Do Modern Guild 12 Strings Measure Up To The Excellence of Older Guild 12 Strings?

[timacn]

I know Guild Guitars has moved around a lot: Hoboken, Westerly, Corona, Tacoma New Hartford, etc. etc.

Workers, tooling, designs, etc. inevitably changed.

Are the Guild 12 strings being presently made as good as the Guild 12 strings that established their excellent reputation, or has that excellence suffered from all those moves?

 

[Cougar]

Are the Guild 12 strings being presently made as good as the Guild 12 strings that established their excellent reputation...

I'd say YES, absolutely. It IS fairly amazing that Guild has maintained its excellence through all those moves and ownership changes, but it has!

 

[GGJaguar]

I have to agree with Cougar. The current build quality is superb, but the quality from all eras has always been excellent.

 

[steverok]

I have two Westerlies and an Oxnard. My two favorites are Westerly D212 and Oxnard F512.

 

[Cougar]

I have two Westerlies and an Oxnard. My two favorites are Westerly D212 and Oxnard F512.

Yeah, my favorites are my Corona JF30-12, Oxnard F512, and New Hartford F50R.

 

[twocorgis]

I've played Guild 12 strings from all the plants except Oxnard and all were excellent, but none more so than my 2010 New Hartford made F512.

The slimmer neck profiles of the single truss rod Guild 12ers, which started some time in the later aughts in Tacoma, suits me better, but you can't go wrong with any of them, even the oft maligned Corona models.

 

[merlin6666]

When does older end and modern start?

 

[F312]

I've played Guild 12 strings from all the plants except Oxnard and all were excellent, but none more so than my 2010 New Hartford made F512.

The slimmer neck profiles of the single truss rod Guild 12ers, which started some time in the later aughts in Tacoma, suits me better, but you can't go wrong with any of them, even the oft maligned Corona models.

The cat in the picture could be mine. Mine is a tuxedo cat.

Ralph

 

[Westerly Wood]

I know Ren was in Oxnard at the very beginning.
His presence and initial setup/training/tooling still has to be felt there.
There had to have been some consistency in approach inherited and passed down, even if he was there for nigh 6 months for the transition.
Glad to hear Oxnard is doing so well!

 

[twocorgis]

The cat in the picture could be mine. Mine is a tuxedo cat.

Ralph

It's funny Ralph. I've always had cats, but always considered myself to be more of a dog person until I rescued Joey back in 2007. He was the absolute greatest cat that ever lived, and turned me into a cat person for life.

Sadly, I lost him in the summer of 2018 to acute renal failure, and despite having my ex's Siamese, the house just wasn't the same without a big long haired black cat around, so the hunt was on. After a time, I found Beau, who had been at the Town of Babylon Animal Shelter for a long time. I'll never understand why, but black dogs and cats seem to have a terrible time getting adopted. When I told the shelter I'd take him, the girl in charge of his care was so happy, because he was miserable after living at the shelter for so long, and she was convinced he was going to get euthanized eventually. when I first brought him home, he was a real work in progress, but I'm happy to report that after a year and a half of TLC, he has really turned into a great cat, and has quite a personality. He looks so much better than when I picked him up, too. His coat was in terrible shape then.

I guess this makes me a confirmed black cat person!

 

[Westerly Wood]

I wish my kids were not so allergic to cats. While I grew up a dog person, the older I get, the less I am that anymore. My wife and I prefer cats. She had a great one too but we lost him in the move. He ran out of the duplex when we were moving to a larger duplex, and while we could see him under hedges and around the neighborhood, we could not catch him. He wanted to stay there. And he did. I would drive over there for weeks after the move trying to find him, but no luck.

 

[F312]

Yours have that same look as mine. We were feeding the mother a couple of weeks and one day she brought a litter of eight tiny kittens from under the shed to the door to get fed. I managed to get good homes for two, and four and the mother went missing one at a time. We had a couple of bobcats in the area at the time. We kept two. they stay out all day and come in for the night. It's strange, one of the kittens looked full Siamese. Maybe we should have kept that one, but my intention was to find homes for all. Slipper male & Toot female

 

[merlin6666]

I have to work long hours from home (now on day 16 without break) and as we are under extreme cold warning (-55C) have not left the house in 3 days. The two boys and guitars are instrumental in keeping me somewhat sane.

 

[twocorgis]

I have to work long hours from home (now on day 16 without break) and as we are under extreme cold warning (-55C) have not left the house in 3 days. The two boys and guitars are instrumental in keeping me somewhat sane.

Holy smokes, that's -67ºF

How do you keep everything humidified? It's pretty cold for here right now (15ºF this morning), and in weather like this, I'll go through at least five gallons of water a day keeping the house at 45% RH.

 

[merlin6666]

All instruments in cases with humidifiers. The weekly refilling is a process of its own. We also have a room humidifier in the living room though it is too small for open concept space. Running it all day yesterday just moved RH from 18% to 21%.

 

[twocorgis]

All instruments in cases with humidifiers. The weekly refilling is a process of its own. We also have a room humidifier in the living room though it is too small for open concept space. Running it all day yesterday just moved RH from 18% to 21%.

Wow, that's low! I like to keep myself humidified along with my guitars, so I've used one of these for the last 11 years or so, and it has served me well.

Just set it and forget it, until you need to refill the tanks. Works wonders for eliminating static electricity, too

 

[SFIV1967]

even if he was there for nigh 6 months for the transition.

Ren was still there a bit more than half a year after the first guitars shipped from Oxnard, so that was Jan 2016 till summer 2016. But remember that he was in New Hartford already since early 2012 doing all the Doyle Dykes and Orpheum models and he joined CMG in May 2014 when New Hartford was closed. So all in all 4 1/2 years at Guild and over 2 years of it at CMG!
Ralf

 

[Br1ck]

Back to topic, what is new and what is old is dependent on your age. Some would say any Westerly is old, but I cut old off at about 73 or 74. As to build quality, it's not build quality but age that has me universally enamored with the old guitars. Somewhere around forty years you get a little something special in the tone. And I can't describe it to anyone. I would suspect that Guild realized early on that they were on to something, and resisted the urge to tinker with design.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Ren was still there a bit more than half a year after the first guitars shipped from Oxnard, so that was Jan 2016 till summer 2016. But remember that he was in New Hartford already since early 2012 doing all the Doyle Dykes and Orpheum models and he joined CMG in May 2014 when New Hartford was closed. So all in all 4 1/2 years at Guild and over 2 years of it at CMG!
Ralf

then Ralf, we cannot be surprised with their success of build quality, once they got thru the D20 and M20 initial "jitters"....

 

[Cougar]

Back to topic....

Wait! I haven't put up this pic of Bobby Redford yet....