Guild D-1212 Nat Westerly

The quality of the general build and finish of the guitar is very good, it looks excellent (even though I am not normally a fan of gloss finish). On first play it also sounded very good.

However, mine had some problems. First I noticed buzzing strings when certain strings were fingered at certain frets. Initially I assumed it was poorly cut/setup nut/saddle (which was the case), but in addition, I later realised many of the frets were not seated properly, and were not level (ie high at some points across the fingerboard).

I perhaps should have sent the guitar back, but I had become quite fond of it even taking into account the problems. I took it to a luthier who properly seated the frets and setup the nut/saddle which made the action lower and easier to play. He said the nut was poorly cut, with strings sat at various heights. I also changed the strings for heavier gauge ones prior to the setup, as I like to tune 3-4 semi-tones low and use open tunings.

I had expected the guitar to need a setup (seems to be common even with fairly expensive guitars from what I can tell), but was quite disappointed with the fret issues.

I am writing this just over a year after receiving the guitar, and now have an issue with one of the tuners (it is very hard to turn at certain points), so I may invest in some Grovers.

I have to say that even though I have had several problems with the guitar from new, which was disappointing, I do love the guitar. I would just say that if buying, bear in mind that you will probably need to spend some extra money having the guitar setup.

Die Guild ist meine erste 12saitige Gitarre. Spiele ansonsten eine 12 Fret Dreadnought mit 45 mm am Sattel. Die Bespielbarkeit der Guild ist sehr gut. Der Klang ist offen, die Stimmen sind schön getrennt, der Bass ist wie erwartet naturgemäß nicht so ausgeprägt wie bei meiner 6saitigen Gitarre. Die Verarbeitung ist gut, nur einen kleinen Lackfehler am Boden habe ich gefunden. Die Optik der Guild ist sehr stimmig, schöne Hölzer und auch ein zur Gitarre passendes Schlagbrett. Es macht viel Spaß die Guild mit den Fingern zu zupfen, Flatpicking mag sie auch, eventuell sogar besonders. Barreegriffe bis zum 10 Bund für mich problemlos zu greifen, offen gegriffene Akkorde lassen sich auch schön bewerkstelligen. Offene Stimmungen gehen auch, spielen mit einem leicht konkaven Glasslide klingt auch. Und bei dem Preis darf die Guild auch mit in den Garten und an den Strand!