My first Guild; tell your story here..

[adorshki]

Hi everyone , FNG here , bought my first GUILD and I wasn't even looking.
Went to a great music store in St. Louis , Music Folk, to get a setup on a Gibson Doves-in-Flight model I had recently acquired and as I waited for them to get an idea about how long that work would take I wondered around this great guitar honey hole looking" at all the guitars on the walll .....and there it was calling out to me a GUILD M20 made in California all mahogany OO size I took it down and strummed a little and I knew that little sweetie was coming home with me. It came with a great hard case with a humidifier incorporated into it , ingenious .
I love my Gibson and now this GUILD is a much appreciated addition to my stable . I can't put it down.

Welcome aboard Steve, I see a first post!
Seems those M20's are getting a lot of love out there!
Cape Canaveral, eh? I assume you've seen the red Tesla in Space thread?
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...e-is-now-a-red-Tesla-floating-around-in-space

 

[M20Steve]

Thank you for the greeting, Yea, watched the launch on line as I'm not in FL presently, awesome spectacle I can't wait to see it in person and a double return must have been spectacular. Love the space coast.

 

[D30Man]

These are great stories.

My first Guild was a 1993 D-4 I picked up for $350 on CL. The year was 2013 and I had never owned a Guild. I was impressed with it. I coincidentally met the second owner( the man I bought it from was the third ) a few short months later. I had gone to his house to jam and brought the Guild. I had just been complaining to him about how someone did a crappy job re-finishing the top. However, I loved the way it played. Just about that time he said "let's see it". He said "well I was the one who re-finished it because I was the one who owned it.. Sorry I didn't do a better job". I felt foolish. He said it was covered in religious paintings from the original owner. I think he did the best he could with what he had to work with. We went on to do some shows together and maintain a small friendship. Either way I played the hell out of it. Put a k&k pure mini in there and played easily over 30 gigs with it. It had volume and sustain. Not super dynamic but don't think it was supposed to be. It delivered firmly where I needed it to deliver and I didn't have to treat her with kid gloves. I had all of about $500 in her. I sold it a year or so later after I had procured a D-30 and a D-25. Wish I would've kept it. I hope she is treating her owner well.

 

[CocoaPicker]

Hi everyone , FNG here , ...I can't put it down.

Hi, Steve, welcome... and greetings from across the rivers. I lived in CC myself, many moons ago. Bought my lawsuit-era Takamine at East Coast Music a.k.a. Beach Pawn.

 

[jte]

The local guitar store was a Guild dealer, I was aware of John Denver, Jack Cassady, Paul Simon, and Buddy Guy. So, I was exposed to Guild pretty early on in my musical life. I got a Taiwan Yamaha FG-160 in 1973. I started working at that store in 1977, and happened to play a customer's F30R pretty early on in my tenure. I was hooked on small body guitars. I was a gigging bass player so money went into basses and amps. I also determined that there was no reason to make a partial step up from the FG-160 without going to what I knew I wanted, so for the 11 years I managed a guitar store my only acoustic was that $150 Yamaha (and for most of that time it was my only guitar as I didn't own an electric one). Then when I got out of retail music and got a job that paid real money, I was able to devote some cash to a good acoustic guitar. That was about 1995. There was no Guild dealer in town for a few years, and one day I saw an ad that a small local store was now a Guild dealer. I stopped in, talked the owner (a guy I'd known for years), and played a selection of dreadnaughts, D40, D55, etc. Then as I was about to leave, right next to the door was a weird Guild. It's dimensions were between a Martin OM and 000, but not the same contours. It had a decidedly non-Guild looking pickguard. It had beautiful snowflake inlays on a wide ebony fingerboard. It was a subdued antique sunburst, gold Kluson tuners and the appearance said "check this out". I picked it up, played an open Em chord and my ears said "that's the sound you've been seeking since that F30R back in '78!" I played it for about an hour. Went home, then went back and played it side-by-side with a Martin OM-28 and some other guitars. The A50 went home with me on my birthday that year.

Funny thing is that Larry wasn't even sure he'd get his opening order because a week after he signed the papers he got a letter telling him that FMIC was buying Guild effective Jan 1. My A50 has serial #3 that I bought mid December (and had been in the store for a week or so), and the "official" serial number list that's available says the first A50 was #5 and made in January the following year. That's her in my picture...

 

[Cougar]

Not sure how I missed this thread before. Anyway, a few years ago (3? 4? 5?) I picked up a Tak 12 after collecting a few Epi Masterbilts. It was pretty good, but it inspired me to start looking for a Guild 12, which I had heard (and now confirm) are the best 12-strings. So I joined LTG and asked a bunch of questions. Then TX mentioned a sunburst Corona-built JF30-12 on craigs. But it was in Dana Point in Southern California (which is actually pretty close to Corona). That was about 700 miles from my place. But I was going to be traveling to SoCal in a couple weeks to see family. So I swung by Dana Point, took a quick look at the guitar, and snapped it up. Gorgeous burst, ebony board, mint condition.... Fantastic guitar. It's got to be the best 12-string in the Wild West!