SFIV1967
Venerated Member
In celebration of Guild’s 60th Anniversary, the iconic American company has officially opened the Guild Custom Shop in New Hartford, Connecticut.
Related to this news a few words about Ren Ferguson.
Ren Ferguson is among the most noted master luthiers in the United States and has been since the 1970s. Many luthiers who wish to follow his style of building have studied his approach to guitar design and building. Ren Ferguson joined Gibson when, in 1986, the company acquired Flatiron Mandolin, where he was head luthier. He was initially hired to run Gibson's factory in Nashville. That plant was later moved to Bozeman, Montana, where Ren also designed the facilities and hired the staff. After 25 years of service to Gibson Guitar's acoustic division, Master Luthier Ren Ferguson had retired from Gibson end of 2011.
Somehow however retirement wasn't his thing yet, so FMIC managed to hire him in 2012. As I see it, he was tasked to build up the acoustic customs shops for both Fender and Guild in New Hartford.
The first Guild guitars he was involved with were the new Doyle Dykes Signature Model in 2012 and the new 60th Anniversary Custom Shop model.
The new Orpheum® Series series is designed by Ron Ferguson!
The GUILD® CUSTOM SHOP in New Hartford showed following new acoustic guitars at NAMM 2013:
- 60th Anniversary Custom Shop
- Orpheum Slope Shoulder 12-Fret Mahogany Dreadnought
- Orpheum Slope Shoulder 14-Fret Mahogany Dreadnought
- Orpheum Slope Shoulder 14-Fret Rosewood Dreadnought
- Orpheum Mahogany Jumbo
- Orpheum Mahogany Orchestra
- Orpheum Rosewood Orchestra
We have discussed the 60th Anniversary Custom Shop model a lot at LTG already, so I concentrate on the new Orpheum® Series.
Now the first question is: Why and what is Orpheum?
Some info I found on the web here:
"ORPHEUM: Instruments previously manufactured in Chicago, IL during the 1930s and 1940s, in Japan during the 1960s, and in Asia, between 2001 and 2006. Instruments Distributed by William L. Lange Company of New York, NY, and by C. Bruno & Son until 1942. Distributed by Maurice Lipsky Music Company, Inc., of New York, NY between 1944 and the early 1970s, by Tacoma Guitars between 2001 and 2004 and by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation between 2005 and 2006. Also see Lange.
The Orpheum trademark goes back to 1901. Orpheum guitars were first introduced by distributor William L. Lange Company of New York in the mid-1930s. The Orpheum brand instruments were also distributed by C. Bruno & Son during this early period. It is estimated that some of the Orpheum models were built in Chicago, IL by the Kay company.
Lange's company went out of business in the early 1940s, but New York distributor Maurice Lipsky resumed distribution of Orpheum guitars circa 1944. The Maurice Lipsky Music Company continued distributing Orpheum guitars, through to the 1960s (see also Domino).
Until more research is done in the Orpheum area, prices will continue to fluctuate. Be very cautious in the distinction between the American models and the later overseas models produced in Japan. "What the market will bear" remains the watchword for Orpheums.
In 2001, Tacoma reintroduced the Orpheum brand name on a line of acoustic instruments. In 2005, when Fender bought Tacoma and related trademarks, Orpheum became only a bluegrass trademark as mandolins, resonators, and banjos were offered. By 2006, Orpheum no longer appeared with Fender the status of the trademark is unknown.
Sources: Tom Wheeler, American Guitars, Orpheum Manufacturing Company catalog courtesy John Kinnemeyer, JK Lutherie."
So FMIC owns the Orpheum brand name.
Hans gave us some additional amazing insider knowledge about some former Guild / Orpheum relationships:
The Orpheum Brand
The "Orpheum" series is a new series to be introduced at NAMM 2013 this week. There is no history about them at Guild in the past. There's something that FMIC doesn't know about Guild history: Here's a photo of an early '50s Guild headstock and next to it a photo of an Orpheum-brand guitar...
letstalkguild.com
Here are my pictures from NAMM. First the complete Custom Shop acoustic wall:
The logo on the right side regarding the custom shop's first model, and the 60th Anniversary Model opposite on the left side.
Upper row from left: Orpheum Rosewood Orchestra / Orpheum Slope Shoulder 12-Fret Mahogany Dreadnought / Orpheum Slope Shoulder 14-Fret Mahogany Dreadnought
Lower row from left: Orpheum Jumbo (Mahogany) / Orpheum Mahogany Orchestra / Orpheum Slope Shoulder 14-Fret Rosewood Dreadnought
And very visible : "Designed by Ren Ferguson" !
Larry Thomas (Fender CEO) and Chris Middaugh (Guild Product Manager) selling the Orpheums to dealers:
Kim Keller's personal opinion about the Orpheum series was:
"The real deal with these guitars is that they are very light and sound awesome. There is almost a total absence of 'bling', and all 6 of those new models we are showing are prototypes. The production guitars likely won't have the blue marquetry on the rosette or back strip, but that may be available - we just don't know yet. I noticed the reaction was either love it or hate it..."
However the people that I talked to found it a "cool" detail!
The following two videos show Chris Middaugh explaining that they are designed and build like guitars made in the 1930ies.
Chris gave this kind of talk a million times at NAMM I believe! Never mind the few words German in the first one, it goes into English after a few seconds, but gives an excellent overview:
To be continued...
Last edited:
