factory action was within specifications, which means a tad high for my likes. I lowered the saddle slightly and the guitar is as fast as anything I've ever played. The neck is not "Taylor thin" and has a little meat to it, but not overly thick. I love the feel of this neck!

The construction is clean and the parts fit tightly. I feel that the work coming from the Tacoma factory is the best ever for Guild.

I treat my guitars nicely. Still, the guitar is strong and could handle the more aggressive players or those who might not baby it. Of course, it is a solid wood instrument that has a limit to the level of abuse it can accommodate before damage is seen.

I believe the D50 will last for decades if reasonably cared for, and I do gig it without backup.

The warranty is lifetime.
A few days after buying the guitar the bone saddle chipped under one string, rendering it basically no good. Although the saddle is not warranted due to being a "normal wear" item, I wrote email to Fender/Guild describing the occurrence. They replied within 2 hours that they will send a replacement. Frankly, I had heard Fender customer support was lacking but my experience was very positive.

I've been playing 35 years. When I began my hunt for a new rosewood/spruce dreadnought I didn't initially think "Guild". However, I'm totally pleased with my D50 in every regard. I feel the D50 is an overlooked guitar and that if you were to play one you would find (as I did) an excellent USA built guitar that provides a lot of bang for the buck.

The last reviewer described the materials accurately. These are made in Tacoma Washington. Mine has the Antiqueburst finish and the DTAR pickup system. I remember playing a late 60's early 70's guild quite a few years ago and remember the neck being quite a bit smaller overall. I was expecting that to be the case on this one as well. It didn't take very long to get comfortable with this neck. Since the basic guitar materials were already described, I'll focus on the DTAR. This is a piezzo bridge pickup but with an 18 volt vs the common 9 volt power. There is a fairy large round plate integrated into the rear strap peg which is removable to allow easy changing of the 2 AA batteries. Nice feature although a bit ugly. However this is completed covered when a strap is fastened to the peg. The DTAR incorporates a sound hole volume and tone which works very nice. I've been using a Fishman Accoustic Matrix in my Hohner Acoustic for the last 9 years and have been very impressed. I like the DTAR better. The 18 volt system of the DTAR is supposed to allow one to play harder without distortion or excess compresseion. It seems to accomplish this but I don't play extremely loud anyway. Personally I can't hear the Piezzo quack everyone talks about, I feel that the Fishman as well as the DTAR do a respectable job of transferring the natural guitar tone to an amplifier. Especially my Fender Acoustisonic. This guitar comes with a nice case. Not top of the line but pretty respectable. This category gets a 10 due to the excellent materials i.e. Adirondack Spruce and solid East Indian Rosewood and excellent pickup system.

I play mostly praise and worship music, but also like ballads, bluegrass and blues. I've played a fine copy of a Martin D45 made for Hohner in the mid 70's. I bought it brand new and it has been my only acoustic guitar until I bought this D-50 about 5 weeks ago. I use medium gauge dAddario Phos Bronze on my Hohner and it has been a fairly loud-sweet sounding guitar. However the D-50 has a richer tone, smoother bass and less trebble response than my Hohner. I was imediately impressed with the rich tone and volume. Even with light gauge strings the volume seemed louder than my Hohner with mediums on it. Once you start playing this guitar it is very hard to put it donw.

The action out of the box was higher than my preference. I do a setup on all of my guitars so this was not an issue. I've since lowered the action to my liking. The intonation is perfect. The bone nut,compensated bridge and bridge pins are a nice feature. I am most impressed with the neck, fretwork and perfectly cut nut. I was not as impressed with the buffing job this one got, the top and back are perfect, however the sides have some buffing scratches in it. I should have no problem buffing these out so it's not a big deal. The tortois body binding has a slight edge in some spots where it did't allign perfectly wit the body. Not enough for consern, but noticeable. The top is very nicely matched, the back and sides are also very beautiful. Overall the quality is very good, no excess glue inside, straight neck, no overspray, nicely applied nitro finish.

I've only had it for about 5 weeks. Although it has a lifetime warrenty from workmanship defects. Should be fine. I'm not sure but I've heard nitrocellulose finishes aren't as durable. But as long as I treat it with a respect I'm sure it will hold up fine.

I've had no experience with the company yet. Lifetime warranty to original owner for the guitar. The pickup is warrented for 1 year.

I've been playing for over 30 years. I've been looking for and playing many different brands and models of guitars over the last few years knowing I was going to buy anothe acoustic guitar. I beleive the Tacoma made D-50's are the best bang for the buck available today. I was not able to find a Martin with a pickup and burst finish for this price with these materials. I choose this guitar primarily because of the adirondack spruce top, burst finish, DTAR pup, price and the reputation of Guild guitars. The best feature of this guitar is the tone. I've never heard anything so sweet.

The Guild D-50 Bluegrass Special is a dreadnaught guitar with solid EIRW back/sides and an solid Adirondack Spruce top. The guitar has scalloped Adirondack bracing; solid mahagony neck with 1and11/16th nut width. Ebony unbound fretboard. Bone nut, saddle, and bridgepins. Grover rotomatic tuners. I have the natural gloss nitro finish. The guitar has no electronics onboard. The neck is oval and I would not classify it as low profile. The guitar is brand new--will post follow up after a few months.

I've only had the guitar for a few days so this is a preliminary assesment at best. I play primarily bluegrass and folk style guitar--all flatpicking. My reference guitar is a Martin D-18GE which I've had for four years. The Guild, out of the box, is fairly loud and punchy; it is quite responsive with slight emphasis given to the bass and midrange. The shimmering overtones of rosewood are there but not exaggerated, i.e. individual notes are well articulated. Trebles have nice "bite" but are not explosive as they can be with my D-18GE. Overall, a very nice sound for a new guitar.

Factory setup is a little high out of the box but this may be a matter of the factory strings--they feel like true mediums. Frets are thin and to my liking--well dressed. Compensated bridge with slotted bridge and solid bone pins. Intonation is good up the neck. The Adi top is nicely mathched and has pretty narrow grain--much narrower than my D-18GE. The rosewood back and sides are very nice with some red to black variation--very pretty but not striking. This finish is well applied with no obvious flaws. Body binding, rosette, back stripe, etc. are all well applied with no gaps,rough edges, or misalignment.

This guitar is well made with quality materials and should last a lifetime with normal care.

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I've been playing for 40 years--seriously for about 20. I own 4 Martins with my D-18GE my best. I've wanted an Adi topped rosewood guitar for several years from Martin, Huss & Dalton, or Collings. Price of admission for these is around $4K. With a daughter going to college this fall I could'nt justify $4-5K on a guitar. When I saw the D-50 Bluegrass Special for a street price of around $1500 I ordered it immediately. I wish it had a one and three quarter inch nut and Waverly tuners. The Grovers are just ok. With a little tweaking this will be an excellent guitar and a giant killer for the price. For $1500 it is really a no brainer--get one today!