Guitaripedia

Every guitar has a story.

Guild

D-55

Guild’s D-55 got its name from television. It kept its place as the guitar people play with the cameras off.

Late 1960s. Tommy Smothers is on *The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour* with a big rosewood Guild dreadnought, fancier than anything Guild keeps in stock. On the October 1968 price list, the guitar goes by a name that tells you exactly where people saw it: the D-55 TV Model.

Introduced
1968
Type
Acoustic dreadnought
Class
Production
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1968

    The TV Model

    A special-order upgrade of Guild’s rosewood dreadnought, built in Westerly.

  2. 1974

    Regular production

    Demand finally puts it on the standard line.

  3. 1995

    Fender buys Guild

    The start of a long tour of factories.

  4. 2009

    New Hartford

    Guild’s Connecticut plant starts up with the D-55 and F-50.

  5. 2017

    California

    The Oxnard-built D-55 debuts at Winter NAMM and hits stores in February.

  6. 2020

    Ether

    Mark Morton records a whole acoustic EP on his D-55.

  7. 2023

    Seventy of them

    A limited 70th-anniversary D-55 with Adirondack spruce, Madagascar rosewood, and hide glue.

Side A

A1

Named for the camera

Some guitars get their names from a designer, some from a number on a spec sheet. The D-55 got its name from being on television.

In 1967 Guild had moved into a new factory in Westerly, Rhode Island. It already made a plain rosewood dreadnought, the D-50, which it called the Bluegrass Special. In 1968 it started building a fancier one to order: ebony fingerboard and bridge, V-shaped pearl and abalone block inlays, and a bound headstock with Guild’s peaked top. It began life as the D-50 Special. By the October 1968 price list, it was the D-55 TV Model.

The TV was Tommy Smothers. He played one on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s, and people saw it every time he did. That’s a good way to get a nickname.

It’s not how a guitar lasts, though.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • 6

    Years it was special-order only, from 1968 until it joined the regular line in 1974.

  • 25⅝

    Scale length in inches. A Martin D-28’s is 25.4.

  • 70

    Guitars in the 2023 anniversary run, at a list price of $5,999.

Side B

B1

A long drive across the country

Fender bought Guild in 1995. The Westerly plant closed in 2001, and D-55s were built in Corona, California, then Tacoma, Washington, then New Hartford, Connecticut. When New Hartford started production in early 2009, the D-55 was one of the first guitars it built. That shop lightened the guitar, with Adirondack spruce braces and lighter parts, down to open-back tuners.

New Hartford closed in 2014, and Guild landed in Oxnard, California. The D-55 came back at Winter NAMM in 2017 and was in stores that February, with Ren Ferguson working on the bracing. It’s the same idea as 1968, down to the V-blocks, with a mahogany-and-walnut neck instead of the old padauk.

In 2023 Guild made seventy anniversary D-55s with aged Adirondack spruce, Madagascar rosewood, and hide glue, at $5,999 each. Nice guitars. Not the ones that tell this story.

B2

Off camera

Mark Morton plays guitar in Lamb of God, which is about as far from a Sunday-night variety show as you can get. When he picks up an acoustic, it’s the Guild.

“My main acoustic is my Guild D-55,” he said in 2020. He wrote a lot of his 2019 solo album, Anesthetic, on it. Then he made Ether, an acoustic EP, and said: “I’ve had my D-55 for years, it’s what I recorded all of Ether with.” Don’t go looking for it on Lamb of God records. That’s not its job.

He’s also talked about “a pair of beautiful Guild D-55s, the electric ones,” the versions with a pickup built in. So even when he plugs in, it’s a D-55.

Guild’s own copy names a few more players, including Waylon Jennings. Be careful there. Waylon’s famous guitar is a 1946 Martin D-28, and nobody’s pinned a D-55 session on him.

The TV Model got its name because people saw it on television. It stuck around because of guitarists like Morton, with nobody watching, writing songs on the one they’ve had for years.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

  1. Mark Morton · 2020

    Ether

    Morton, in his own words, “recorded all of Ether” on the D-55 he’s had for years. The quiet side of a metal guitarist.

    Find it on YouTube

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1968

    Tommy Smothers

    D-55

    Played one on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The reason it was called the TV Model.

  • 2019

    Mark Morton

    D-55

    “My main acoustic is my Guild D-55.” Wrote much of Anesthetic on it and recorded all of Ether with it.

  • 2017

    Ren Ferguson

    Oxnard bracing

    Worked on the bracing when the D-55 came back in California.

  • Waylon Jennings

    Not this one

    Guild lists him as a D-55 player, but his famous named guitar is a 1946 Martin D-28.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Rosewood dreadnought, V-blocks, bound Peak — Guild’s D-55, the TV Model, not the mahogany M-20 concert and not a Martin D-28.

Body
Dreadnought. Solid AAA Sitka spruce top; solid Indian rosewood back and sides. Scalloped Adirondack X. Abalone and ABS rosette. Lower bout 16" (406 mm); upper 11 5/8" (295 mm); length 20" (508 mm); depth 4" / 5" (101 / 127 mm). Soundhole 4" (102 mm).
Neck
Mahogany with walnut center strip, C; dovetail. Thickness 21 mm / 22.5 mm at 1st / 9th. Dual-action truss.
Fingerboard
Ebony, 12" (305 mm); mother-of-pearl and abalone V-blocks at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17; 20 frets; white ABS binding with railroad-track purfling
Scale
25 5/8" (651 mm). Mix flagged.
Pickups
None on this table. D-55E: LR Baggs Anthem, volume / mix / phase.
Hardware
Ebony bridge, 2 1/8" (54 mm) spacing; compensated bone saddle; bone pins; gold Gotoh SE700 open-gear; tortoiseshell pickguard; bound Peak and Shield headstock on figured ebony
Electronics
None (D-55). D-55E: Anthem controls.
Finish
Gloss nitrocellulose lacquer; Natural or Antique Burst
Nut
Bone, 1 11/16" (43 mm)
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = Guild USA D-55 (Oxnard; guildguitars.com D-55 Natural, fetched 4 September 2026). D-55E is the Baggs sibling on this plate, not a second slug. GSR D-55 70th Anniversary Limited (2023; 70 pieces) is Madagascar / Adirondack, not this table. Factory sheet prints inches and millimetres together — mix flagged; no extra millimetres invented. Guild sheet prints Body Binding N/A against 4-ply black/white ABS purfling; zZounds prints white ABS. Guitar Center: satin neck. Acoustic Guitar, December 2017: gloss nitro on the neck. Keep the split. Vintage Westerly (GGJaguar, 1977): padauk/maple/padauk, tapered braces, Grover Rotomatics, 15 13/16" lower bout, 4 3/4" depth, 1 23/32" nut. Same silhouette. Not the same neck or nut.

Construction

Westerly, 1968. The job was a fancy rosewood dread above the D-50 Bluegrass Special: ebony board and bridge, V-blocks, a bound Peak. Not a concert. Not a Starfire. Not a Martin.

Guild’s living copy: special-order top-of-the-line in 1968, regular production by 1974. GGJaguar: started as the D-50 Special, first on the October 1968 price list as the D-55 TV Model. Acoustic Guitar (Adam Perlmutter, December 2017): “TV Guitar,” Tom Smothers on the Smothers Brothers Show. Dave Gonzalez, then Guild product manager, on a 2011 company video: ornate upgrade of the rosewood dread, special-order only until demand put it on the standard line in 1974. Keep 1968. Regular production is a catalog move, not an invention.

Not the M-20. Concert, all mahogany, unbound, 24 3/4". This is a square-shoulder dread, rosewood, 25 5/8". Not a Starfire. Hollow / semi-hollow electric from 1960. Same badge. Different object. Not a Martin D-28 (martin-d-28). Nazareth, 25.4" scale, Style 28 multi-stripe. This is Guild’s D: longer scale, V-blocks, Peak and Shield. GGJaguar, on a 1977: “Unlike bass heavy Martin dreadnaughts, the D-55 has a balanced tone from top to bottom.” One player’s 1977 guitar. Not a factory voicing sheet. MusicRadar (2018) called it a “slope-shouldered strummer.” It isn’t. Square-shoulder, like the Martin. Do not flatten the two.

D-40 is the mahogany dread. D-50 is the plainer rosewood sibling. D-20 is the all-mahogany Oxnard dread that launched with the M-20 in 2016. None of those slugs live here.

Avnet bought Guild in 1966 (Music Museum of New England). Westerly opened 1967. Dronge died 3 May 1972. The original D-55 is a Westerly guitar. GGJaguar on running changes: padauk neck to mahogany around 1981; tapered braces to scalloped “sometime in the 1980s.” Let’s Talk Guild chronology: scalloped ~1991, abalone rosette ~1993. Keep both. Reverb’s product page prints years of production 1968–1987, 1990–present. A catalog gap. Not a factory ledger.

Fender bought Guild in 1995 (Guitar.com; Vintage Guitar, Jay Pilzer, July 2010). Westerly closed 2001. Corona, then Tacoma (2005), then New Hartford, which Wikipedia and guitar-list put in production early 2009, starting with the D-55 and F-50. Pilzer: New Hartford lightened the guitar — Adirondack braces, laminated birch tail block, open-back tuners, 30-foot top radius (from 40-foot), three-piece mahogany with walnut instead of maple, dual-action truss, real mother-of-pearl. Plant closed 2014. Cordoba opened Oxnard. NAMM 2016 shipped M-20 and D-20 first. The D-55 returned at Winter NAMM 2017; Acoustic Guitar: stores in February 2017. Ren Ferguson on the bracing. Current footer: Yamaha Guitar Group, 2026.

The living guitar is that Oxnard dread: AAA Sitka, Indian rosewood, scalloped Adirondack X, mahogany/walnut neck, ebony, gold Gotoh SE700, gloss nitro, 1 11/16" bone nut, humidified case. D-55E adds the Anthem. GSR D-55 70th Anniversary Limited, 2023: 70 pieces, aged Adirondack, Madagascar rosewood, hide glue (Guitar Player), list $5,999 (Guitar.com) — historical limited run, not this table.

Classic vs current: Westerly TV Model — often padauk neck, tapered braces, Grovers, a hair under 16" at the lower bout on GGJaguar’s 1977 — against the USA D-55 at mahogany/walnut, scalloped Adirondack, Gotoh, factory millimetres, 1 11/16". Same V-blocks. Not the same neck.

Players

Tommy Smothers. The photograph is the fact. Guild, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Player, and the 2017 NAMM copy put a D-55 on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s. That is why the early guitar is the TV Model. Named TV appearances are the citation. Session logs for individual sketches are unpublished here.

Mark Morton. Named interviews, not catalog recitation. MusicRadar (21 February 2020): “My main acoustic is my Guild D-55”; he wrote a lot of Anesthetic (2019) on it. Guitar.com (Huw Baines, 27 January 2020): the D-55 “employed throughout work on Ether” (2020). Guitar World (Stuart Williams, 4 May 2020): “I’ve had my D-55 for years, it’s what I recorded all of Ether with,” plus a loaner of the same model; he also says “a pair of beautiful Guild D-55s, the electric ones” — Anthem-equipped siblings, not a second slug. UK unplugged dates with Mark Morales. Do not hang Lamb of God records on this acoustic.

Do not steal Starfire players. Do not hang an M-20, D-40, F-512, or D-25-12 on this plate because the badge is Guild. Nick Drake is the M-20 cover. Richie Havens is a D-40 (Acoustic Guitar; Wikipedia’s Woodstock caption). Tom Petty is jumbo 12-string / D-25-12 territory. Slash is a D-100 in 1990s ads, not this six-string dread.

Guild’s 2017 copy also names Waylon Jennings, Billie Joe Armstrong, and David Nail. Manufacturer known-to-play. Waylon’s famous named guitar is a 1946 Martin D-28 (Martin Museum). Do not flatten that object onto a Guild. Named D-55 year and session for Jennings, Armstrong, or Nail were not verified here.

Also known to play stays short. Equipboard files John Rzeznik on VH1 Storytellers (Gutterflower, 2002) from a YouTube look. YouTube plus a gear wiki. Not a named serial.

Rarity

Current USA D-55 / D-55E is regular Oxnard production. Guild does not publish D-55 unit totals. None invented.

Vintage D-55s were the expensive dread, not the cheap concert. Special-order 1968–1974 is the thin early window; regular Westerly from 1974 is what you actually find. Serials date a guitar. They don’t count a year. That is why a first-year census is unknown, not the chapter.

Reverb’s 1987–1990 gap is a catalog split, not a factory total. Corona after Westerly closed 2001 (Pilzer; Wikipedia) — Let’s Talk Guild dates the plant 2002–2004 — is the used-market discount era. Pilzer: steep closeout after the Tacoma move, a reputation hit that Westerly and Tacoma did not take as hard. Keep both year windows. New Hartford 2009–2014 is USA player value, not the 1968 object. The GSR 70th is 70 numbered guitars. It is not a vintage D-55. Smothers’s TV guitar is one object. It is not a Westerly D-55.

Value

Informal estimate, 4 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts.

New street. Guild shop D-55 Series $4,199.99–$4,699.99. Sweetwater Natural $4,199.99. Guitar Center Natural $4,199.99. Musician’s Friend Natural $4,199.99. zZounds Natural $4,199.99. The upper shop band is the E / Baggs cart. Acoustic Guitar, December 2017: $4,255 list / $3,399.99 street — dated 2017, not a 2026 cart. GSR 70th list $5,999 (Guitar.com, 2023) is a 70-piece run, not this SKU.

Used modern. Sweetwater Gear Exchange Price Advisor, Natural: $2,184.00–$3,234.00 (new on that page $4,199.99). Antique Burst: $2,079.00–$3,079.00. Named ask this pass: Gear Exchange Excellent Antique Burst $2,600.00. Reverb Price Guide widget on Guild USA D-55 did not print a clean USD band this pass. No invented midpoint.

Vintage / collectible. Reverb Price Guide exists on D-55 1974–1986; the dollar widget did not print a band this pass. Flag: thin sold-comp access. Named ask, not a hammer: Classic City Vintage 1977 lefty (mods: replacement bridge, truss-rod-pocket repair) $2,525. Named older/foreign asks are not a 2026 series. Do not average those asks. Do not price these as pre-war D-28s. Smothers’s TV guitar is a celebrity object, not a street tape.

See also

  • guild-m-20 — all-mahogany concert; not this rosewood dread
  • martin-d-28 — Nazareth square-shoulder rosewood; 25.4", not Guild’s 25 5/8"
  • guild-starfire — 1960 Hoboken hollow / semi-hollow electric; not this acoustic

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.