Were vintage Guilds made with Adirondack tops at all?

[sitka_spruce]

I find I was just assuming Guilds used to have Adirondack tops and their use of the species is the return of a good, old friend. But is that really the case - anyone can tell for sure?

Cheers,
Jonas

 

[Jeff_L]

I'm going way out on a limb here -
but from what I've read, there wasn't much Adirondack spruce available after WWII.
A lot of gliders were built during the war. Read about it here -

http://www.exploringthenorth.com/gliders/history.html

These gliders were all built out of spruce - most of it Adirondack. That depleted the supply of spruce until there wasn't any left large enought for guitar tops. It's just been the last few years that red spruce is again becoming available in large-enough size to be used for guitar tops.

At least that's one story. It may or may not be true.

Since Guild wasn't started until after the war, it makes sense that they were not made with red (Adirondack) spruce tops.

Jeff

 

[Kap'n]

Whether it went to gliders or not, I'd never heard of a post WWII guitar made with Adirondack spruce until recently.

Most of the Adirondacks was/is owned by paper companies, who clear-cut. I don't beleive there's a single old growth tree in the entirety of Upstate NY. Folks up there grumble about the formation of the park, but I don't think there'd be any trees at all if they didn't do it.