Dadaist
Senior Member
Hmmm......okay, Fred,....Old Is Better Can I go now?valleyguy said:Dadaist said:Not that old is better, just different.
David
Wait, as an old fart, old IS better.......
Hmmm......okay, Fred,....Old Is Better Can I go now?valleyguy said:Dadaist said:Not that old is better, just different.
David
Wait, as an old fart, old IS better.......
valleyguy said:...
I go to McCabes Guitar store in Santa Monica every now and then just to spend time playing their assorted guitars. They have two rooms, a small high-end room and a larger mid-range room. The Guilds always used to be in the mid-range room. Last I was there the D50 and D40 they had was now hanging in the high end room with the Collings, Martins, Goodalls and Taylors. And, I must say they more than held their own...
Ridgemont said:I agree that advertising and celebrity endorsements is what Guild needs to get back in the game. But it needs new blood. Richie Havens is a very talented musician and a legend in his own right, but he is not going to appeal to my demographic or those of the next generation. Look at any band that embraces an acoustic on stage and chances are it will be a Martin, Taylor, or a Gibson. I have always enjoyed the music of Beck, John Mayer, and Ben Harper and they all have signature Martins. Jason Mraz has a signature Taylor. These are just a few artists that appeal to younger generations trying to start a band in their garage. I was happy to see a Dandy Warhols video where they were playing a 12er, but more is needed. Chris Martin from Coldplay played a beat up Guild jumbo a while ago for a TV benefit.
I will even go one step further by saying this is what has always kept Guild behind the other big 2 or 3: exposure.Ridgemont said:I agree that advertising and celebrity endorsements is what Guild needs to get back in the game.
This is exactly the right advice. I have only heard *one* person actually complain about their guitar getting too loud and too rich over the years of ownership of a guitar. On the other hand, I have heard *many* people complain about buying a guitar that they'd hoped would "open up" over time but ended up just never bonding with it.fronobulax said:[ ... ]
I'll also note, in a time of instant gratification, if I can A/B two guitars then I am going to buy the one that sounds the best Today and not the one that might sound better when they have both aged 5 years. If it is really true that guitars get better with age then if two instruments were of comparable quality when they were created then I'm going to end up with the older one every time.
At LMG 2010, I wondered if you were getting deaf... :wink:Chazmo said:I only buy guitars that speak to me (or, in the case of Guilds, shout at me)
fronobulax said:@ Dennis - you didn't really stir up a hornet's nest. It's always there under the surface. The only thing you did that I wondered about was starting the thread based upon GSR which is by definition rare, expensive and exclusive.
@ West - So what you seem to be saying is that you can't even compare a 34 year old guitar to a new one. By that logic it would seem that you never should compare a NH to Westerly because there will always be at least a 5 year difference in age. By the same token, if that kind of comparison doesn't make sense then you can't compare Hoboken and Westerly either. That logic doesn't lead me to anywhere useful but it does raise a question - at what age does a guitar stop changing? If the age is X then comparing two guitars that are X or older should be a lot closer to a fair comparison than comparing a guitar younger than X with just about anything. Is there a value of X that would be true for (say) 80% of the acoustic guitars sold in the USA or does the question just lead off into the realm of the intangible and unmeasurable? If there is an X then it will tell us when we can start to compare NH and Westerly because the former will have matured and the latter will have stopped changing.
I'll also note, in a time of instant gratification, if I can A/B two guitars then I am going to buy the one that sounds the best Today and not the one that might sound better when they have both aged 5 years. If it is really true that guitars get better with age then if two instruments were of comparable quality when they were created then I'm going to end up with the older one every time.
Dennis M said:I just played for the first time today, a new F-30R and a new F-40. These are from the new factory in Connecticut. I was impressed with both instruments. They are part of the new “GSR” series. The F-30R had some nice inlay, much like the F-50 and D-55.
Both guitars had a nice price tag to go with the glam and glitz. Around $2000 for each. Which caused me to wonder, if I am going to lay out that much for an acoustic guitar, then I am going to shop around a bit, before I just go with a Guild.
Which makes me ask, why do we love our Guilds? Is it because the old ones sound so good, and at the time, at a great price? I know that's why I purchased my first; it was much cheaper than what I really wanted, which was a D-28, but couldn't afford it. And yes, it did sound really good, and still does.
There is nothing like the sound of an old Guild D-35, or D-40 for that matter, and you can still get these babies for a few hundred dollars, just under a thousand in most cases. I love the trio, which includes a dusty old 1970s F-212, that sits in my house today. Got them for a good price, and, yes, they sound fantastic. I could go on and on, but my point here is . . .
The new ones are really pricey, up there with Bourgeois (sp?), Larivee, even some Martins, etc. Do we want these new models, pay the high prices just because they are Guilds, out of loyalty to the old name, or should we shop around for the guitar that really speaks to us.
If I am going to shell out that much money, then I will shop around, try different brands. That is how I chose my D-50 back in 1982. Had a budget, and tried about a dozen different models, and narrowed it down to the one I have today.
Just my humble opinion.
Dennis M
West R Lee said:Or to get them in the hands of those that play CMT for example. No, you're not seeing double.....two DV52's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePrQynrmspU
West
I remember the first time I "saw" you say that..I knew my D25 was pretty special even for a Guild, and I felt so validated! :lol: I have to admit I suspect that WAS Guild's "golden age" even though I have no experience with a Tacoma or New Hartford. I stand by my hope that the New Hartfords will prove to be every bit as good if not better than those Westerlys (even though those open tuners are already a minus to me), because then I can relax knowing I can still buy a new Guild to raise that will be worth the effort..West R Lee said:.. I do believe that some of the very best Guild guitars were built in Westerly AFTER Fender took over..West
adorshki said:I remember the first time I "saw" you say that..I knew my D25 was pretty special even for a Guild, and I felt so validated! :lol: I have to admit I suspect that WAS Guild's "golden age" even though I have no experience with a Tacoma or New Hartford. I stand by my hope that the New Hartfords will prove to be every bit as good if not better than those Westerlys (even though those open tuners are already a minus to me), because then I can relax knowing I can still buy a new Guild to raise that will be worth the effort..West R Lee said:.. I do believe that some of the very best Guild guitars were built in Westerly AFTER Fender took over..West
Ah, I remember that too. A printout of that post is tucked into my copy of Hans' book. But nothing wrong with refreshing the group memory and making it a little easier to find for any guests who may be lurking about, as I used to do!West R Lee said:Well I'll tell ya what I base that on Al. One of the guys that worked for several years at Westerly has told me that when Fender took Guild over, they implemented a bunch of quality control that had not previously been in place at Westerly.
adorshki said:I remember the first time I "saw" you say that..I knew my D25 was pretty special even for a Guild, and I felt so validated! :lol: I have to admit I suspect that WAS Guild's "golden age" even though I have no experience with a Tacoma or New Hartford. I stand by my hope that the New Hartfords will prove to be every bit as good if not better than those Westerlys (even though those open tuners are already a minus to me), because then I can relax knowing I can still buy a new Guild to raise that will be worth the effort..West R Lee said:.. I do believe that some of the very best Guild guitars were built in Westerly AFTER Fender took over..West