Cool Place... but no Guilds

Ravon

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I have some business in Louisville for the next couple of days and drove past 'The Guitar Emporium' last night and thought I'd drop in there today and thought at the very least I'd pick up a cool t-shirt. Super nice place full of eye candy of some vintage but mostly new guitars and amps. A gentleman that worked there was up front when I walked in who was playing a '54 Martin and he was coaxing the most beautiful flatpicked melodies out of that thing. What tone! What a player! They had plenty of new Fender, Gretsch and Rickenbacker guitars as well. There was a '70 silverface Fender Princeton Reverb for $850 and was tempted but since I sold mine for $200 back in the '80's I just couldn't rationalize that. Some older Kustom amps there as well as new Fenders amps. I picked up and played a '60s Gibson es175 but for $4500 it was but a brief strum or two. I eyeballed a Gibson LP Deluxe but was disappointed that like most Deluxes, it had been routed for the large humbuckers. The smaller p/u's were put back in but alas, the large rings were there as well to cover the hack job. Then onto the acoustic side.......
  • Alot of beautiful ubiquitous new Taylors and Martins but only one Guild logo there. A GAD sumpn'or another model but no used or new US Guilds. I picked up a new acoustic guitar that I've never heard of that was $250. It had a nice sound, well made and pretty to boot but what amazed me was that it played probably as well or better than any guitar I've ever put in my hands. Absolutely minimal string tension with low action. I've never played a scale that fast in my life! I wished they made guitars that good and cheap when I was learning. Sorry, forgot the name of the brand. Oh well
  • I guess any 105 degree day spent in a nice cool (literally) vintage guitar shop ain't bad and certainly worth the trip but I still longed to put a Guild back in my hand
  • But the worst part.... they had no t-shirts!
 

kyguild

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You are right, Guitar Emporium is a really neat place with a lot of character. I stop in and look around 2 or 3 times a year when I am in Louisville. I think the only Guild I ever saw in there was a used True American, about 3 or 4 years ago. Big selection of Taylors and Martins, saw a used DeArmond there a few months ago.

Another nice place to spend some time is Willcutt Guitar Shoppe in Lexington. Talk to the folks in there a few minutes, and they will invite you to come upstairs where they keep the good stuff... rooms devoted to Martins, Taylors, Breedloves, and one room of mixed bag high-end makes like Gibson, McPherson, Huss and Dalton (I think) and others, if memory serves me right. But, alas, no Guilds.

Literally just down the street from Willcutt is D.W. Sound, a part of Don Wilson Music. They have the only "new" Guild I have come across in my neck of the woods in the past 3 years or so, a NOS D-55 made in Corona :shock: with strings old enough that you will need a tetanus shot after you play it. :lol:

ky
 

marcellis

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Hans Moust mentioned Guitar Emporium in the Old Testament IIRC.
I was in there a few years ago and asked them about Guilds.
The sales clerk told me they stopped selling them back in the 90's.
I brought my burst F65ce in with me and paid their tech to check it out.

They had a real nice Larivee parlor on the wall I liked a lot.
It cost around 3K IIRC.
 

Ravon

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  • kyguild, I've been wanting to make the trip to Willcutt Guitars. I think I remember them listing a couple of sweet Guilds on ebay
  • So that's where I've seen Guitar Emporium mentioned before Marcellis, in Hans' book! Great place as I wish I had the change to splurge on a sweet Martin HD28 hangin' on the wall. For that matter, I wish I had an extra $250 for that little acoustic I mentioned
 
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