Hello - Newbie introduction

[JimB1]

Just a note to introduce myself to everyone.

I'm 37 and have been playing Irish flute off and on for a couple of years and I just started playing guitar a few weeks ago. I bought a used Taylor Big Baby to practice on and will be starting lessons in the next week or two but hopefully will progress at a decent rate. Right now I'm just trying not to gain any bad habits before lessons start

I'm hoping to avoid the GAS that I've read so many others complain about I managed to mainly do that with the flute however it was a bit easier, no mass marketing outlets for Irish flutes around like there are for guitars...

Anyway, eventually I will probably like to have something in a full size, solid wood guitar and while I have loads to learn before I deem myself ready to start seriously looking for one, gathering info on these things is always fun. Like flipping though magazines to look at the latest Motorcycles/Hot rods/Computers/etc (fill in the blank with whatever you are into) :mrgreen:

Right now, I really have no particular bias towards any brand but I do have a bent towards made in USA products. This is not to say that I will buy any product just because it says made in the USA. If the quality is there, I am willing to pay a premium for the USA product over a foreign made alternative even if they are made to the same standards and I can't tell the difference between the two without the labels. Not really a economical choice on my part and I can't always stick to it but I try...

So with this in mind, seem to be a ton of American Boutique makers out there (Santa Cruz, Froggy Bottom, etc) but to be honest I don't think my playing will be good enough to rate the cash outlay for one of those ($3500+) for a few years at least. That leaves the manufacturers that produce all or some production lines in the US (Breedlove, Martin, Taylor, Guild, Ovation, Gibson and Washburn) I think that's the whole list, might have missed one or two though.

Which leads me here looking for info on Guild, one of the top names around. They seem to be having some issues since Fender took over but hopefully they are being hammered out and things will get moving soon. I'm not completely averse to getting a used guitar however when we get into $xxxx sums I prefer to have warrantees and customer support. I'm pretty handy and I'm sure in a few years I'll feel perfectly comfortable cleaning up and old guitar and making it sound like new again however at this stage in the game, I can change strings, tune the guitar and use a dampit correctly and that's about it. :roll:

Well, now that I've written a small pamphlet explaining my immediate thoughts, hopefully I haven't scared everyone too much and you will all still be willing to pass along any tips, tricks or advice as I try and learn how to play, even if I don't have a Guild just yet.

Thanks for reading...
-Jim

 

[GardMan]

Jim,
Welcome to LTG! You will get as many opions here as ther are members... tho' we all pretty much agree that just about any Guild will give you a lot of bang for your buck. Spend some time browsing the forums. There're a lot of posts about specific models and styles for different musical tastes. As for me, I am into dreads, as you might tell from the list of Guilds in my sig. I won't go into more detail, now... except to say you can find some pretty good used Guilds for not a lot of cash (<$500-600, in some cases)... quality you would be hard-pressed to find in new American guitars in the same price range.
Dave

 

[West R Lee]

JimB....

Hmm, name sounds familiar.......oh well, can't quite put my finger on it. I don't think you'll find a sould here that won't tell you that Guild is absolutely the best value in just about any guitar, acoustic or electric. There just is not a better brand for the money than Guild, and I don't get a penny, or anything else for telling you that.

On the issues since Guild was bought by Fender? Those issues are far more build location specific than the simple fact that Fender bought them. Fender bought Guild in '95, but fabulous guitars continued to come out of Westerly until 2001. Then Fender moved Guild to California, and that's where there were the vast majority of manufacturing problems. After Corona, California, Fender moved production to Tacoma, Washington, somewhere around 2005 I guess, and by all accounts, some really great guitars were built there. Now Fender is trying to move production once again to Connecticut and I don't think the first Guilds have come out of there yet.

Get a Westerly or Tacoma built Guild and you'll never regret it. Welcome to the site and feel free to ask a bunch of questions. These guys are pretty sharp.

West

 

[Scratch]

Hi JimB and welcome to LTG. Hope your first guitar is a Guild you'll be proud of. I also prefer American made acoustics; my first Guild was January 2007 and I must admit, I'm hooked. Good luck and have fun in your search...

 

[playsvintageguilds]

Welcome to the family JimB!
Happy Holidays!
Ask Santa for a vintage Guild,naughty or nice. :lol:

 

[Graham]

Hi Jim, welcome to LTG.

This is great place for info on many guitars as many of the members here have quite an assortment of various styles and makes.

My advice would to play as many as you can while you continue to learn on the Taylor. You'll feel and hear the differences in each and one or more will grab your attention. If it's a Guild so be it. Perhaps in that time as well you'll realize just what value a used guitar will represent. I can't see myself buying a new one again.

Try to get to a local guitar show if you can too. Lots to play with there, and you might just meet an LTG member as well. :mrgreen:

 

[killdeer43]

Welcome Jim,

The best thing I can say to you at this very important juncture in your life is to paraphrase a bit of advice from the past.....
Go Westerly, young man!

Cheers,
Joe

 

[cjd-player]

Hello Jim, and welcome to the forum.

Lots of good advise above from folks who know, so I won't add anthing else.
Hope you find a Guild that you fall in love with.

 

[kitniyatran]

Hi, welcome a board!
Having owned over the years Ovation and Martin acoustic(prior to my current Guild), and Fender, Peavey, & Guild electric guitars, & played lots of others, I honestly believe you can't beat the value of Guild. Best value for the money, & quality that matches or beats guitars priced 2 - 4 times as high.

 

[coastie99]

Hi Jim and welcome.

We are all anxiously awaiting the outcome of the latest move by Fender.

A word of advice.... don't discount out of hand, a made in Corona acoustic. You may just get a bargain because of the (largely supposed) Corona stigma. I don't think I've seen any opinion that the build-quality suffered there, but there were finishing problems. And then, not with every guitar that went out the door. I bought a Corona F47RCE "second" and was very hard pressed to find the finish fault. On the other hand, a couple of others that I saw were very severely lacquer-checked.

And the bottom line is, of course, if it sounds right to you, it doesn't matter a toss where it was made !

Best of luck,

Gary.

 

[JerryR]

Hi Jim B - welcome to the crew :mrgreen:

 

[chazmo]

Welcome aboard, Jim.

I'll warn you, though, that this is not a good place to fight GAS.

 

[Guildmark]

Howdy, Jim.

One of the questions commonly asked when trying to assist anyone choosing a guitar: "What type of music do you want to play? Blues? Folk? Gospel? Irish?" Since you've got that genre already going on, can we assume that's what you want to play?

Next important question: Are you planning to accompany yourself on the Irish flute? :?

Get back to us when you've got that part figured out, and we'll likely forward you to Hatted Frau. :roll:

Post well. Post often.

 

[JimB1]

One of the questions commonly asked when trying to assist anyone choosing a guitar: "What type of music do you want to play? Blues? Folk? Gospel? Irish?" Since you've got that genre already going on, can we assume that's what you want to play?

Howdy, Jim.

One of the questions commonly asked when trying to assist anyone choosing a guitar: "What type of music do you want to play? Blues? Folk? Gospel? Irish?" Since you've got that genre already going on, can we assume that's what you want to play?

Next important question: Are you planning to accompany yourself on the Irish flute? :?

Get back to us when you've got that part figured out, and we'll likely forward you to Hatted Frau. :roll:

Post well. Post often.

Well, I like a lot of the Irish and folk music already. Irish and Appalachian music are related so that runs right into bluegrass and county. I also listen to just about every other kind of music as well.

I really like southern rock (Lynyrd Skynard, Molly Hatchett, etc) and older rock (Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc) and George Thorogood, The Allman Brothers, Muddy Waters, Pink Floyd, and of course Elvis.

I'm all over the place in what I listen to on the radio though; classical, R&B, Blues, Soul, Rock, Pop, Country. I've even found some Rap that I like. Just to clarify, I'm not knocking Rap it's just that the amount of rap that is out there is huge compared to say new R&B or Blues music and like with any other genre, there's a large percentage that is B-side material at best so you have to sort though to find the good stuff which is time consuming so usually I pass on the rap radio stations but occasionally I'll hear something in passing that I think is pretty good.

Anyways, I think that's probably my guitar progression right there; Irish/Appalachian/folk, Blugrass. Country, Southern Rock, Classic Rock (I know I wrote a book to answer a simple question )

As far as accompanying myself on flute, I have garageband. I can multitrack record so maybe... Let's see how I do. :twisted:

Thanks for responding (and to everyone else for the welcome as well!)

 

[krysh]

welcome from germany

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Hey B1, nice to see another Jersey Guy here!

 

[Tony Burns]

Welcome Jim !

You might find just the perfect US made Guild that might really surprise you.I recently picked up a 79 Guild D-25CH that is one of the nicest sounding Mahognay guitars ive ever played , for about 1/3 of what a used Martin D-18 might go for . We all have our own opinions about whats better Fender-Guilds , or Guild-Guilds ( Im a pre-fender guy myself) but nobody will argue the fact that a Guild is twice the Guitar for half the money. by the way im not just blowing smoke i own many guitars including a wonderful Martin ( That i love as well)

 

[taabru45]

Hi Jim, welcome, you are in good company, and you will learn a lot here, from some of the finest and well informed people you could run across. We have even gone to great trouble and expense to give you a glimpse into what we are all about here. So welcome and enjoy....Steffan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYS9gpoD ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBocef6i ... re=related