So...who actually made the amps for Guild?

Kap'n

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
284
Reaction score
0
Location
CT Shoreline
I'm pretty certain that they weren't made at Guild.

Looking at the insides of a few, I've noticed some similarities to Ampegs, but they're far from identical.

Anybody know?
 

matsickma

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2005
Messages
4,280
Reaction score
1,028
Location
Coopersburg, PA
Hi Kap'n,

There have been a lot of suggestions of Guild amps being made by Ampeg and others. The best info available on this subject have been obtained from various chat room with articles from guitar, bass, amp restoration expert Rich Koerner of Time Electronics, Inc. Rich Koerner cites various references to spending considerable time at the Guild' amp facility.

An exerpt from Rich Koerners comments in 1999 is provided below:

" The only thing common to the Guild amp and the Ampeg amp is the state of New Jersey.

Ampeg was located in Linden, and Guild, in Elizabeth. Two towns very
close together. In this world of music electronics, it's a small world,
and it's easy to see how influences can cross lines.


To my knowledge, Guild always made the Guild amps in the West Grand
Street location in ELizabeth as they had the assembly line set up in the
back of the building. The R&D Labs were off the front offices in the
front of the building. I had spent MANY Hours with Joan, Ralph, and
Aaron in the mid '60s. Guild was my second home for a long time.


Besides my formal training in electronics, Aaron Newmann was another
teacher I really enjoyed learning from back them. He was in a large
part one of the many hands to mold my thinking about the electronics we
use to make "Musical" sounds.


I have not seen Aaron since he left Guild when they closed out the Amp
line in that building. Ampeg, and Fender were putting the hurt of the
Guild amps in the market place is what I was told. Aaron later left and
founded the Musitronics company, and produced the Mu-tron line of
products. He and a close friend of my family, Walt Sjursen, worked
together designing for many years afterwards.


Though I strayed from the question, in those days, all the amp
manufacturers knew what each other was doing, and wanted to not copy
each other. That is not the case today for sure!!!!!!


It was more of a curiosity thing to see what they were up too. Nothing
more. That is the major reason why, each of the amps manufactured in
the old days, had their own distant character of in sounds. There was
an ethic that was honored not to copy each others design, but to come up
with something original.


Today, we are Creatively Brain Dead!!!! Our Amps, and Music,..... Show
It!!!!
"

Rich Koerner is passionate about great musical equipment, vintage or otherwise and has tremendous regards for Aaron Newman and his amplifier designs.

In reviewing other Rich Koerners chat room discussions he indicated that that Aaron Newman was Guilds chief electronics designer and among other things was the designer on the Guild mini humbuckers used in the 1960's.

I have not contacted Rich Koerners for additional info about Guild amplifiers. however I plan to do so in the future.


For what it is worth my best assessment of the Guild amplifier history to date is the following:

A. Early Guild MasterAmps were likely not made by Guild (see references to early Guild amps on p.46 of Hans Moust Guild Guitar book.) There is some indication that the early amps may have bee made by Hagstrom.

B. The lower priced and student amps may have been build by Univox.

C. When Guild introduced the new line of amps in the 1956 to 57 period (66-J, 99-J, 100-J, 200-S, etc. ) the amps were likely designed and build by Guild.

D. The introduction of the new line of ThunderXXX amps were designed and build by Guild. From the above info Aaron Newman was the key designer of the bass amps and possibly the entire "modern" Guild amp line. This period ran from about 1965 to 1971. In this period Guild amplifier design is prolific and the design concepts do not resemble other amplifier manufacturers of that era-they are unique designs.

E. After 1971 the era of Guild tube amps was over. The Transister designs took over (i.e., Model One, Two, etc). I don't know have an answer here but suspect they may have Guild inpuit into requirements but were not designed or built by Guild.

F. Any amplifiers after the "Model" series were made by others for special applications that supported the guild acoustic line.


I have been trying to track down useful information on the Guild amplifier line over the years. The above description is based on the best info I could piece together to date. However ther are holes in the data-use the info accordingly.

One thing is sure...Guild designed and build the large majority of the tube amps that hold the Guild name.

Sincerely,
matsickma
 

Kap'n

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
284
Reaction score
0
Location
CT Shoreline
Thanks. Rich does know his stuff. I know there are serious differences between the Ampegs and the Guilds that I've seen...tone switches and multiple chassis to name a couple. However, some of the build techniques and components seemed similar. I'd guess they (Guild) probably used some of the same suppliers. I'd also guess that their designer had seen a few other commercially built amps from the inside, and picked up a few construction ideas. Compared to some of the other competition, like Gibson, and Premier, the Guild amps look really nice inside.
 
Top