Guld years

[Rufes]

Hi, I am new in this forum

I currently own a '66 CE100 and have had a '71 D400NT that liked a lot.

I am sure this have been treated before but didn't find it. Sorry.

What are the different eras for Guild? and what are the bad, good and excellent years? I have read that also there are different pickups depending on the years but don't find the info

I want to buy a big fat jazz box and have found an interesting 80s X500 but not sure how go0d an 80s guitar can be. Those were definitely bad years for Fender and Gibson.

Thanks guys!

 

[Quantum Strummer]

I think you'll find the consensus to be that Guild has never had a bad period. Folks will often prefer guitars from certain periods over those from others, but this is more about feature sets (pickups used & such) and construction methods (narrower vs. wider necks, lighter bracing vs. heavier & such) than quality per se.

See if you can get a copy of Hans Moust's Guild book. (Hans is a regular here too.) It covers Guild from the '50s well into the '70s and will answer many of your questions.

The '80s were a turbulent period for Guild as a business, but in my experience (which is admittedly far from authoritative) this didn't leak into the quality of their instruments.

-Dave-

 

[gjmalcyon]

I have Guilds from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's which are the Westerly, RI and Tacoma, WA periods. All are well made and very musical. Forum members with early Hoboken, NJ and after-Tacoma New Hartford, CT period guitars love those as well. Early reports on the current Corona, CA production are encouraging.

I think Guild guitars in general should be evaluated individually - overall quality and tone of any one guitar is much more a result of specific differences between individual examples than it is the result of eras or factories that are sought after or avoided.

 

[Cougar]

Early reports on the current Corona, CA production are encouraging.

Being on the other side of the country, I can see how you might make this slip. Guild is currently in Oxnard, CA. Guild was in Corona, CA in the early 2000s, just before heading up to Tacoma, WA. With a Corona-build JF30-12, I can confirm Quantum Strummer's assessment that Guild quality and excellence has stayed remarkably stable throughout its numerous moves. And yes, that seems to apply to Oxnard, too, but they're still pretty early in their Guild production.

 

[adorshki]

Being on the other side of the country, I can see how you might make this slip.

He just had an "oopsie", he's been around long enough to have typed and seen "Corona" a lot more times than "Oxnard".
:friendly_wink:


@our new member Rufes:
Welcome aboard!
"big fat jazz box", love it!
Lets just say that Guild started with jazz boxes and like others mentioned, their quality was amazingly consistent over the years: New York and Hoboken NJ from '53 - '69 (moved into Westerly in '67 but still did some stuff in Hoboken until '69, and acoustics went to Westerly before electrics);
Westerly RI '69-2001: Westerly did some re-issues in the late '90's that had Fender designed "mini humbucker" pickups that most folks dislike compared to the originals, that's the only knock on 'em I can recall seeing here, except for individual ergonomic preferences like nut width and neck profile differences)
Fender bought 'em in late '95 but kept Westerly open until finally stopping production in August '01 while preparing to move to and ramping up for production in:
Corona CA '01-'04, can only recall a couple of Corona hollow-body electric owners but both happy;
Tacoma WA '05-'08 (but no electrics),
New Hartford CN '09-'14, with only some very limited edition US-built electrics, the "American Patriarch" series, when you see "AP" mentioned.
You won't be wasting your time to go check out that X-500.

 

[walrus]

Welcome, Rufes!

walrus

 

[gjmalcyon]

Being on the other side of the country, I can see how you might make this slip. Guild is currently in Oxnard, CA.

Busted. Anything west of the Delaware looks the same to this Jersey boy.

I am somewhat chagrined - I did spend a significant portion of my youth growing up outside Sacramento (Rosemont, in Rancho Cordova).

 

[killdeer43]

Already good feedback coming your way so I'll simply add another WELCOME TO LTG! :joyous:

Cheers,
Joe