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| Guild F50R |
Since the 1950s,Guild has had a reputation as a premium acoustic and archtop guitar manufacturer, ranking up there with Martin and Gibson.
Up until 2000, the Guilds were built in Westerly, Rhode Island. But parent company Fender moved the manufacture of the Guild acoustics and archtops to its Corona, California facility.
One of the flagship models from the new production set up is the reintroduced F50R jumbo.
Features
The new F50R, priced at $2,499, is based on the original F50 specifications from 1960s-1980s. The jumbo is somewhat larger than the typical dreadnought folk guitar across lower bout of the guitar - with a pinched waist. The previous model, called the JF65, was similarly sized, but the front bought was thicker
The F50R sample we tested was beautifully constructed - with a two-piece solid spruce top, solid rosewood sides and back, and a three-piece mahogany neck. The back and neck contained thin, tasteful wood inlays, and the body and neck were trimmed with bright white binding. The finish was two-color sunburst.
The Guild F50R features an ebony fretboard and a rosewood bridge. Neck dimensions include a 25.6-inch scale and a slightly narrower-than-normal width of 1.69 inches. The F50R does not lack for fine details - the fretboard has eye-catching abalone and mother-of-pearl inlays and two racing stripes that run from nut to sound hole.
The neck is thin, almost like an electric guitar, and it has a distinctive broad, shallow heel where it attaches to the body. The overall exterior finish - including the tobacco sunburst top - was excellent, although the review sample had a pitch pocket (a dark spot in the spruce) on the top about a half-inch from the bridge.
Other features include a tortoise-shell pickguard and smooth-feeling, gold-plated, Grover tuners. A black plastic plate covers the truss rod adjustment plate on the front of the headstock, and the guitar's serial number is stamped into the back of the headstock.
The detailing inside the F50R was very good but not perfect. It was generally clean, but I spotted some glue stains on the rosewood. Nothing serious.
Since this is a jumbo, it is about 1.5 inches wider at the big bout than a dreadnought. It is also heavier, a result of the extensive use of rosewood and the guitar's overall large size. It is noticeably heavier to hold than a dreadnought, but the trade off is the increased volume.
The Guild F50R was fitted with medium-gauge Guild-branded, phosphor-bronze strings and it arrived in a hard and well-padded G&G case.
Audition
Since the bass of an acoustic guitar radiates from the large bout, a jumbo guitar has the potential for deep, rich bass. The Guild F50R does not disappoint in the bass response region - it has strong bass that gives this guitar a loud, rich, overall tone.
The treble range is not an afterthought, however. The Guild had plenty of volume, especially when I strummed and flat picked with my preferred thin picks.
It also is a good guitar for finger picking - the progression starting at a D chord with descending bass notes that ends up at a G chord - sounded wonderful with deep, smooth bass.
On the test sample, the neck was easy-to-play with very low action. It is a nice feel for an acoustic guitar. Although the action was low, there were no unusual buzzes, and it was easy on the fingers - even with medium-gauge strings.
On my sample, I noticed that the saddle was cut rather low to enable the aforementioned low action. However, the resulting side effect is not having any excess to shave from the saddle in order to compensate for a rising top and neck that ultimately results in resets for most acoustic guitars.
Another consequence of the low saddle is that without a ample break angle over the saddle, volume can be reduced. We could not tell if the volume was reduced since we had no second unit to compare it with. The F50R, however, was plenty loud, thus, the low saddle may have had no effect.
Summary
The Guild F50R is definitely worth the Guild pedigree. The builders in California may take a little time to finally get all the fine points perfect, but the F50R proves that the Guild design is tried and true - no matter whether it is made on the East or West Coast.