Westerly Wood
Venerated Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
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I can say that in the case of Guild and D'Addario I'm pretty sure it was a matter of Guild choosing the strings that best met their requirements for "the Guild sound".
Guild actually had a close relationship with D'A since the early '60's when it was still DARCO, and they were the first maker to ship D'Addario's new pb formula as standard on many models including dreadnoughts.
There's even a reference to a "Special Bronze Alloy- High copper content-wound on hexagonal wire" formula on page 12 of the '72 price list, even uses the L350/M450 designations that remained in use through Tacoma:
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2010/08/05/guild-guitar-price-list-1972-april/
Ever since I saw that I wondered if that was the actual D'Addario PB and Guild actually had access to the formula even before D'Addario formally went to market with it under their own name in '74?
The "Special Bronze Alloy- High copper content" continues appearing until the May '77 price list which finally shows " "Guild Phosphor Bronze-wound on hexagonal wire" and still using the L350/M450 designations along with a couple of new gauge sets.
"Draw your own conclusion"-
:friendly_wink:
my contention is that Guild was the guitar mfgr D'A chose to test out their watershed acoustic guitar string alloy, phosphor bronze.