GLP (Guild Logo Positioning)

Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
879
Reaction score
58
Location
North Hollywood/Burbank, CA
Thanks, Christopher, for the title! LOL

As stated previously in other threads, I am curious about the how and why of the placement of the Guild logo on the headstock.
I kinda thought it had something to do with which factory they came from...but I stumbled onto something that knocks that theory out of the water!

Look at the logo placement on this 2005 F-50R on reverb:

https://reverb.com/item/6360341-guild-f50r-2005-tacoma-natural

Then look at mine... the one I just got from Neal:

tk51mw5.jpg
[/url][/IMG]

Ordinarily no big deal...but these two guitars and just one serial number apart!
I mean, I was just looking for pics of headstock logos, what are the odds that I would find the one that was made just before mine!
My serial # ends with 10, theirs with 09.

Didn't they use some sort of template at the factory? Apparently not. I guess it's just totally random, depending on who put it together.

Kinda cool to stumble across the brother/sister of the guitar I just got, though!
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,789
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
Didn't they use some sort of template at the factory? Apparently not. I guess it's just totally random, depending on who put it together.
I think those overlays would have been made in batches at least, so I don't think it's as if the person working on the necks made a new headstock overlay for each guitar.
(Example: Acornhouse just got an NOS Westerly overly from Hans for his Crossroads build. So obviously Westerly had pre-cut overlays and suspect they continued to do so in Tacoma. It's simply more cost-effective in both time and materials)
Don't know if they were subcontracted and made outside the factory(s) or not.
That's why I mentioned in that other thread that I don't think it was a "planned" change, but if they got a batch that was mis-cut and decided to keep it and use it anyway, that would support my theory.
It could explain why they seem to be consistently "high" as opposed to moving all over the place.
Even if it was an intentional location change, if the batches got mixed on the line, that could explain why the two sequential guitars got different positions.
What would help determine that is if later s/n's than #9 can be found up with the higher logo positions, (or even earlier ones with the lower position)
Kinda cool to stumble across the brother/sister of the guitar I just got, though!
That it is.
 

mavuser

Enlightened Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
8,128
Reaction score
2,636
Location
New York
they are like the waves in the sea...sometimes high, sometimes low!
 

mavuser

Enlightened Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
8,128
Reaction score
2,636
Location
New York
shopping for #2 already RR? u must really like that thing!
 

CosmicArkie

Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
490
Reaction score
19
Location
Texas
Were the overlays produced as rectangular blanks and then glued to the headstock, and then routed out for the binding? The width of the nut would approximate the difference in the placement.

Obviously, I have no clue, just throwing this out there as a curious onlooker.
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,789
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
Were the overlays produced as rectangular blanks and then glued to the headstock, and then routed out for the binding? The width of the nut would approximate the difference in the placement.

Obviously, I have no clue, just throwing this out there as a curious onlooker.

That's a really good question and observation.
It makes a whole lot of sense to me.
Acornhouse has one coming if not already in possession, post #13 here:
http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?193750-Special-project-NGPD
 

GardMan

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
5,359
Reaction score
959
Location
Utah
Guild Total
5
A few years back it was reasonably common to find RECTANGULAR Guild G-shield headstock overlays that had already been inlaid for sale on eBay (including couple with malachite inlay, that I wish I had snagged). Makes me think the overlays were routed and inlaid BEFORE they were glued to the headstock... then glued on and sawed or routed to shape (and for the binding). At least at the Westerly factory...
 
Last edited:

CosmicArkie

Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
490
Reaction score
19
Location
Texas
But were those "real" ones? I recall seeing a few that looked very rough and ragged on the inlays.

And, yes, I was referring to the binding routing after glue-up. Be real tough to get the kind of precision necessary otherwise, I'm thinking.
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,789
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
then glued on and sawed or routed to shape (and for the binding). At least at the Westerly factory...
I think that's what Arkie meant and makes sense to me too.
This makes me realize it might be as simple where (assuming they did) make a cut at the bottom of the rectangle before gluing it on, maybe they were just lax abut placement in Tacoma?

Maybe some of 'em were cut with an allowance for nut width and others weren't?
Would bring Retro's original guess back into play and still tend to support my theory that the placement was "accidental".
 

CosmicArkie

Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
490
Reaction score
19
Location
Texas
I'm thinking cheap imported knock-offs. What I remember was how truly terrible the insert was. Particularly the Chesterfield.
 

GardMan

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
5,359
Reaction score
959
Location
Utah
Guild Total
5
I'm thinking cheap imported knock-offs. What I remember was how truly terrible the insert was. Particularly the Chesterfield.
I am talking things that were available 5 and more years ago... and weren't cheesy. At the time, I think many of us here were convinced that they were real, and likely leftovers from the Westerly factory when it closed. I don't think you would find malachite G-shields (as from the DV-72MK and a couple other models) being made as knock-offs overseas. An LTGer got one of the malachite ones, and had a nice wood pick box made with it. Very sharp looking...

There have been various other loose Guild inlays (not already inlaid into the headstock veneer) available on eBay more recently... most of these are undoubtedly after market knock offs.
 

CosmicArkie

Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2015
Messages
490
Reaction score
19
Location
Texas
I am talking things that were available 5 and more years ago... and weren't cheesy. At the time, I think many of us here were convinced that they were real, and likely leftovers from the Westerly factory when it closed. I don't think you would find malachite G-shields (as from the DV-72MK and a couple other models) being made as knock-offs overseas. An LTGer got one of the malachite ones, and had a nice wood pick box made with it. Very sharp looking...

There have been various other loose Guild inlays (not already inlaid into the headstock veneer) available on eBay more recently... most of these are undoubtedly after market knock offs.

Duh, sorry, my bad.

We _were_ talking about G-Shields and I became fixated on Chesterfields 'cause that's all _I've_ got.

I do wish someone would chime in with knowledge of the actual blow by blow steps taken to prep/finish a neck/headstock, tho.
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,789
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
I do wish someone would chime in with knowledge of the actual blow by blow steps taken to prep/finish a neck/headstock, tho.
There's a paragraph in here:
http://westerlyguildguitars.com/articles/tour.htm
And in the '97-98 Guild gallery there's an article titled "the Construction of a D55, pt 1"
After mentioning the same 39 steps to make a neck that the first article mentions it gets a bit more specific:
(Just after installing the truss rods and cutting dovetail and shaping heel):
"At this point also, headplates, which bear the Guild logo, are glued to the headstock.....After the glue sets the headstock, which at this point is just a rectangle, gets cut into its distinctive shape."
Then the fingerboards are glued on and the neck goes to the shaping process.
That's all the detail I've ever seen, except that Hans mentioned that in Westerly, every single neck was shape-finished by hand, and in the above mentioned article, there's a pic of a guy shaping a heel on a spindle-shaped device that looks to have about a 3-1/2" diameter.
One of the unique things I noticed about my D25 was the neck was one piece (except for the headstock wings), the headstock is not glued with a joint like every guitar I'd owned before that.
That appears to be a constant across the acoustics at least, even the 3 and 5-piece necks.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
879
Reaction score
58
Location
North Hollywood/Burbank, CA
Not that I'm obsessive about this or anything! LOL!
Here's another 2005 Tacoma F-50r with the Guild logo and GShield high on the headstock. Its serial # is well after mine and the other one I posted.
And it's not that I am looking to buy another one, it's just that I get these alerts from reverb when they pop up for sale, and having a curious nature...

https://reverb.com/item/6422812-gui...near-new-with-seymore-duncan-woody-xl-pick-up
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,789
Location
Sillycon Valley CA

DV-72 NT

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
152
Reaction score
5
Location
WI
OK so now maybe you could ask 'em to filter out anything with a logo less than 1/2" from the top of the 'stock.
:glee:
...and upside down trussrod covers. Who needs PTTRC on top of PTLP (Post Traumatic Logo Placement)! :topsy_turvy:
 

jazzmang

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2008
Messages
1,148
Reaction score
0
Location
USA
Fender acknowledged that there were headstock placement irregularities at Tacoma. I had an F-50R replaced because of it.
 
Top