Hey Kats, great post!
For me when I was looking for a new guitar I played a bunch of them. I only really knew Gibson, Taylor, Martin and Washburn as names as they were the ones prominently displayed around town.
I started to see many more names as I visited more shops, Takamine, Larrivee, Ovation, Epiphone, etc. I visited a store I had not been in before and I saw a real nice looking guitar, kewl headstock, nice looking pick guard. Had Guild on the headstock. Never heard of them. It was a Guild GAD-50. At this point I still knew nothing about tone woods, body styles, string guages, yada, yada, yada. Anyway this guitar sounded exactly what I thought a guitar should sound like, and it felt real nice to hold.
I went home and used "The Google" to find out more info. Some how I ended up here and started talking with the good folks.
I joined here in October of '06 without a Guild and only knowing the name from that GAD-50 in the store. By January '07 I had 3 Guilds. :shock: I was in love with the sound. Some people say they are "overbuilt". I do not know what they mean by that, but even today as I play other guitars I always gravitate back to the Guild sound. There are other names I am familiar with now and there are other guitars that I think sound very, very good, including the Taylor 814 :shock: , however when it comes down to dollars and sense, the Guilds win out again.
They do seem to be under appreciated, even under valued, but that's OK by me.
What I have also found here, is a group of people that I am glad to call friends. If you hang around long enough you will also see that this community is like a communal living room. We are always here, we do not always agree but the one thing that unites us are the guitars.
Don has created a place that we have been able to form in our own way without much Administration involvement. We pretty much monitor ourselves, though spankings are doled when necessary.
Guild guitars are, to me, more than an instrument. They are a sound, a feel and a community.
Again, great post!
