Question for the Guild historians and experts.
What possessed Guild to place fretboard inlays and side dot markers only up to the 17th fret (on the overwhelming majority of their models)? If it was an esthetic choice, it's a strange one.
Stephen,
Don't have the slightest idea if you need to be possessed by something to make a decision like that, but like with most musical instruments a lot of the features are traditional, simply because they work. Long before Guild was founded, Gibson already had the fretboard inlays on the L-5 and the Super 400, which were their flagship models, go up till the 17th fret and Epiphone, which at some point was Gibson's main competitor, didn't have them any further than the 15th fret. I would say that most players didn't play up there and the ones who did, didn't really need the markers! If players had complained at the time, the inlays would have been there!
In the flat top world Martin Guitars didn't have the inlays any further than the 17th fret, but then again I wouldn't expect anyone to play any higher than that on a non-cutaway guitar. I guess classical players are the only ones who do and they usually play instruments that have no fret markers at all!
But to stay with Guild, the earliest Guild M-75 had 2 more inlays, up till the 21th fret, but that practice didn't last very long.
The introduction of the 24 fret fingerboard during the second half of the '70s made it necessary to introduce fret markers higher than the traditional 17th fret since these frets could actually be reached and players could get lost more easily, while playing in those higher registers.
Other than that, I would think that the Nightbird was one of the very few Guild guitars that had the fret markers go up till the 21th fret by design.
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
