GGJaguar
Reverential Member
Once again I’m attracted to shiny things. In this case, it was the shiny malachite inlays on this F-65CE. I’ve been a bit wary of shallow body acoustic-electrics because I know that I would mainly play them unplugged and their acoustic design is a compromise. But, emotional (shiny) won over analytical (sound) on this day. Unfortunately, the emotions were a real roller coaster ride with this one, so buckle up.
The F-65CE was Guild’s top model in the 16” x 3” arched back, cutaway, oval sound hole, acoustic electric line that included the F4CE (mahogany), F5CE (rosewood), F25CE (mahogany) and F30CE (maple). I suppose you could throw in the primordial F-45CE from the 1980s although that guitar had a slightly different body shape. The F-65CE was introduced in 1992 and discontinued in 2001. It was available in natural, amber, sunburst, black, transparent blue, transparent red and transparent green (and probably others) at various times.
There were two serialization schemes used – one from 1992-93 (F65xxxx) and one from 1993-2001 (AF65xxxx). Based on the serials I’ve seen, it looks like close to 1400 may have been made.
The F-65CE has a laminated flame maple body with a high grade Sitka spruce top. It doesn’t photograph well, but the silking in the top is amazing.
This guitar was made in 1994. The top is straight braced. According to Guild literature, the later models had “shaved” bracing which I assume means tapered, but it could simply be marketing-speak nonsense. It also has the early 13-ply white-black rosette while later models had a 7-ply rosette that included an abalone center ring.
I think the later abalone rosette is more appropriate for the top-of-line model. But that’s slightly (very slightly) offset by the early model’s 13-ply body binding versus 5-ply binding for the later models. The earliest models had tortoise pickguards while later models had black guards. Of course, exceptions exist. In the pix below you can see these features. Also note the guitar with the tortoise has a 24-fret short scale neck.
The F-65CE was Guild’s top model in the 16” x 3” arched back, cutaway, oval sound hole, acoustic electric line that included the F4CE (mahogany), F5CE (rosewood), F25CE (mahogany) and F30CE (maple). I suppose you could throw in the primordial F-45CE from the 1980s although that guitar had a slightly different body shape. The F-65CE was introduced in 1992 and discontinued in 2001. It was available in natural, amber, sunburst, black, transparent blue, transparent red and transparent green (and probably others) at various times.
There were two serialization schemes used – one from 1992-93 (F65xxxx) and one from 1993-2001 (AF65xxxx). Based on the serials I’ve seen, it looks like close to 1400 may have been made.
The F-65CE has a laminated flame maple body with a high grade Sitka spruce top. It doesn’t photograph well, but the silking in the top is amazing.
This guitar was made in 1994. The top is straight braced. According to Guild literature, the later models had “shaved” bracing which I assume means tapered, but it could simply be marketing-speak nonsense. It also has the early 13-ply white-black rosette while later models had a 7-ply rosette that included an abalone center ring.
I think the later abalone rosette is more appropriate for the top-of-line model. But that’s slightly (very slightly) offset by the early model’s 13-ply body binding versus 5-ply binding for the later models. The earliest models had tortoise pickguards while later models had black guards. Of course, exceptions exist. In the pix below you can see these features. Also note the guitar with the tortoise has a 24-fret short scale neck.