Dating issue with 80's Guild solid body guitars

guildzilla

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I've stumbled on what I'm nearly certain is an error in the Guild dating resources, involving the Detonator and Liberator guitars during the period 1984-1989. It is causing e-bay listers and Harmony Central reviewers to make the same mistake.

For the Detonator, reading 1984-1989, the dating list indicates JH, JH, x, x, x, x (all built in '84 or '85) I believe the line should be x, x, x, JH, JH, x.

Ditto for the Liberator, the dating list says JK, JK, x, x, x, x. But it should read x, x, x, JK, JK, x.

According to Guild promotional materials from 1986-88, the Detonator and Liberator are not introduced until 1987. They follow the S-271, S-281, S-284 series solid bodies, which are phased out in 1987. The dates for the S-series guitars in the Guild dating resources make sense.

There are numerous examples of these models currently listed or recently completed on e-bay, which I will paste into the thread.

Very interesting. I'd like to see the mistake in the dating records corrected. Guildzilla hates bad factual data.
 

Accept2

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If you had to correct all the errors in any company's serial logs you would need many lifetimes. For Guild, the number of lifetimes is a number that doesnt even have a name. Serial logs are never something to rely on............
 

guildzilla

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Yo, Accept2, did you just buy an Aviator on e-bay?

The one I just got is a very cool guitar.

Anyway, I know lists have mistakes, but this one looks like an easy fix.
 

Accept2

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Yes, its my second S284. The logs are all incomplete. You will find that guitars will show up of every single model that go beyond the numbers shown there. For the S284s for example, it says something like 638 were made. In reality you will see ones with serial numbers that go beyond 638. Its not a simple fix. Now if we could see the actual work order logs that would be even cooler..........
 
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