Guild recommends 10's for the F-47MCE???

[onewilyfool]

Well I got the news from Jeff Krause a Tech. at Guild, on why 10's are spec'd for the Guild F-47MCE.....Here's his emails:

ME:I have a 2001 F47MCE......can you tell me what strings are
recommended for this guitar. I am the third owner, so have no
paperwork that came with the original guitar.....thanks....Wily

Jeff:
Hello Wily,
Here is the information you requested:
Guild XL300 Phosphor Bronze,
p/n 3500300000,
Gauges .010 to .047

Best Regards,
Jeff Krause

ME:Hi Jeff....thanks.....I'm wondering, this is a solidly built guitar,
and there are no "warnings" on the inside against using guages
greater than 10's. Is this just because 10's give this guitar the
best "voicing" I currently have 12's on it, with no deflections or
bowing of the neck.....I didn't even need to change the neck
adjustment rod when I upped the guage to 12's. Just
wondering....thanks again...Wily

Jeff: I don't think you'll have any issues with using heavier strings. The
10's are just put on there because they are a lighter gauge and players
of all skill levels are capable of using them.

ME: Mystery solved!!!

 

[cuthbert]

Well I got the news from Jeff Krause a Tech. at Guild, on why 10's are spec'd for the Guild F-47MCE.....Here's his emails:

ME:I have a 2001 F47MCE......can you tell me what strings are
recommended for this guitar. I am the third owner, so have no
paperwork that came with the original guitar.....thanks....Wily

Jeff:
Hello Wily,
Here is the information you requested:
Guild XL300 Phosphor Bronze,
p/n 3500300000,
Gauges .010 to .047

Best Regards,
Jeff Krause

ME:Hi Jeff....thanks.....I'm wondering, this is a solidly built guitar,
and there are no "warnings" on the inside against using guages
greater than 10's. Is this just because 10's give this guitar the
best "voicing" I currently have 12's on it, with no deflections or
bowing of the neck.....I didn't even need to change the neck
adjustment rod when I upped the guage to 12's. Just
wondering....thanks again...Wily

Jeff: I don't think you'll have any issues with using heavier strings. The
10's are just put on there because they are a lighter gauge and players
of all skill levels are capable of using them.

ME: Mystery solved!!!

I've a CV-2C, not a F-47MCE, but it's her "contemporary" sister....she came with .12s, and I replaced them with .11. Sometimes I use .10 because I can bend the notes more than one tone and I've a better control of vibrato, and I dont' see any lack of voice in strumming.

 

[West R Lee]

In Westerly, Guild shipped the overwhelming majority of acoustics with lights. Personally, I think it's good practice to keep them on there, but doubt heavier strings used once in a while wouldn't hurt a thing. I'd never keep heavy or medium gauge strings on one of mine though.....just added stress and I don't need the volume.

West

 

[plaidseason]

Don't most people actually consider 12s light? D'Addario does. And I think with Guild branded strings lights are 12s as well.

-Chris

 

[Graham]

Don't most people actually consider 12s light? D'Addario does. And I think with Guild branded strings lights are 12s as well.

-Chris

John Pearse 200L and 600L are both branded lights and they're 12 - 53.

 

[jazzmang]

For my F65CE, Guild shipped and recommended extra lights (10's).

You would figure that they did this because the guitar was incapable of handling that much string tension, but I think that it can hold up OK.

 

[plaidseason]

For my F65CE, Guild shipped and recommended extra lights (10's).

You would figure that they did this because the guitar was incapable of handling that much string tension, but I think that it can hold up OK.

Are you saying that in the actual documentation for your guitar that Guild recommended extra lights? Or was this something they said at the store?

 

[jazzmang]

webarchive from guild's old website listed extra lights as what came on the F65CE

 

[FNG]

I would imagine that the F65 come with extra lights because it was designed to be played with amplification, and to more simulate an electric guitar feel.

 

[West R Lee]

For my F65CE, Guild shipped and recommended extra lights (10's).

You would figure that they did this because the guitar was incapable of handling that much string tension, but I think that it can hold up OK.

Are you saying that in the actual documentation for your guitar that Guild recommended extra lights? Or was this something they said at the store?

I'm looking at a 1998 Guild Gallery magazine.....it has the strings with which each guitar was shipped back then. The F65 was shipped with extra lights.......010"-.047". Though the F47 was not in production at the time of publication of this magazine, all other F bodies show to have been shipped with extra lights, the exception are the jumbo F bodies, they were shipped with lights....012"-.053".

West

 

[jte]

See, the strings they ship with are selected to make the guitar more sellable to the original retail customer. So, really light strings are easier to play, and so many folks put vague notions of "playabiility" ahead of sound, especially with an amplified acoustic guitar. That's because the acoustic output isn't as important. And that's my personal opinion of why Taylors are so popular- they play easy is the most common accolade they get, not sound.

Anyway, when I managed a guitar store (1977-1988) we were a rabid Guild dealer because the owner and I both loved the guitars, the company, and felt they had guitars that were as good or better than any other really good guitar company, and the price was more attractive to boot. At that time, most Dreadnaughts shipped with M-450s on them. Those were Guild's Phosphor Bronze medium gauge (13's) string, which were identical to D'Addario J-17. I think some D-25s came in with L-350s (the 12's, same as D'Addario's J-16 set).

After Fender bought them in December 1995, I have no idea what they used, but I'm sure they guit using D'Addario, becasue FMIC owns their own string machine and company, V. C. Squier, and have since Leo's days.

I wouldn't worry about what Guild "recommends", and just use what sounds right to you. For my F47CE, I've pretty consistenly been using D'Addario J-16 regular light Phosphor bronze. I've used a few sets of D'Addario's 80/20 bronze and I'm still waffling on the alloy, but that guitar sounds better with 12's than wiht 13's.

My A-50 (December 1995 flat-top, not the original 50's arch top) however is more finicky- She sounds better in the summer with 12's, but 13's work better in the winter... I don't know why but suspect it's related to humidity.

jte
jte

 

[onewilyfool]

Here is the specs........

 

[adorshki]

HI JTE: I'm a newbie here and haven't quite figured out how to reply with quotes yet but I was just asking those questions about who the mfr's of strings were then and now over on the "what kind of strings do you use" thread, and here you've gone and answered my question! Why I decided to join up! However, I do believe that at least with Guild the selection of gauge sets involved more than the simple playability issue. With the F65CE, For instance, (I own one), I agree with the suspicion that the intention was to create a closer resemblance to an electric since it's also a shallow body guitar. I think the target buyer was perceived to be a primarily electric player, but I'm just speculating. I'm primarily acoustic and bought it 'cause of the built-in pickup even though it took a while to get comfortable with it compared to my D-25. I tried mediums on the D-25 once by the way and it actually plays/sounds better with the lights. In addition to all that we're speculating about effect string tensions has on the tops on that thread, which is another reason I think the gauge selection was more intentional with GUild than maybe some others. But I admit your time in the business predated my ownership of a Guild. I DID have a Fender F-210 at the time, and I realized that at the store I got it at (Guitar Center, San Jose CA) ALL the acoustics were strung with mediums and I suspected it was intentional to make 'em sound louder.

 

[Graham]

HI JTE: I'm a newbie here and haven't quite figured out how to reply with quotes yet

Click the "Quote" box, lower right in the text box. :wink:

 

[marcellis]

For my F65CE, Guild shipped and recommended extra lights (10's).

You would figure that they did this because the guitar was incapable of handling that much string tension, but I think that it can hold up OK.

I use .11's on my F-65ce. It's very fast with .11's.

In fact, I use .11's on all my guitars except the arch top;.

(I use .10's on the arch top).

I may try .12's on my D-60 if I ever get a chance to see it or play it.