Aristocrat from Nashville Custom Shop

[Dale Stokes]

I'm trying to find information about an Aristocrat (hollow) owned by a friend who recently passed away; We're trying to keep someone from taking advantage of them concerning what it may worth. I just need to figure out what it is....

This is a picture of the back of the headstock. I'm trying to figure out if this was built at the custom shop in 1998 or if it was an earlier build that was customized/repaired/? there. I've chased several clues and met a lot of dead ends. If DD154 was a serial number, it would fall in a range corresponding to a 1968 Aristocrat. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Default]

I don't recall ever seeing a plate like that on a Guild. More pics of the guitar, please?

 

[SFIV1967]

Welcome to LTG. Yes we definitely need much more pictures of the entire guitar. With seeing all parts and the built we can tell you what it is.

But I would say with almost 99% probability that what I see in your picture is an after 2012 built Guild Newark St. M-75 Aristocrat made in Korea and not a 1968 Guild model! The shape of the headstock is not a vintage Guild shape and also not a Nashville shape. So that Guitar could not have been to the Nashville Custom Shop ever. Don't be offended if I say this please. More pictures will tell.

Also a better picture of that specific area would be good up to the top of the entire headstock.



I wonder if this is the front of that very guitar?



What about a possibility that he once really owned a 1968 one with S/N DD 154 and he knew somebody in the custom shop in 1998 who did work on it for him?
And by whatever reason that guitar is no longer and was replaced after 2012 with a new model and he kept the plate and screwed it on the new guitar?

I believe when you remove the pickups in one of the cavities would be a label with serial number starting with KSG and the two numbers afterwards are the year made, below a 2014 example.



And also the pickups would have labels with BHK.


I hope that will help you finding out more about that guitar.

Ralf

 

[mavuser]

Guild Custom shop and Corona shop have placed a number of different screened logos on the back of headstocks, but I don't think they would have ever screwed a metal badge like that into the back side of a headstock. I have never seen that before. I would expect a badge like that to be screwed into the hard case for the guitar, possibly, or be incorporated into a display case of some sort.

Nashville CS did produce some custom one-off Guilds, and there is a chance they replaced the neck on a 60's Aristocrat, but as Ralf said we would definitely need more and better photos, as what we are looking at right now mostly resembles a Koren made Aristocrat neck from after 2012.

But anything is possible, just show us more photos.