Guitarist Steve Gunn talks Guild in Premier Guitar
Kurt Vile guitarist Steve Gunn was recently interviewed for Premier Guitar‘s January issue. When asked what guitars he used most on his 2014 album Way Out Weather, Gunn replied:
I mostly play a Guild guitar–a D-35 from 1970…Guilds are perfect for me: They’re well built but not expensive, and they sound so good and are especially easy to come by in the Northeast. I’ve been using them for a long time and will definitely continue to do so.
Check out this video of Gunn playing his D-35 for Fader below. And you can learn more about the Guild lineup of dreadnoughts on our website.
I purchased a Guild D-35 new for about $200 around 1970 and I still play it. I did have to have the neck repaired once many years ago, (for free under factory warranty) and it may not be the easiest guitar to play, but it has always had a great tone, very rich and strong in the bass especially. I love to open tune and it has been the perfect guitar for that. I plan on keeping it for another 45 years, assuming I live to be 107.
yep. same with my 1973. has needed some work, but sounds like a boss
I have a Guild D-35 that was made in 1971 – I bought it in spring 1972 in Philadelphia. I love this guitar and I will be brokenhearted if it doesn’t outlive me. It’s the only guitar I have ever had and I still play it for at least an hour every day. But it has a very worrisome issue.
First, a note about my climate: I moved to Tucson, AZ in 1991, where inevitable dryness/humidity extremes severely challenge wood instrument health. I AM able to successfully humidify the guitar to keep it at around 45% (using 1-2 Oases in a Wolfpak case with humidity gauge) during dry times of year, but I have not figured out how to effectively dehumidify the guitar during the humid season here (the “monsoon” season), when it gets super humid for months. At least not until I can afford to get air conditioning to dehumidify the room where I keep this guitar and my other wooden instruments. Silica gel packets and rice have not worked for me yet.
When humidity soars, the top just below the bridge swells enormously and billows, and the bridge tilts up towards the pull of the strings at an alarming angle.
So recently I had the bridge plate replaced on a luthier’s recommendation. Typically, I am told, the grain of the bridge plate is 90 degrees to the top wood grain, but this luthier put the new bridge plate in at 45 degrees because he said it would give the bridge plate more strength to counter string pull on bridge and top wood just below bridge.
However, after this repair the swelling of top wood below bridge and tilting of bridge towards string pull have not been less, and may even be worse. Last August, I very reluctantly had to retire the guitar for a bunch of weeks until the humidity decreased in late September because the top swelling/bridge tilting were so extreme. I’ve never felt the need to do that before. Also since the new bridge plate was installed, the swelling of top wood is distinctly worse on the bass string side and this swelling on the bass string side never completely goes away, even after weeks of perfect humidification.
I would be very interested in any thoughts on this situation.
Thanks!