Mark Dronge R.I.P.

sailingshoes72

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By the way, as I recall, we all owe the existence of Guild dreadnoughts to Mark Dronge!!!
This is confirmed in "The Guild Guitar Book" (1995) by Hans Moust on page 121.

Also from Hans' book: (page15)

"During the 60's Mark was also responsible for "artist relations". He was living in Greenwich Village and spending a lot of time in nightclubs, where he made contact with many musicians. He befriended many top-musicians and had many opportunities to discuss new ideas and take these to his father."

Gilbert Diaz: "Mark's greatest contribution in those days was the fact that he was responsible for the more pop-oriented direction Guild went into. Before that Guild made instruments for the jazz market almost exclusively."

It must have been an exciting time to be hanging out in Greenwich Village and checking out different bands and folk singers at the different venues. It was Mark Dronge that presented John Lennon with a gold-plated Starfire XII Special in 1966, while the Beatles were on tour in the USA. (Photo page 91)

RIP
 
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DrumBob

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I interviewed Mark a few years ago in his office at DR. I called, set up the day and time, arrived, and found out that no one told Mark I was coming. He was gracious enough to give me 45 minutes of his time, I got the information I needed, got a factory tour, thanked him and left. He had a modest collection of vintage Guild guitars, including an archtop he claimed was the first Guild ever made. He told me about presenting the 12 string to John Lennon ("He was my favorite Beatle. I just walked in. There was no security"), and how George Harrison looked a bit peeved that John got the guitar instead of him. Most of you know the story of me and that Guild SF-12.

Mark was the young thorn in his father's side who pushed him to diversify the Guild line and try new things. His innovations are felt to this day. RIP, Mark.

By the way, Mark had nothing good to say about Neil Lilien. We agreed on that one.
 

Westerly Wood

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Did Mark Dronge leave Guild cause of Fender? Why did he not take over when his dad died?
 

chazmo

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Did Mark Dronge leave Guild cause of Fender? Why did he not take over when his dad died?
Oh, I think Mark was gone long before Fender, Woody... But, that's a really good question, especially if Mark was still at Guild when Al's plane crashed in the early '70s.. I don't know the story there, but I also don't think Guild was family-owned at that point, Woody. That's probably why.
 

fronobulax

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Did Mark Dronge leave Guild cause of Fender? Why did he not take over when his dad died?

The timeline at the end of https://www.gad.net/Blog/2017/05/30/guild-guitar-factories/ needs to be mandatory reading for anyone who posts.

Guild was no longer family owned when Dronge's plane crashed and there were two other corporate owners before Fender.

DR Strings was founded in 1989.

In the interview at https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/mark-dronge mark says "the first time I worked for Guild" in a context that could mean he started in 1960, left after that, and returned.

R.I.P. Mark.
 

Westerly Wood

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Thanks Chaz and Frono. Looks like Avnet owned Guild when Al Dronge died.
 

plaidseason

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This is definitely the end of an era. Like nearly everyone here, I'm a big admirer of Al and Mark. What's kind of cool is that it was only after I started using DR Rare strings years back that I realized Mark was the company's founder. It's pretty astounding to realize how much both men have contributed to my enjoyment of music in this life.
 
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