Alec
Junior Member
Hello everyone.
I found you all while looking for some information about Guild's serial numbers and history. I was preparing to purchase an F512 that has a 1971 neck and bridge (with Florentine inlays) on a newer, unmarked, body. The lack of a label, fancy inlays, and obviously newer wood of the body still has me a little confused, but the guitar sounds good and plays well -- so the rest is just important to intellectual curiosity.
My father has had a late sixties 212 XL since before I was born, and after having a really cheap guitar for a while, I bought a JF4 -12NT in 1993. I have never really been happy with that guitar, but finding a jumbo 12 string has not proved an easy task. Many guitar shops seem to think that one acoustic 12 is more than enough, and most 12's seem to be set up for gentle chimey rhythm playing, which isn't what I'm looking for.
I play and sing a lot of John Hurt and Leadbelly songs, and am a definite amateur -- always thinking that I need to make more time to practice and get better. I play with my fingers or finger picks, and eschew amplification.
I gave a copy of the "Guild Guitar Book" to my father for Christmas, but I am still interested in more information about Guild's history and their design & production changes over the years. It seems that neck & nut widths have mostly shrunk over the years, bridges have gotten smaller, string spacing closer, saddles narrower, and I think I read here that there was an increase in soundboard thickness at some point. I am curious about what drove the design philosophy over the years and how much was client driven verses other factors.
I look forward to getting to know you all,
Alec
I found you all while looking for some information about Guild's serial numbers and history. I was preparing to purchase an F512 that has a 1971 neck and bridge (with Florentine inlays) on a newer, unmarked, body. The lack of a label, fancy inlays, and obviously newer wood of the body still has me a little confused, but the guitar sounds good and plays well -- so the rest is just important to intellectual curiosity.
My father has had a late sixties 212 XL since before I was born, and after having a really cheap guitar for a while, I bought a JF4 -12NT in 1993. I have never really been happy with that guitar, but finding a jumbo 12 string has not proved an easy task. Many guitar shops seem to think that one acoustic 12 is more than enough, and most 12's seem to be set up for gentle chimey rhythm playing, which isn't what I'm looking for.
I play and sing a lot of John Hurt and Leadbelly songs, and am a definite amateur -- always thinking that I need to make more time to practice and get better. I play with my fingers or finger picks, and eschew amplification.
I gave a copy of the "Guild Guitar Book" to my father for Christmas, but I am still interested in more information about Guild's history and their design & production changes over the years. It seems that neck & nut widths have mostly shrunk over the years, bridges have gotten smaller, string spacing closer, saddles narrower, and I think I read here that there was an increase in soundboard thickness at some point. I am curious about what drove the design philosophy over the years and how much was client driven verses other factors.
I look forward to getting to know you all,
Alec
