M-75 Aristocrat Question

[RicoWindstar]

I have one of the Gold limited runs of the M-75 Aristocrat and I was just wondering if anyone had information on how many of these were made? Thanks.

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG! I don't know if anyone will have a definitive answer for you. The only thing I know is that I've seen examples with serial numbers from 2013-14 so I assume they were made only for a year or so. And given that sunburst and black finishes were also available during that time, that not too many gold examples were made.

 

[fronobulax]

Welcome.

I'm going to guess more than 20 and else than 100. This is the internet and rumors abound but there was a story (friend of a friend who had a beer with someone who worked for Fender in New Hartford kind of thing or maybe a dealer who had been told by their sales rep) that the Korean plant had tried to make an experimental sunburst finish on a bunch of M-75s. It failed. The finishing department needed more practice. But somewhere a bean counter observed that there was nothing wrong with the instruments except the finish. So the experiment was covered up by refinishing with gold or black and special editions were born.

 

[kakerlak]

Decent question. You used to see a lot of them for sale online. MF had them on a stupid deal of the day some years ago for something like $5-600 and Isuspect a lot of folks tried to flip them on Reverb for a quick couple hundred bucks right after and that some of those have kind of lingered ever since. So they might be disproportionately represented on the resale market, even if there's not really a ton of them.

 

[GAD]

Everything you could ever want to know about the goldtop M75 except how many were made:

Guild Newark St. M75 Aristocrat | GAD's Ramblings

Here we have a 2014 Guild Newark St. M75 Aristocrat in Gold. The gold top (goldtop) was a bit of a limited edition for guild that was only made for about a year before being discontinued, though it was not called a limited edition. Typically available in Antique Sunburst or Black, this guitar is...

www.gad.net

 

[guitarlover]

I have one too. Very classy instrument with a real vintage vibe.

 

[RicoWindstar]

I just emailed Guild to see if they have an answer. I will report back if I hear from them.

 

[RicoWindstar]

The response I received said that they were unsure of an exact number, but he would estimate 1,000 (give or take) were made. That's more than I would have guessed.

 

[GAD]

Today's Guild is notoriously unreliable with any data they give, though I'd have thought they would have better info about the current line of guitars. Still, the goldtops were from the Fender era, so who knows. They were in the catalog for two years so I'd imagine they weren't all that limited.

 

[guitarlover]

It's a very nice guitar anyway. Cool that the guys from Guild took the time to answer !

 

[Walter Broes]

I don't think they were all that limited either. Cool guitars!

 

[fronobulax]

The response I received said that they were unsure of an exact number, but he would estimate 1,000 (give or take) were made. That's more than I would have guessed.

I personally don't trust anything CMG says about instruments or operations prior to the purchase but my distrust does not make the answer wrong

 

[F30]

These are super cool. Wish I still had mine but I ended up selling because I had the opportunity to get my Esquire back and was short on cash.