Last Westerly Guitar

hansmoust

hansmoust

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LastAAowner said:
The guitar was completely redesigned by Benedetto. There is nothing left of the original Artist Award other than the headstock and tail piece.
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Hello LastAAowner,

That's only partly true. Compared to the Artist Award from the last, say ...... 25 years, I would agree but for a big part it was going back to the original Guild Johnny Smith Award model specs. from the '50s, mixed with Bob's idea's of what a modern acoustic/electric archtop should be. The result was an improved 'Guild Johnny Smith Award' with various structural and cosmetical refinements of which the change to X-bracing was probably the most significant one. After that it was only natural for Guild to ask Johnny Smith back on board, which eventually resulted in the return of the Guild Johnny Smith Award.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl
 
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LastAAowner

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Thank you, Hans. I stand corrected. Of the three AA's that I've owned over the years I believe the oldest was from 1979. I have no idea what the originals from the 50's were like. There have been so many versions of the Johnny Smith model that it is hard to keep track. And in each case the specifications were different from one company to the next.

I'm just very glad to have purchased the AA I have now. The next time I try to sound like an expert I will be sure to check your book first which is a must read for anyone interested in Guild guitars.

I should also thank Hideglue for the setup photo. I would welcome any piece of provenance that might exist out there.
 
fronobulax

fronobulax

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hideglue said:
lastguild.jpg
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Is that a Guild Neck rod wrench in action?
GuildWrench%20003.jpg
 
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adorshki

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hideglue said:
In my decade or so there I had never seen any tool branded w/ a Guild logo
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Whoah, "necro-thread"!
:smile:
On the other hand I think it'd make a great sticky, I seem to recall unsuccessfully searching for it a couple of times over the years.
But to the real point, Frono showed a pic once of a tool like the one pictured that had "Guild" engraved on the handle in a simple all-caps font, not any of the copyrighted styles.
(Maybe that's what the broken link was?)
It occurs to me now that it may have been photo-shopped as a gag that went over my head, but at the time I assumed it was simply what they supplied with the guitars at some point, maybe never used in plant?
 
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bobouz

bobouz

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Congrats - What a treasure!

I'm a big fan of solid spruce X-braced archtops. Had a carved-top 1930s Ward (made by Gibson), that was tonally my favorite acoustic archtop ever, but the large V-shaped neck was not to my liking. So when the solid (pressed) top Newark Series A-150b with X-bracing was released at a very affordable price, I had to jump on one. From a long distance, it's as close as I'll ever get to an Artist Award!
 
The Guilds of Grot

The Guilds of Grot

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adorshki said:
But to the real point, Frono showed a pic once of a tool like the one pictured that had "Guild" emgraved on the handle in a simple all-caps font, not any of the copyrighted styles.(Maybe that's what the broken link was?)
It occurs to me now that it may have been photo-shopped as a gag that went over my head, but at the time I assumed it was simply what they supplied with the guitars at some point, maybe never used in plant?
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I can attest to the fact that there is/was indeed a Guild branded 1/4" nut driver with a red translucent handle as Frono was kind enough to donate it to the Guilds of Grot Museum! I believe it made an appearance at the last get together at the GoG Vault.

If Photobucket wasn't holding me hostage you could see it in the photos below!

GuildWrench20001.jpg


GuildWrench20003.jpg


(Although, the one in the photo looks to be a little longer then the Guild one!)
 
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bobouz

bobouz

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Yikes - Took another look to see that this thread is ten years old!

Regardless, a wonderful guitar.
 
Nuuska

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adorshki said:
Whoah, "necro-thread"!
:smile:
On the other hand I think it'd make a great sticky, I seem to recall unsuccessfully searching for it a couple of times over the years.
But to the real point, Frono showed a pic once of a tool like the one pictured that had "Guild" engraved on the handle in a simple all-caps font, not any of the copyrighted styles.
(Maybe that's what the broken link was?)
It occurs to me now that it may have been photo-shopped as a gag that went over my head, but at the time I assumed it was simply what they supplied with the guitars at some point, maybe never used in plant?
Click to expand...


Here is a pic of mine - it was available for anybody through retailers.


img_3569.jpg
 
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adorshki

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Nuuska said:
Here is a pic of mine - it was available for anybody through retailers.
img_3569.jpg
Click to expand...
There ya go...without the original pic I could only recall the font, see now it was "hot-stamped" with white ink, not easy to photo-shop and why I remembered it as "real".
All I ever got with mine was a simple tool consisting of a socket with a handle mounted on the barrel at a right angle.
On the other hand that one sure makes it easy to see how much of a turn you're giving.
 
fronobulax

fronobulax

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Here are two pics I took before transferring possession to Grot. They have been posted before but WordPress now has copies.

guildwrench-001.jpg


guildwrench-003.jpg


As previously recounted I was fairly new at owning a bass and I knew adjusting the truss rod was something people did. I also tended to believe some jobs required special tools, so I bought the truss rod wrench from Guild. I now know that I bought a 1/4" nut driver with some lettering added by Guild. But I definitely bought it directly from Guild, probably in the 1970's. When I found out Grot did not have one I made arrangements to get it to him. So that is where it is now.
 
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