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.