When and how did you acquire your first Guild?

Walter Broes

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I'm a little late to this thread, but here goes :
I was playing a "new" Gretsch 6119 "Tennesee Rose" that I was growing increasingly frustrated with, and after replacing pickups and bridges and frets a couple of times I couldn't deny any more that I plain didn't like the guitar, and I also had a pretty bad 62 Gretsch double Anniversary that had already received a neck-reset (or rather:re-attachment..), a refret and a Bigsby, and I still didn't like it, and no matter what bridge I put on it, it just wouldn't play in tune above the tenth fret.

I was growing increasingly frustrated with the guitars I had, and didn't have the money to get something better. (I was thinking pre-57 Gretsch Country Club, or dual P90 Gibson hollowbody)

I knew about Guilds, my band had opened up for the Paladins a number of times, and they'd become friends, so I'd obviously been exposed to Dave Gonzalez's X500. I did realise though that single coil Guilds are rare to begin with, and even more rare over here in Europe, so I'd pretty much given up on owning one soon.

Then one day (about seven years ago), I walked into the local guitar shop for strings, and there it was, someone had brought it in only hours before I walked in : a 1962 Guild X175 with two Franz pickups, well-played, and unbelievably dirty, but all original except a very recent refret. I asked the guy whether he'd trade it for a Gretsch anniversary, and after he said "show me the Gretsch", I rushed home, and after bringing it in, I got the Guild as a straight trade for the green Gretsch.

Cleaned up the Guild, put a tune-a-matic and a Bigsby on it, potted the pickups, and never looked back. It's still my main guitar, and my favorite guitar ever. I've since bought a 1960 X175 from Hans, and a 1961 Starfire III with DeArmonds from a good friend in the U.S. - and I'll probably end up getting even more Guilds eventually.
 

HoboKen

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I did not loose my Kalamazoo FT-79N Epiphone Texan in the rocket attack. She was in a metal wall locker in the hardshell case when the rocket hit. It destroyed the locker and case for the most part; and the guitar has haze crackes in the finish from the concussion. I re-glued a few internal braces and got a new case. She is still with me today. The top has aged to a dark golden hue that now matches the blonde mahogany body.

HoboKen
 
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Hi all,
As the new guy around here I feel compelled to add my $.02 to this great thread.

When I was 11 my parents moved to Wakefield, RI (about 20 min. North-east of Westerly). Once we got settled I found my way into town to a local music shop and found myself looking at the most beautiful guitars I had ever seen. The guy working behind the counter told me that they were made just down the road in Westerly. I was so impressed that such a nice instrument could come from RI. From that point on, all I could think about was owning a Guild guitar. After a string of beginner and junker acoustics (such as Bentley, Charvel, and Samick) I was finally able to afford my first Guild.

Although I compared the DV4 to a couple of Martins and Taylors that were in the shop, my mind was made up. The Guild won hands down and with ease. I have played it and loved it ever since. Even though I own a Taylor now (got a good deal on it), it mostly collects dust, because the Guild is such a superior instrument. The DV4 that I own is such a great instrument that I haven't even felt the urge to replace it with a higher quality Guild.

At any rate, thanks for the great thread and the great site!

-Pete...
 

caveman

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Here's my story. I noticed the existence of Guild guitars, and their appeal through Walter. I used to see him play with his gretsches, untill suddenly a few years ago I noticed he had changed to an old looking sunburst hollowbody with soapbars. I first thought it was an old ES 175, but soon found out about the Guild X175. Two years ago, when I just started working in a guitar shop, a middle aged guy came to trade an old Guilld Starfire IV for something more 'recent'. He walked out with a shiny new Ibanez, and I ended up with his heavily modified, but to my hands and ears, most perfect thinline guitar I ever played. It has diffrent pickups (don't know what, but they sound great), new tuners and bridge, has been refretted and probably refinished.But it's been a reliable and fearless friend on many gigs, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Still heavily interested in a dual franz equiped single cutaway model, and maybe even a decent dreadnought, and spread the Guild gospel. Hallelujiah !

[IMG:560:420]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c241/spacca2/JazzmasterandStarfireIV005.jpg[/img]
 
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Graham,

The thing about the DV4 that grabs me first is the satin finish. It looks so natural and more like pure woods than if it had a glossy finish. The tone color is wonderful, very rich and balanced. It is by far one of the most playable guitars I have ever laid my hands on. As long as I have owned it, it still gets to me when I open up the case. It's a great instrument.

-Pete...
 

Graham

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Thanks Pete, my DV-52 is high gloss, but I think that Cypress Knees' 52 is natural. Both, from what I hear and have seen are a great finish.

I know that mine is gorgeous. :D

Graham
 

Cypress Knee

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Well, since I've been mentioned, I suppose it's my turn to come out.

A friend of mine got me to playing the guitar my junior or senior year in high school. He gave my some old clunker that I practiced on. I think I told this story once before on this forum, but I was so bad...I mean I had a bluetick coonhound and couple of Treeing Walkers in the backyard and one night they were barking at the moon and my Dad stuck his head inside my room while I was practicing and asked me if I could play something that the dogs didn't know.

He got me an Ovation Balladeer for graduation. But I had seen a Guild at Alexandria Music and kept my eye on it for awhile. About a year later, I sold the Ovation and bought a '69 D-35. That thing went everywhere with me. A couple of years later I bit the bullet and good ole Al Whitney sold me a G-212 to complement the six-string.

When I finished college I was headed into the Army via ROTC. In Augusta GA I bought a D-50 and sold the D-35 to a college buddy of mine. I wish I could find him now and ascertain the status of that old D-35. As the years roll by the sound rings evermore sweetly in my memory.

Since then I have owned a variety of Guilds. My current favorites are a '73 F50R, a '70 D40SB, and a late '80s D60.

CK
PS - My high school buddy was an Ovation guy. He bought a '97 D55 from this summer and is a convert.

PPS - DBS, it can be a small world sometimes.
 

Metalman

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When and How did you acquire your first Guild?

OK, I’ll chime in with my “first-Guild” story.

My dad passed away in ’79 in Saginaw, Michigan, my home town, and during the time I was there, I went to the local music store to look at guitars. I had purchased my first acoustic guitar there some years before, a Yamaha steel string. The salesman, a friend of mine, talked me into buying a brand-new Gibson Mark 77 acoustic for $450. This was the one with the futuristic, scientifically aligned and "superior" bridge.
As I was preparing to leave the store with my new guitar, and thinking about how I was going to be able to transport it safely back to NYC, the salesman suggested leaving it with them because “the bridge is in the wrong position, and we will fix it for you”. That was a defect that came with the Mark series guitars, they said, and their repair tech would remove the bridge, re-align it for me, and ship the guitar to me, free of charge. What did I know, so I said sure, go ahead.
Well, I received it some weeks later, and they did such a botch job on it, that I sent it right back to them to fix it. Got it back the second time, and it was worse than the first. I’m thinking, among other things, how could they release something like that? The bridge was lifting, the area on top behind the bridge was arching, and you could fit a screwdriver in the hole under the bridge.
(anybody else out there have one of these? And if so, did you have any problem with the bridge? I didn't think so . . .)

Well, besides all that, the guitar was decent to play, and sounded pretty good; but it was a wreck on the top. They had destroyed it. I had decided enough is enough.

Now, in hindsight, I should have just demanded my money back.

In the spring of ’82 I took it down to Silver & Horland, a popular music store on 48th Street, and sought to trade this thing in for either a Martin or Guild – something playable. After shaking their heads at the shoddy repair job on the bridge on the Gibson, the store owners ended giving me $100 towards a new guitar. Couldn’t afford $650 – 700 for the current Martin, (the equivalent of $1700-$2000 today) so I spent the next hour or two playing every Guild acoustic they had in the store – they had about a dozen. With a fine-toothed comb I scrutinized every one of them.
The “factory-second” D-50 was the best sounding one in the bunch, hands down. I walked out of there satisfied. Mostly because I was able to get rid of that headache Gibson, and move on.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized what a great guitar I had just purchased.
Still have it to this day. Will never sell it. It is perhaps not as loud as my arch-back F-30 (surprisingly), but the D-50 has so many overtones, that it practically plays itself. The grain on the spruce top is so tight, you can see the “ghost-wisps” running perpendicularly across. “Piano” and “cannon” are words that come to mind when I play it . . .

I’d post a picture, but you all know what these babies look like . . .

Metalman
 

walrus

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Well, I bought my D-64 first, in 1984 (new, but discounted because of a small, professioanlly repaired crack in the back). I had no idea it was "rare", I just knew I loved how it sounded. I traded a Martin D-35 for it (top of the line Martin!), and went home happy. This guitar sounds better every year!


walrus
 

70sSanO

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I am very blessed to have a real feel good story. I have told this story a number of times to various people and each time I am so thankful and so blown away.

I had taken piano lessons for about 5 years and wanted to play a different instrument. One day my Dad brought home an accordion; in shear terror I begged and pleaded to take guitar lessons. So I faithfully took the lessons and practiced on a rental guitar for nearly a year. My Mom went to Tracy Studio of Music in Bellflower, CA and bought a new Guild full scale M-65 for $220 and I got it as a combined December birthday and Christmas present when I was 13. A couple of years later I bought a beautiful late 50’s Guild Capri/T100 and my M-65 was left as a practice guitar for my friends and my brother’s friends to learn to play guitar.

Fast forward ten years and I had made my share of bad decisions. I needed money. I had already sold my Guild Capri and now I called my brother, he was still playing, to see if he knew anyone who would buy my M-65. Luckily he had a buyer and my Guild and first guitar was gone. So I was left with a single guitar, a freight damaged Ventura Classical. As time went on I straighten out my life, got a decent job, bought a house, got married, and settled down.

Fast forward another five years or so, I’m over at my Mom’s house with my wife and I’m talking about my Guilds and my Mom goes to her room and comes back with a guitar case in her hand… my M-65. She said she was the buyer and that she just didn’t want me to sell my first guitar because I needed a hundred bucks. She wasn’t going to give it back to me until she was convinced I had turned things around. She said she knew I would regret selling it someday. Since then I have acquired more guitars, played bass at our church; but it all started with my M-65.

So here it is hangtag, brochure and all…

http://photos.imageevent.com/70ssano/gu ... G_3029.JPG
 

Jeff

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She said she was the buyer and that she just didn’t want me to sell my first guitar because I needed a hundred bucks

Far out !! :D
 

West R Lee

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Cool that you kept all of the paperwork, I wish I had. Heck, I remember when I was young and less enlightened, I considered pulling the Guild tag out of the soundhole of my D25. Glad I didn't.

West
 

70sSanO

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What my Mom did was unbelievable. It chokes me up every time I think about it.

As for the paper work, well that's my Mom again. She had file cabinets and kept records for everything the family did. I even have report cards from the 1st grade!
 

dreadnut

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Great story, 70s! :D

When I went in the Navy, I think my mom gave away all my stuff, I'm surprised she didn't rent out my room! Of course, I brought my guitar with me to my first duty station, where it promptly got ripped off :evil:

However, rest her soul, she did get me started by buying me my first guitar when I was 15 years old, an old classical that I strung with steel strings :lol:
 
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Hey guys,

I'm new here, but I thought I'd share my story anyways, after reading so many great others.

My dad bought his black '79 S-300D back in early 1980 brand new. I think he said it was $350 bucks or something like that, he couldn't afford a Les Paul at the time, thank God :D

He played in his fairly succesfull rock band around the local clubs and it was his #1 guitar for years and years. Referencing to another post about how someone romaced his wife with a guitar and a good singing voice, and thats what happened.

Fast forward to 1988. My mother is pregnant with me (yeah im a young whippersnapper), and my dad is still playing every Saturday night out with his band. He'd practice down in the basement with a small PA and his Marshall almost every night, so I was loving the sound this guitar made even before I was born.

When I was a young child growing up, I would always love to listen to him sing and play at home all the time. I would sit down there and hang out with him while he played the Guild, while he waxed it and restrung it and I loved being around it.

When I was about 6 or 7 years old I started taking a real interest in music, and learned how to play the bass guitar and the trumpet. I soon got bored of that and wanted to broaden my musical horizon so to speak so I asked my father to teach me how to play the guitar. He grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and sat me down with his Ovation accustic and a few basic chords, and I went from there.

So around 1996 my parents got divorced and I was lucky enough to be able to see both of them about equal amounts. My dad had to sell off alot of his stuff for obvious reasons, and tried to sell the Guild, but to no avail. Thank God again :D


Fast forward again to December 2006. I consider myself a pretty good musician and I own 3 or 4 nice guitars and a couple good amps. My dad doesn't really play much music any more because of an injury to his left hand. He can still do it, but he gets frustrated easily. He begins to sell off all of his PA equipment and guitars.

So fate lands in my lap as I pop over to his house for a visit one frigid afternoon. He's just about to leave and go to the local music store to trade in a bunch more music gear. I notice the tan color of the Guild hardshell case under a pair of mic stands. I asked him about it and he says that he hardly plays it anymore, and that he hates to see it go. I think to myself "Oh no, no way"

I worked out a deal with him right then before he left for the music store. I went to my car and grabbed my Malmsteen Signature Strat out of the trunk and traded him for the Guilt straight up. I don't care if the Guild isnt worth as much as that Strat, I'm not letting that Guild out of the family, I thought. He sold the Strat and kept the money and I kept the Guild. Best guitar I have ever owned in my life. And what makes it even more special is that my father had me listening to it before I was born, all through my childhood, up untill now. I grew up with that thing, I love it. I truly do. The smell of the black carpeting in the case is one of those smells that brings you right back to when you were 4 years old, sitting on the couch with your dad strummin to "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles.

Theres no more words I can type to describe how much I care about this guitar. It brings a tear to my eye, all of the great memories Ive had with it, and I can't wait to make some more.


Sorry for the long read, but I hope you enjoyed it,
-Alan
 

Jahn

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Hello everyone, since this is my first day on the forums I picked this thread as the most appropriate to say hello. I actually started playing guitar out of necessity more than anything else, since when i was a kid at our church none of us knew how to play, and we were all stuck singing "old fogey hymns" acapella (well, these days some of those sound pretty awesome, which shows that i'm getting closer to old fogey age lol). my mom had this really awful Sekora korean parlor guitar she brought over to the States before I was even born, and was totally forgotten in the closet. So i dug it out, put my fingers down in a pattern that sounded ok (yes, i didn't even buy a chord book or know how to tune!) and we kinda made up our own stuff as i took 20 seconds to move from fake chord to fake chord. how's that for alternate tunings?

once i learned how to tune a guitar and play somewhat decent (learned the major and minor chords, had to tune the Sekora with pliers since it had no keys, had something resembling tennis strings wrapped around the posts 10 times) i got fed up and saved my pennies and got enough to get a used Epiphone with a brass saddle and everything. i don't even remember the model, i just called it "Nabi" ("Butterfly") and that nasty bug snapped strings like no tomorrow on that sharp brass saddle. but that thing was built like a tank (and played like lead cannon, you had to work up to pushing enough air, but that brass saddle really helped project) and that laminate top (laminate everything actually) stood up to everything i threw at it. ah, my black dreadnought. well go figure that eight years later when i was just making my way in the world, some punk kid stole it (out of a church, that jerk!) and pawned it according to the police. i never was able to hunt it down, even though i went to that pawn shop the moment i heard.

well by that time i had enough cash in my pocket to buy a good number of guitars, but none really spoke to me. come to think of it, i haven't named a guitar since. but instead of having a love(/hate) affair, i found my buddy - a beat up little guitar in the middle of nowhere, pennsylvania in a mom and pop guitar shop. the "pop" refused to sell it to me until it was playable, but i knew the lil guy was coming home with me, so i cash advanced him whatever he needed to get him up to snuff. amazingly, none of the cracks went all the way through the body except in the back, which i think the guy just glued together, and he replaced the saddle with some Tusq or something, and popped in some cheapo black plastic saddle pins. he called me to say he should have charged me more for it, and i'd know what he meant when i came over. sure enough, this thing was a mini cannon - no brass saddle needed, this guitar was all character and came about it the honest way. I still have it today, and after looking up a Guild Serial Number database linked from this site I know exactly what the little guy is - a Guild F-30-NT from 1965.

[img:600:800]http://photo.head-fi.org/data/500/DSC00228.JPG[/img]
You can see that I have a Fishman Rare Earth soundhole pickup I can pop off and on which i used to use to gig out with, but after settlilng down with a family only have time to use to record some stuff on my hard drive. I have a feeling he's going to outlive me, so i better name him soon!

Since then, I've been on a serious Guild kick to try and recapture the magic. I've owned a Westerly Guild D-4-12 and JF-30-Blk but they're gone now, and the only acoustic left in the house is my trusty old Aragon. Hey, maybe that's what I'll call him, "Aragon!" it's about time i guess!

This F30 does fingerstyle great, and strums a nice warm mahoghany hum, but someday I'll save serious pennies and get this guy's big brother into the house, the F-50. I've always wanted one, but living in a small apartment, having a huge cannon just didn't make sense. Maybe some day...

Well, thanks for reading all, glad to get all that Guild Love off my chest![/img]
 
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