GUILD CANNONS IN "D" WITH REVERB
by
Jay Pilzer and Alan McDonald
Those folks at Martin sure started something with this Dreadnaught business. When Martin introduced the Dreadnought guitar, they not only created one of the classic American guitar designs, but, more importantly, they introduced a classic American guitar sound. Like the Les Paul, Strat, and Tele, the Martin D-28, D-18, and their variants became the standard against which other guitars of this sort are measured.
This design was the basis for many other guitar companies in their attempts to capture a share of the market. The 1960's folk boomlet saw a great proliferation of guitars meant to compete with the famous Martin dreadnought. Guild introduced its dreadnought guitar line during this period and, like all Guilds, these are fine guitars worthy of serious consideration.
The Guild dreadnoughts are clearly modeled after the Martins. The product line included guitars with woods and specifications close to, if not identical to, the Pennsylvania products. The Guilds, however, have a unique, consistent, and identifiable tone that differs significantly from Martins. These Guilds are patterned after Martins, but they are not clones. In fact, they made no attempt to be clones.
As we have said in prior articles, tone is a most subjective judgment and to describe its qualities in writing borders on the impossible. With that said, the Guild dreadnoughts are clear, resonant guitars with a full and rich sound. While not as sprightly as the Martin, they offer a full, rich sound that is loud and clear across the full range of bass, midrange, and treble.
There are a variety of reasons for these differences between Guild dreadnoughts and Martin dreadnoughts. Even though the same woods and similar dimensions are used, the bracing patterns and other internal structural components differ. But most important, according to Dave Colburn of the Vintage Fret Shop, is probably the fact that Guilds are 10 to 15% heavier than their Martin counterparts.
The headstocks are larger, the bridges thicker, and the tops themselves appear to be slightly thicker. These relatively small increases combine to provide a different sound from the same basic materials.
Guitars built too heavily lose tone; those built too lightly may sound great but can be too delicate. Guild dreadnoughts walk the line between these two considerations. They are stable guitars that sound great. Are they better than Martins? No, they are different.
Guild has made a complete line of dreadnought guitars. The basics are the D-25's, the D-40's, and the D-50's. Each of these have variants, but are the basic models.
The D-25 is the least expensive of the bunch. It features mahogany back and sides, and a spruce top. It has a rosewood board with dot inlays. Early D-25's have flat backs, while later versions have arched braceless backs. The D-25M is the same guitar, but with a mahogany top. The latter is one of our personal favorites with a unique and full sound that is uncommon in mahogany top guitars. D-25's are usually cherry in color. The D-15 is a plainer and less expensive version of the D-25M.
The D-35 and D-40 are also mahogany back and sides with a spruce top. These are always flat back guitars and are available in either natural or sunburst. The D-35 is a plainer version of the D-40. Both are fine representatives of the mahogany dreadnaught guitar.
The D-50 is the rosewood back and sided Guild dreadnaught. It has an ebony board with dot inlays. It is, simply put, a wonderfully resonant guitar. Early D-50's were made with brazilian rosewood, later Guild went to Indian like the other guys. The D-55 is a dressed version of the D-50 with fancier binding and inlays.
The Guild dreadnaught line pioneered experiments with a variety of woods starting in the early 1970's. While Guild was not the only company to go beyond the bounds of mahogany and Rosewood their experiments with pearwood in the early 70's D-44 and ash in the early 80's D-46 presaged the search for alternative woods that engages many of todays guitar makers. (In 1974 the D-44 became the D-44M with maple back and sides.) The D-44s and the D-46 are wonderful guitars that add new colors to the guitar's tonal pallet.
The Guild dreadnaughts are easy to play, simple to work on, and offer a wonderful variety of sound. The are truly professional instruments in every way.
And now, as is usual, for something completely different. )Please note the irony here.) The results of the great Echorec crusade: we unpacked our package from repairland all ready to uncork the Italian secrets of "magnetic memory." We patched the echorec 1A in between our Guilt Thunder I amp and a really cool nightbird in an attempt to experience sonic Guild nirvana.
After presetting levels as per Guild/Binson instructions, we were stunned by the effects we were not hearing. We tried everything that we could think of and were only able to conjure up some faint sci-fi type swoops. One must surmise that "millions of Hullaballo fans" tired of waiting for equipment repairs and bought Slim Whitman records instead. Besides, Guild didn't make it anyway, so there.
Just when we were prepared to give up on effects, we came across a 1959 Guild Reverb Converter. While not too pretty, she sounds great. First off, the cabinet is covered in a gray rough tolex with white and silver speckles (think early Gretsch) and topped with an era correct leather handle. The whitish grill cloth makes for a nice contrast with the big chrome/gray Guild block logo. Hey, maybe she is kinda pretty after all.
What does it do? Well sports fans, it is a powered reverb tank. By itself the single 10" speaker belts out a nice sweet tone for practicing, but without reverb. It does, however, have tremelo. What a deal! The trem circuit makes no attempt at subtlety; it is truly an effect. Without a speed control to guide the oscillator, you can choose between fast buzzsaw and slow buzzsaw.
The reverb function is accessed with the use of another non-reverb amp. (We vintage freaks don't trust anyone who doesn't have at least 3 or 4. We used a silver face Fender Champ.) First plug your guitar into the non-reverb amp. Next, connect the alligator clips that are hard wired to the reverb converter to the speaker lugs of the main amp. Turn on both amps and play. Man what a nice reverb--sweet and deep and tube-like.
The Reverb Converter produces the wet signal only with the main amp providing the strong dry signal. So by separating the two amps you can get a really cool pseudo-stereo effect.
The converter's circuit is identical to the reverb portion of our Guild Thunder I Reverb. Both employ a 12AX7 preamp tube driving a 6BM8 power tube good for about 6 watts. The alligator clips that attach to the speakers of the main amp input the signal from the main amp into the reverb tank of the converter. From there, the tubes recover the signal to drive the Reverb Converter's speaker.
There is also an "impedance matching" knob wired to the spring tank's input that determines the amount of signal that goes through the tank. Turn it clockwise and the reverb tone becomes deeper and more diffuse.
For even more fun, you can split your guitar's signal and go into the main amp and the input of the Reverb Converter. This will give you: 1. the dry sound from the main amp, 2. the reverb sound from the converter, 3. the dry tone from the converter, and 4. tremelo is available at the flip of switch. With all that going on, if you can't find a cool sound you're just not opening your mind to the force.
This is a nice reverb unit that pairs well with any non-reverb amp and allows you to control the depth and the volume of the reverb itself. The design may not be entirely unique. Both Gibson and Gretsch made similar devices, but the Guild seems to predate these.
In terms of competitive reverb, the Guild piece sounds better to our ears than the Danelectro or Premier add-on units, and while the Fender reverb tanks offer greater tonal control, they cost 5 to 10 times more and can't be used as a stand alone amp.
As a cool alternative to digital equipment, the Guild Reverb Converter fills the vintage tone bill at a reasonable price. Be patient when looking for one, but the wait will be rewarding. Nice job Guild.
We'd like to thank all of you who have called or written to comment on these articles and Guild products. We are delighted that we have been able to answer some of your questions and bring attention to these great musical instruments, amp, and a sort of nifty effect.
Next time, we'll be looking at some little Guild things. In particular the M-65 3/4 guitar--one cool little bugger--and the Guild Thunder I amp will tempt the tonal taste buds.