Guild's branding in the 1960s was hilariously inconsistent

[chazmo]

On another forum, someone commented, "Guild was never an innovator like Martin, Gibson or even Gretsch, and their models were derivative of those brands in one way or another. Few key players used them too, and that's what drives people to buy guitars."

I'd be curious to see if the folks here agree with that statement.

Well, I have two letters that respond to that, but they're not allowed on the site.

 

[Default]

Gretsch was great at building guitars where the neck pockets were so loose that they needed to put a big screw into the neck to keep it from falling off. If George had scored an Aristocrat instead of a Duojet, Gretsch wouldn't have been as big as it was. As I've remarked before, you only had to buy eight guitars a year to be a Guild dealer, so every mom and pop was a Guild dealer for most of Guild's existence. I would argue that Gibsons were so expensive that it was generally snob appeal, not quality that made them great.

 

[DrumBob]

Well, I have two letters that respond to that, but they're not allowed on the site.

There is a bit of truth to that statement from the guy on the other forum. Guild electrics were often thinly veiled copies of other guitars. The S-200 was certainly original, but the Bluesbird, M-80, S-100, Starfire, and others were Guild's versions of other maker's instruments. Even the bell-bottom 70's-S series guitars were copies of a guitar made by Hoyer.