GAD's Are They Considered "Real" Guild Guitars?

[Westerly Wood]

poly finish or not, granted i like the niro better, this GAD50 sounded amazing. so long as i dont get lead poisoning, i am gonna get the gad.... :mrgreen:

 

[capnjuan]

poly finish or not, granted i like the niro better, this GAD50 sounded amazing. so long as i dont get lead poisoning, i am gonna get the gad.... :mrgreen:

Hi Woodie; the musical expression 'Licks' has to do with the hands and fingers, not the tongue. Didja see the thread on 'Waking Up a Top'? Read here I'd have to think the more the guitar was played, the faster the top/finish would loosen up ... unless you bought the one with the clear epoxy over spruce ... :wink: .. how's the hand? cj

 

[fronobulax]

Would you want to buy a sculpture built by a sculptor with 2 years of experience or 20?

Bad analogy because it depends upon the sculpture and the intended purpose. Maybe I want to scare the deer in my yard with something hideous :lol:

An artist creates things one at a time. Ideally each item is the best that s/he can produce and often lessons learned making the last one are incorporated in the next one so there is the potential for continual process and product improvement. There is often room for individual expression.

A craftsman (sorry ladies) usual has the soul of an artist but is constrained to make multiple items that are as close to identical as possible. Depending upon the object it is often a compliment to a craftsman that a lay person cannot tell the difference between two examples of the person's work.

An assembly line has no soul but produces items that are as close to identical as humanly possible.

These are points on a line and of course there are variations, such as a craftsman luthier working with an assembly line to produce what should be a better guitar because of his/her involvement.

Bottom line though is the means of production may or may not be a predictor of "quality" especially with something as subjective as a "good" guitar. Way too many variables to make generalizations that apply across the board.

Personally, I want a "good" guitar at a price that I can afford and my definition of "good" does not change just because an instrument comes off an assembly line. I'm sure, as I become a better player and more sensitive to what I want from a guitar, my definition of good will change and I may eventually be driven to craftsmen and artists because I can't get what I want otherwise. But I'm not there yet.

YMMV.

 

[Westerly Wood]

poly finish or not, granted i like the niro better, this GAD50 sounded amazing. so long as i dont get lead poisoning, i am gonna get the gad.... :mrgreen:

Hi Woodie; the musical expression 'Licks' has to do with the hands and fingers, not the tongue. Didja see the thread on 'Waking Up a Top'? Read here I'd have to think the more the guitar was played, the faster the top/finish would loosen up ... unless you bought the one with the clear epoxy over spruce ... :wink: .. how's the hand? cj

hahahahaha! so i have been wrong all along, i alwYs thought playing licks was....
hey cj! the wrist is going slow. i am trying not to rush it. but wow, was i impressed with the GAD50. and i wasnt crying over the poly finish either. way better than satin for me anyway. not as nice as my wife's J-45, but this guit is like a 1/3 of the cost. i am gonna go play it again saturday and see how it plays and sounds after a couple days away. but man, if i had only 600 bucks, this is the best rosewood dread on the planet right now. :mrgreen:

 

[ajgorman]

My poor little $.02 is as long as it says Guild and it meets the standards of expected quality and workmanship thereby represented, and it plays and sounds great - that's good enough for me.

One of the absolute finest sounding and loudest dreads I have ever played was the GAD50PCE model I had for a short time before I returned it for undisclosed seller issues. If it would have had a 1 & 3/4 nut I would have kept it despite the minor cosmetic flaws. I didn't care that it was made in China...it's a great guitar.

 

[Tim]

Bad analogy because it depends upon the sculpture and the intended purpose.

Analogy was done to the extreme but still proves the point. Product suffers with new/inexperienced workers, management, etc. The corona facility being case in point.

Personally, I want a "good" guitar at a price that I can afford and my definition of "good" does not change just because an instrument comes off an assembly line.

Exactly right. Thats why i didnt mention "good" or "bad". Good is subjective and as such one person can think one guitar is great and another can think the same exact guitar is poor. Remember though that when comparing price the lower end Guilds from Westerly were in the same price range as the Guilds coming from China. If you had the choice of getting a dce1 or an m20 (westerly) vs a gad40 what would you get?

 

[ajgorman]

Because I am deathly anal about the condition of an item, I would need to see, and then especially play and feel. If all were equal, I would lean to the older models. If the GAD was clearly better, I would go with it. :?

 

[Firebird]

People!

The question at hand is "Are GADs considered real Guild guitars?"

The question is NOT "do GADs sound good?"
The question is NOT "is the quality of craftsmanship any good?"

GADs do sound great for the money and are built really well.

But are they real Guilds just because you slap a Guild logo on the headstock?

As good as they are for the short money Guild wants for them, I say no because they are still not in the same league as the American Guilds. Do you consider the asian Martin imports in the same arena as their D-45 or OM-45? I'm sure Martin's asian imports sound good for the money but they will never have the clasic sound that Martin is famous for. The same thing with Guild GAD guitars. They sound great for the money but don't have that classic Guild tone.

I would certinly own a GAD Guild but in my mind, it will always have an asterick next to the name. I'm not ready to relinquish my love affair for the classic Guild tone.

 

[Metalman]

I agree with Firebird's comments.
On the job the other day, someone had commented on how cool the mini-Marshal amp stacks were, and how good they sounded. This person was not a guitar player, and I immediatly set him straight - those little amps (a small head, and two small bottoms, to look like a miniature stack) are not Marshalls, but solid-state amplifiers made to look like Marshals, but the real Marshal sound is from its tube circuitry, either 50 watt or 100 watt. Marshall is looking to snare a market filled with young guitar players who cannot afford $1800 for a traditional stack, and they make these little toys, and slap the Marshall name plate and color on them.

The same thing with the GADs. It is a marketing thing. Guild is attracting a larger share of the market by offering good quality guitars from a cheaper labor force, and keeping the price low.

If I am on stage, and the band is cooking, and it is my turn to take a lead, I've got a good Fishman pickup on my GAD F-30PCE (which I don't own - yet) the E.Q. is right, and everything else is kosher, I don't care if this guitar was made in China, or Tacoma. It is what works for a given situation.

 

[Westerly Wood]

People!

As good as they are for the short money Guild wants for them, I say no because they are still not in the same league as the American Guilds. Do you consider the asian Martin imports in the same arena as their D-45 or OM-45? I'm sure Martin's asian imports sound good for the money but they will never have the clasic sound that Martin is famous for. The same thing with Guild GAD guitars. They sound great for the money but don't have that classic Guild tone.

I would certinly own a GAD Guild but in my mind, it will always have an asterick next to the name. I'm not ready to relinquish my love affair for the classic Guild tone.

but the asian martin guits sounded like crap. these guild china imports sound really great. tonally, only a usa guild could surpass them. which is what one would expect for the $....really, the GAD 50 i played last night sounded and felt better than most usa brands, at any price point. really, i was stupified. and i used to be a martin snob. :mrgreen:

 

[Mr_LV-19E]

Re: GAD's Are They Concidered "Real" Guild Guitars?

So my next question is,
how will the GAD's value hold up in a few years?
I just don't see them holding the same margin of value as the American guitars do.

I don't know about that, I see an awful lot of GAD's selling used for a couple hundred less than you can buy a new one for. Yet I'm having trouble getting $750 for a 10 month old $2000 guitar that sells for $1400 new. Will the GAD's hold their value years from now? Who knows but my guess is they will because their initial price is less.

 

[capnjuan]

and i used to be a martin snob.

A good thing to have formerly been. If I was taking my guitar to the beach, mountains, desert, camping, outdoors for any length of time, family get-togethers or gatherings, if it was going to be exposed to my friend's ralphing or stepping on it, or if it'd spend a lot of time in the back of my jeep or pickup, or if I was at Union Grove or Galax or anywhere people care alot more about 'how' you play and not 'what' you play or how well-heeled you are, make mine a GAD.

 

[Tim]

If I was taking my guitar to the beach, mountains, desert, camping, outdoors for any length of time, family get-togethers or gatherings, if it was going to be exposed to my friend's ralphing or stepping on it, or if it'd spend a lot of time in the back of my jeep or pickup, or if I was at Union Grove or Galax or anywhere people care alot more about 'how' you play and not 'what' you play or how well-heeled you are, make mine a GAD.

thats what my takamine's for

 

[West R Lee]

Boy, I'm stayin' out of this one, but you can probably guess from my screen name what I might think.

West

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

Re: GAD's Are They Concidered "Real" Guild Guitars?

[quote="Taylor Martin Guild":b5b96]So my next question is,
how will the GAD's value hold up in a few years?
I just don't see them holding the same margin of value as the American guitars do.

I don't know about that, I see an awful lot of GAD's selling used for a couple hundred less than you can buy a new one for. Yet I'm having trouble getting $750 for a 10 month old $2000 guitar that sells for $1400 new. Will the GAD's hold their value years from now? Who knows but my guess is they will because their initial price is less.[/quote:b5b96]
I'm not sure what you are saying.
Was your guitar $1400 or $2000 when you bought it?
What brand and model? Most shops will give 1/2 the new value on a guitar that you want to trade back in. That amount would be $750, right?
Keep an American guitar in good shape for 10 years or more, and it will sell for what you paid for it or more.
At least that has been my experience.

 

[capnjuan]

thats what my takamine's for

You should consider upgrading to a Guild! 8)

 

[chazmo]

Boy, I'm stayin' out of this one, but you can probably guess from my screen name what I might think.

West

Hey, West, until you just mentioned this, I didn't get it!

 

[Graham]

Hey, West, until you just mentioned this, I didn't get it!

Funny 'cause unless West mentions it he doesn't get it either. :wink:

 

[West R Lee]

Yep, I really have to think about it to remember......or just look at one of my guitars! :mrgreen:

West

 

[chazmo]

I guess I'm going to have to think about changing my name to Taco Ma.