HeyMikey
Enlightened Member
This is the GF60R that I bought from Richard a couple weeks ago, and what gorgeous example it is! However, this one comes with a story. A bit of mystery that Hans shed some light on which I will get to shortly.
But first… The is a great guitar! Condition wise its excellent cosmetically and has THE NICEST golden Engleman? spruce top you could hope for. It is so incredibly tight grained and shimmery, almost iridescent, with no run-out. Whoever put it together did so flawlessly. You can barely make out the seam. Its magnificent.
This model is a perfect size (for me) with its 16 inch lower at only 4-1/2 deep and the 11-3/4 upper at a svelte 3-5/8 deep. In essense, about as deep as my F30s. Very comfortable. Ebony bridge and neck with those marvelous diamond inlays. So cool. I love the Gotoh tuners that are a copy of old Klusons. I polished them and the frets with some Gorgomyte and they look pretty spiffy.
It came with high action but enough saddle to get it down to slightly over 6/64 - so it is very playable, if a little shy of my ideal. The nut/neck is 1.703/1.696 with a string spacing of 1.435 which is narrow for me. This may be the single reason that would cause me to sell it at some point because I prefer wider nut widths. But for now I intend to play the heck out of it because it is so damn nice!
Sound wise it is terrific, with the tonal clarity of a good F30R but with extra bottom end and projection. It reacts well to a very light touch or a hard strum. Just perfect! This one can really do it all. Why on earth Guild ever stopped making this size (F4x series) guitar is beyond me and quite frankly just plain stupid.
Now for the mystery. It is an early 1987 model with s/n #GF60…11. At least that’s what the label says. Imagine my surprise to see the s/n on the headstock showing it as s/n #50. Even more confusing is that s/n is double stamped. Hold it in the light one way and you see it start with GF60…. but tilt it differently and you see it start with GF50…. But wait, there is more! The stamp on the inside neck black also says GF-50 yet this is very clearly a GF60!
So was it re-necked? Was there funny business with the label? Luckily our good Sherlock Hans shed light this mystery. Apparently it was not uncommon for similar models to share the same “husks”, which explains the GF-50 neck block. Seeing that, the theory is that the person stamping the headstock got confused and stamped it as a GF50... Discovering the “oops” later on, it was filled and re-stamped (albeit lightly) as a GF60... However, over time the original stamp came up towards the surface and became more prevalent.
Some people might freak out over this but apparently it did happen from time to time. According to Richard, he’s had at least three Guilds with mismatched numbers. I consider this a very cool little peek into how things were done at Guild, and how despite their imperfect process managed to make such perfect guitars as this.
But first… The is a great guitar! Condition wise its excellent cosmetically and has THE NICEST golden Engleman? spruce top you could hope for. It is so incredibly tight grained and shimmery, almost iridescent, with no run-out. Whoever put it together did so flawlessly. You can barely make out the seam. Its magnificent.
This model is a perfect size (for me) with its 16 inch lower at only 4-1/2 deep and the 11-3/4 upper at a svelte 3-5/8 deep. In essense, about as deep as my F30s. Very comfortable. Ebony bridge and neck with those marvelous diamond inlays. So cool. I love the Gotoh tuners that are a copy of old Klusons. I polished them and the frets with some Gorgomyte and they look pretty spiffy.
It came with high action but enough saddle to get it down to slightly over 6/64 - so it is very playable, if a little shy of my ideal. The nut/neck is 1.703/1.696 with a string spacing of 1.435 which is narrow for me. This may be the single reason that would cause me to sell it at some point because I prefer wider nut widths. But for now I intend to play the heck out of it because it is so damn nice!
Sound wise it is terrific, with the tonal clarity of a good F30R but with extra bottom end and projection. It reacts well to a very light touch or a hard strum. Just perfect! This one can really do it all. Why on earth Guild ever stopped making this size (F4x series) guitar is beyond me and quite frankly just plain stupid.
Now for the mystery. It is an early 1987 model with s/n #GF60…11. At least that’s what the label says. Imagine my surprise to see the s/n on the headstock showing it as s/n #50. Even more confusing is that s/n is double stamped. Hold it in the light one way and you see it start with GF60…. but tilt it differently and you see it start with GF50…. But wait, there is more! The stamp on the inside neck black also says GF-50 yet this is very clearly a GF60!
So was it re-necked? Was there funny business with the label? Luckily our good Sherlock Hans shed light this mystery. Apparently it was not uncommon for similar models to share the same “husks”, which explains the GF-50 neck block. Seeing that, the theory is that the person stamping the headstock got confused and stamped it as a GF50... Discovering the “oops” later on, it was filled and re-stamped (albeit lightly) as a GF60... However, over time the original stamp came up towards the surface and became more prevalent.
Some people might freak out over this but apparently it did happen from time to time. According to Richard, he’s had at least three Guilds with mismatched numbers. I consider this a very cool little peek into how things were done at Guild, and how despite their imperfect process managed to make such perfect guitars as this.
Last edited:
