With few exceptions, Guild D-50s and fancier D-55s have always sounded and felt distinctive to me. Like any guitar, they can vary from specimen to specimen. But the best ones have left me with vivid memories: piano-like volume, balanced and booming bass, dry, focused, harp-like midrange, and, paradoxically, guitars built tough as Victorian mansions that ring like bells. Many of these virtues are present in the new D-50. And though they don’t always show up in knock-you-over-the-noggin fashion, there is a balance and cohesion in the D-50’s tone profile that is appealing. It certainly feels like a foundation for a satisfying, long-term relationship, and offers real tone alternatives to the canonical sound of a D-28.
Utility Deluxe
I’m guessing a fair number of readers stopped dead at the sight of the D-50 photo here, because burst finishes on a big dreadnought body are super beautiful. The D-50’s prevailingly dark and amber burst is very J-45-like, which is a pretty great look to emulate. But while I’m probably in the minority, I would have loved to see the guitar in the orange-y burst I associate with Guild tops from the ’50s and ’60s,. (You can also buy the D-50 Standard with a natural finish.) Guild calls the finish used on the D-50 Standard “vintage gloss—a nitro finish which suggests gloss that’s been worn down after decades of use. To me, it looks and feels more satin than gloss, but it has a pleasing, warm glow. D-50 Standards from as recently as Guild’s New Hartford years did have a gloss finish, and you now need to leap to the fancier, more-expensive D-55 if you want gloss on a USA-built Guild dread’. That might be a bummer for some folks, but it makes the new D-50 Standards more competitively priced in a tricky market.
”The way the bassiest fundamentals and overtones intertwine with those in the low midrange gives the slighter frequencies more room to breathe.“
At the detail-level, the D-50’s construction quality rivals that of Taylor and Martin, which both tend to make near-flawless if not on-the-mark perfect instruments. The neck shape, which Guild calls a C profile, feels a little squarer at the shoulders than the D-28 I’m most intimately acquainted with, and a bit thicker than the J-45 I’m accustomed to playing, but it’s still highly playable and many guitarists will prefer the more substantial feel. It bears mentioning, too, that this D-50 Standard feels pretty light for a dreadnought. Compared to some of Guild’s hefty early ’70s D-50s, this new Standard is as light as a snowflake.
Shout and Shimmer
If you measure your dread’s worth in boom alone, the new D-50 Standard might come up short against some dreadnought standard bearers. But if the new Standard lacks a little something in pure volume and bottom-end mass, it also can sound balanced and piano-like. The way the bassiest fundamentals and overtones intertwine with those in the low midrange gives the slighter frequencies more room to breathe. This sweet interrelationship between low end and adjacent midrange spectra gives a lot of undulating overtone warmth and life to big chords in open tunings (particularly when ever-so-slightly out-of-tune strings throb against each other). It also makes the D-50 sound and feel like a killer rootsy, rock ‘n’ roll strumming machine. In the audio clip that accompanies this review, I recorded a simple, flatpicked, Stones-y sort of rhythm part, captured with a humble SM57, that I then mixed against a loud, bratty Telecaster. There’s a million ways to mix these two instruments together. But I loved the way I could push the Guild’s voice into bossy but articulate zones and emphasize it with a little preamp push and tape-style compression. Some big flattops will turn to mush in these mix images. Not so the D-50, which manages to sparkle and swing with muscle. If you play in a rootsy or garage-y rock ensemble or just love the way Keith Richards’ dreadnoughts sound on Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, the D-50 could be a star. And while it may sound soft compared to some dreads, it is by no means timid. The D-50 Standard is responsive to a light touch as well, thanks in part, perhaps, to the scalloped top bracing and the very vocal way you can move between loud and soft. Feathered strumming also highlights the D-50’s excellent dynamic range.
The Verdict
Guild’s newest version of the stalwart D-50 Standard carves out a unique sonic space for a dread’. The low end is restrained, but meshes beautifully with the guitar’s rich, lively midrange. While it doesn’t pack the dynamite of some dreadnoughts, like the D-28, its slightly softer but still substantial voice is even, easy to record, and makes the D-50 a fantastic rhythm machine among other things. That combination could be a winning one for the right player—even in a field of top-flight title contenders.
Guild's Best Dreadnought Is Back! The USA D-50 Standard Demo | First Look
Guild D-50 Standard Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar - Antique Burst
Originally touring with a revolving cast of supporting musicians, McCauley solidified his rhythm section with half-brothers Dennis Michael Ryan (drums) and Christopher Dale Ryan (bass) before finalizing things with Ian Patrick O’Neil on guitar in 2009. The band’s staying power and relevance is rooted in their ability to cross-stitch ringing hi-fi Americana harmonies and lo-fi alt-country vibes with melancholic Nick Drake moods and trouncing honky-tonk rumblers with tattered rockers perfect for Iggy or Kurt. That amalgamation is both timeless and contemporary. (It’s worth noting that McCauley—a self-proclaimed Nirvana nut—sang and played guitar alongside surviving members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear during Cal Jam 2018.)
Before Deer Tick’s co-headlining show with Delta Spirit at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, McCauley (vocals/guitar) and Ian Patrick O’Neil (guitar/vocals) chatted with PG’s Chris Kies. The conversation covered Teles (and why they're the duo’s current favorites) and how Fender combos have always factored into the band’s sonic scripts for stage and studio. Plus, both pickers provided a quick-and-dirty sampling of their stomp situations.
Brought to you by D’Addario XPND Pedalboard.
Stove-Top Tele
Deer Tick founder John McCauley picked up this 1978 Fender Telecaster Custom about 10 years ago at a small shop in Lawrence, Kansas. The pickups were original, but they were noisy boogers. Opting to solve the problem himself, McCauley fired up his stove and attempted wax-potting them. The cherished Wide Range neck pickup was a success. However, the stock bridge single-coil was a disaster. To salvage the guitar, he took it to Nashville’s Corner Music and had a tech put in the closest option to the original. (McCauley notes in the Rundown he’s unsure of the make or model.)
As for falling for a traditional instrument, here’s what he had to say: “I sat in with the Quick & Easy Boys, from Portland, Oregon, when they were playing in Baltimore, and Jimmy [Russell] gave me his Telecaster. I was just able to do things differently and play better. I attribute that to the Tele neck.”
McCauley plays D’Addario NYXL .010s on this and his other standard-tuned guitars.
Drake Droner
McCauley assembled this parts Jazzmaster with an Eastern hard-rock maple body and neck from Warmoth. He took on the venture in 2003, after attending a guitar-building class at Noll Guitars in Cranston, Rhode Island. The dense offset rides in an open Csus4 tuning (C-G-C-F-C-F) that McCauley copied from Nick Drake. The Black Dirt Sessions’ “Mange” was the lone Deer Tick song he wrote in the tuning for the longest time, but “Sea of Clouds,” and “Jumpstarting” have since joined the fold. The seafoam green machine rides with a custom set of D’Addarios (.010, .013, .024, .032, .046–.056.). The pickups (brand not known) are actually P-90s in Jazzmaster-style housings.
Less Paul, More Octaves
This 1970s Gibson L6-S is McCauley’s back-up guitar for standard-tuned songs. He scored it in the early 2000s at a Guitar Center in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. He’s enjoyed bonding with the unusual Les Paul relative, which happens to be Gibson’s first singlecut offering with a full, two-octave 24-fret neck. Sometimes he’ll drop the G-string to E for the song “Don’t Hurt.”
McMauley’s Moonbird
McCauley had toured with an acoustic Gold Tone BZ-500 bouzouki, but had always wanted to electrify the Greek instrument. As luck would have it, he found this Luna Guitars Moonbird model and has since brought it on several Deer Tick runs.
Super for Stage
On recent Deer Tick albums and other projects, McCauley has preferred plugging into a 15W Fender Bassbreaker 1x12 combo that runs on EL84s. When it comes to performing, he opts for more power and punch by touring with this 1970s Fender Super Reverb 4x10.
McCauley’s Minions
“I’m not much of a boutique pedal guy,” admits McCauley. “But I have one nice pedal, and that’s the Chase Bliss Brothers.” He has one side of the complex gain-stage pedal set for boost and the other side for overdrive. He does usually have the boost section on to push the Super in a pleasing way. The Fulltone OCD is on hand for any solos. The self-proclaimed Nirvana fan never leaves home without the Boss CH-1 Super Chorus and gets slippery during “The Dream’s in the Ditch.” The Catalinbread Valcoder Tremolo is a favorite because he can control the input and output volumes, making sure it doesn’t get lost in the mix. The MXR Carbon Copy is set for a slapback delay. McCauley mostly employs single-coil guitars and has the Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger for noise issues. And to keep his guitars in check, he trusts a Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner.
Time for a Tele
“Pre-pandemic I was pretty much just playing ’80s Fender Japanese Strats with handwound Custom Shop Josefina Campos Fat ’50s Stratocaster single-coils,” mentions Deer Tick guitarist Ian Patrick O’Neil. “I don’t know what happened over that year and half, but when we got back together and going through our guitars in a storage unit, I just loved this Tele again.” The reconnected friend is a Fender Vintera ’50s Telecaster Modified that came stock with Custom Shop single-coils. Similar to his 6-string counterpart, O’Neil puts D’Addario NYXL .010s on all his standard-tuned guitars. And he gets busy with Dunlop Tortex Standard .73 mm picks.
A Sneaky Strat-y Tele
For any songs that require a capo (like “The Dream’s in the Ditch” where O’Neil steps out on lead vocals), he’ll put on this Fender American Professional II Telecaster that’s been modded with fresh Lollar pickups—a Vintage T Bridge and a Royal T Neck. Its alnico-5 magnets and custom-nickel pickup cover aim to give a springy, 5th-position Strat sound.
Jazzmaster in D
Here’s O’Neil’s Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special that was simplified with the removal of its lead/rhythm circuits. The surgery was done by longtime guitar tech and pal Domenick Panzarella, based in Providence, Rhode Island. This one sees stage time when the band moves into drop-D territory for songs like “The Rock.”
Stimulus Stock Up
O’Neil scooped this 1970s Guild D-40 Bluegrass Jubilee with his Covid-19 relief money distributed by the U.S. government during 2020. He bought it off a guy in a Planet Fitness parking lot.
Tweed Me
On previous Deer Tick tours, O’Neil was lugging around a silver-panel ’70s Fender Twin Reverb that was altered to approach a more black-panel sound, with lower headroom and quicker breakup. But after seeing the world a few times, it became farty and muddy. Fender’s Michael Schulz offered O’Neil a handwired Fender ’57 Custom Twin-Amp and he hasn’t looked back.
Ian’s Instigators
O’Neil’s board offers a similar recipe to McCauley’s (MXR Carbon Copy and Fulltone OCD), but their ingredients do vary. The different spices include a Black Cat Mini Trem, Jam Pedals Rattler distortion (extreme solos), TC Electronic Hall of Fame reverb, and an MXR M234 Analog Chorus. An LR Baggs Para DI Acoustic Guitar Preamp/DI works with the Guild D-40, while a pair of Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuners keep his electrics and acoustic in line.