I was at Union Music today in Worcester (my local Mecca for all things acoustic). Had a great conversation with Carl (the owner) and got to sample most of the current Guild line.
I'm happy to report only good things to my LTG buds! New Hartford is putting out real Guilds -- there is no more debate about that in my own mind. No concerns about building salad bowls or disrespecting the brand history... Nonsense, I tell you. I'll get more to the guitars in a minute, but a couple of things first:
1. There was serious price pressure being put on dealers earlier in the year, but Carl told me that Fender came to their senses recently and made doing business with them a bit easier. I don't know the details, guys, but Carl has been frank with me in the past and he would've told me if he was being squeezed badly. A quarter of his acoustic wall is laden with Guilds (mostly the Connecticut ones, by the way), but he deals in Martins and Taylors too. He's a good person to get the pulse of things from.
2. There's a 10% Guild sale going on this weekend only, and it's from Fender. Union already hammers off 10% this time of year as I imagine so do many other stores, so if you find one you like I strongly recommend breaking out your wallets, folks, and go steal one of these things... It's across the board on Guild products, so it includes all the models, not just the Connecticut axes.
So, I sat down with D-55, -50, -40 models, and an F-30 and F-512. The DVs from Mexico I reviewed elsewhere so I won't repeat myself here. There were a couple of GADs (more on that shortly), but the Connecticut presence was biggest.
First of all, there was absolutely nothing to pick on in the construction of these guitars. Fit/finish was first rate. Kudos, Kaman folks! The mahogany woods were rather plain looking to me, but I don't think that's anything new (i.e., that's the supply that's out there, I guess). The base of the neck of the F-30 looked like it was sufferering a little rash from the hangar, just confirming the use of nitrocellulose lacquer on these babies (not that we doubted it). Shoot, I meant to mention that to Carl.
So, what do I have to say... Between the two rosewood Ds, I remain partial to the D-50. That's exactly how I felt with the Tacoma models, and it remains true with the latest bunch. The D-40 is just wonderful... everything you'd expect from a mahogany D. Better than the Tacoma, if I recall correctly. The F-30 is a nice small body, but is still not my cup of tea.
The F-512 continues the jumbo legacy beautifully. There is slightly (and I mean slightly) less punch than the Tacoma version, but it's still the king of the 12 string rack. Also of note, the faceplate is definitely real wood (ebony, I guess). I'm not sure that's true on my Tacoma -- I've always guessed it was black plastic. I'm not sure I'll ever know for certain. And, indeed, Connecticut has abandoned the funky pickguard shape and gone traditional, which we'd already known and breathed a bit of a sigh of relief.
Open back tuners: I guess that's a matter of taste. The Gotohs they're using seem perfectly adequate to me. And, of course, even though Guild was using sealed tuners with lots of size/mass since the '70s, I can't say anything bad about these open-backs. The tuner buttons and the ferrule on top are smaller than what I've gotten used to with the Grovers of late, but actually I like that.
Final comment. The GAD version of the F-212 is absolutely wonderful. I haven't played a US F-212 to compare it to, but this guitar needs NO excuses for itself, regardless of price. The Chinese folks are getting this one right indeed. If you haven't had a chance to hammer on one of these, do it.
I'm happy to report only good things to my LTG buds! New Hartford is putting out real Guilds -- there is no more debate about that in my own mind. No concerns about building salad bowls or disrespecting the brand history... Nonsense, I tell you. I'll get more to the guitars in a minute, but a couple of things first:
1. There was serious price pressure being put on dealers earlier in the year, but Carl told me that Fender came to their senses recently and made doing business with them a bit easier. I don't know the details, guys, but Carl has been frank with me in the past and he would've told me if he was being squeezed badly. A quarter of his acoustic wall is laden with Guilds (mostly the Connecticut ones, by the way), but he deals in Martins and Taylors too. He's a good person to get the pulse of things from.
2. There's a 10% Guild sale going on this weekend only, and it's from Fender. Union already hammers off 10% this time of year as I imagine so do many other stores, so if you find one you like I strongly recommend breaking out your wallets, folks, and go steal one of these things... It's across the board on Guild products, so it includes all the models, not just the Connecticut axes.
So, I sat down with D-55, -50, -40 models, and an F-30 and F-512. The DVs from Mexico I reviewed elsewhere so I won't repeat myself here. There were a couple of GADs (more on that shortly), but the Connecticut presence was biggest.
First of all, there was absolutely nothing to pick on in the construction of these guitars. Fit/finish was first rate. Kudos, Kaman folks! The mahogany woods were rather plain looking to me, but I don't think that's anything new (i.e., that's the supply that's out there, I guess). The base of the neck of the F-30 looked like it was sufferering a little rash from the hangar, just confirming the use of nitrocellulose lacquer on these babies (not that we doubted it). Shoot, I meant to mention that to Carl.
So, what do I have to say... Between the two rosewood Ds, I remain partial to the D-50. That's exactly how I felt with the Tacoma models, and it remains true with the latest bunch. The D-40 is just wonderful... everything you'd expect from a mahogany D. Better than the Tacoma, if I recall correctly. The F-30 is a nice small body, but is still not my cup of tea.
The F-512 continues the jumbo legacy beautifully. There is slightly (and I mean slightly) less punch than the Tacoma version, but it's still the king of the 12 string rack. Also of note, the faceplate is definitely real wood (ebony, I guess). I'm not sure that's true on my Tacoma -- I've always guessed it was black plastic. I'm not sure I'll ever know for certain. And, indeed, Connecticut has abandoned the funky pickguard shape and gone traditional, which we'd already known and breathed a bit of a sigh of relief.
Open back tuners: I guess that's a matter of taste. The Gotohs they're using seem perfectly adequate to me. And, of course, even though Guild was using sealed tuners with lots of size/mass since the '70s, I can't say anything bad about these open-backs. The tuner buttons and the ferrule on top are smaller than what I've gotten used to with the Grovers of late, but actually I like that.
Final comment. The GAD version of the F-212 is absolutely wonderful. I haven't played a US F-212 to compare it to, but this guitar needs NO excuses for itself, regardless of price. The Chinese folks are getting this one right indeed. If you haven't had a chance to hammer on one of these, do it.
