Quality Guitars from China’s Guild GAD Line

Guitars from China?
In my search for a relatively inexpensive guitar to keep for use at the office, I have looked at, tried and actually purchased (and then resold) several. Looking in the range of $200-275. I have tried out a range of low-end guitars including a (used) Simon & Patrick TSU. It is a nice little dreadnaught, build in Canada of solid woods – but not enough bass for me. I moved on next to try the Walden G570 just after it had been favorably reviewed in Acoustic Guitar magazine in May 2007. This Grand Auditorium size guitar is made in China in a small city just south of Beijing – my first try of one of these.

I was pleasantly surprised at its easy playability and better-than-expected sustainability and decent bass sound – yet, I wasn’t quite satisfied. It was too light for my taste (Cedar top and laminated sapele mahogany back and sides). Then, I began to read about the Guild GAD line – manufactured to Guild specs in China. I decided to give a try to this instrument, which lists at $989 but is available for as little as $650, which was more than I was thinking about spending, but in a range I felt was worth taking a look at. I played it for a while and see how it felt, sounded and looked. This is an Orchestra/Auditorium size guitar, narrower than a Dreadnaught, but with similar width and height and with the natural finish. It is also available in two Sunburst finishes.

I’m not sure why I would have reservations about an instrument made half-way around the world. After all, they have been making lots of things in China (not just fire crackers) for a lot longer than we have. This includes musical instruments. This realization, along with the good experience with the low-cost Walden, along a small sampling of excellent professional and user reviews of the GAD-30R, are the things that motivated me to give it a try.

Appearance
This guitar is nicely put together. There are no significant or readily obvious flaws in either the assembly or finish and with the natural tone top (which I prefer on all my guitars) the Mother-of-Pearl Position inlays (Snowflake style) and the Abalone dot position inlays stand out more than they might in the other available finishes (Antique Burst and Amber Burst.) This is also true of the little appointments that are not the first things you generally notice about a guitar: like the Ebony bridge and end pins with MOP dots, the back center wood mosaic inlay, the uniquely shaped Guild tortoise shell pick guard or the carefully crafted wood body bindings.

The plainness of the instrument actually makes its appointments stand out – in a tasteful way, of course. This guitar bears a Guild Mother-of-Pearl headstock logo. The finish is smooth and nicely glossy, but not reflectively distracting. Although it smelled a bit for a couple of days out of the box from the finish, it faded within that period of time. Funny – it doesn’t look Chinese!

Construction
I suppose that the most extraordinary feature of this guitar is how much guitar it really is for the price. I can only assume this has to do with the lower cost of both labor and materials in China – but the net product is on a par with some of the best guitars I have played that are made here in the US. With a Dovetail neck joint, the materials appear to be first rate. The top is solid Sitka spruce and the back and sides are solid Indian Rosewood as is the bridge. The woods are well matched and quite beautiful. The neck is solid mahogany and the fingerboard is ebony – a feature I find especially accommodative to my own playing style. There is nothing quite as smooth and easy as ebony.

I noticed only one very minor flaw on the upper edge of the fingerboard – but I really had to search for it! The tuning machines are Grover Stay-Tites. The width at the nut is a little wider than my Martin HD28 at 1 12/16 (the Martin standard is 1 11/16) but narrower than the twelve string Taylor 355 (12-string) with its 1 14/16 width. It seems to me that the small increase in width makes finger picking, a style I am new to, somewhat easier than it is on a neck narrower by only a seemingly silly little16th of an inch. The scale is 25 ½”, there are 20 frets (14 above the body) and the nicely decorated with snowflake design MOP inlays ebony fret board radius is 12. The interior bracing is scalloped as per Guild’s unique application of that bracing style. The size differential took a little getting used to, especially the reduced depth (4″ at the base). I am accustomed to larger guitars – both the Dreadnaught Martin and the Jumbo Taylor are substantially larger and deeper than is this guitar. Once settled in with it, though, my experience has been entirely positive.

Playability
I found this guitar to be quite player-friendly. That is, the strings (Light Phosphor Bronze), frets and fingerboard work with little effort under the ministrations of my less-than-expert fingerings. It produces the sounds I expect to hear at the volume at which I intend them. I would call these particular characteristics responsiveness.

It has what I would characterize as a ‘bell-like’ clarity and definition. The bass and treble tones are nicely balanced – one not overpowering the other, yielding a tonality that makes accompanying voice(s) a nice experience. Played as a solo instrument, each note rings true and clear. During the first week, I played it for about a half hour a day and my hands felt good afterwards! That’s probably one of the best compliments I can give a guitar’s playability – at least so far as it conforms to my own musculature, movements and preferences.

Sound
While lacking the punch of some of the older US made Guilds, this Orchestra style guitar holds it’s own, either alone or in groups – playing either finger or flat picking lead or strumming rhythm. I have made several allusions to the sound of this guitar in earlier sections of the review but will add here only that, like so many other of its features and characteristics, that the sound it produces is honestly surprising. It sounds as good (or batter than) guitars costing 2-4 times as much.

Overall Value
A lot of guitar for a reasonable modest price. Delivered with a distinctive tweed covered hard shell case for $750. or less, you really can’t go wrong with this one. Responsive to fingers, fingerpicks and flat picks, it produces sounds one would reasonably expect from a Guild. Representative, I expect, of an entire line (the GAD Series) that are worth exploring further. Thumbs up on this one!