Tacoma F47R

[jgwoods]

2 beautiful Tacoma Guilds if I ever saw'em.
It's funny how we all prefer that our guitar come from a certain location- a Hoboken or Westerly Guild is held in high esteem by many while some view the Corona Guilds as suspect. For me the Tacoma Guilds were/are suspect, but that is not based on Guild workmanship, rather Tacoma's, as I owned 6 Tacoma brand guitars built before Fender took them over. They were a great deal, played well and I liked the design elements but they didn't hold up well and left me a bit suspicious of the brand. I suspect Fender/Guild straightened them out and their guitars will prove to be well worthy of the Guild name and the longevity that goes with it.
I wouldn't hesitate to buy one from anywhere they made'em.

 

[shepke]

I found this description at pantheonguitars.com.

Adirondack Red Spruce was plentiful in our country before the war and was used on many of the great pre-war guitars. Eastern red spruce, also known as Adirondack or Appalachian spruce, was the primary topwood used by American manufacturers before World War II. Its use was all but discontinued due to over-harvesting of the resource but has recently been reintroduced thanks to 50 years of regeneration and to the legendary status that this traditional tonewood has attained. The small size of most logs and a shortage of wood conforming to market preference for even color and regularity of grain conspire to keep the price of red spruce extremely high.

I think it answere a few questions raised here.

 

[Scratch]

Beautiful git, and I love the Ice Tea Burst. Here's mine

Welcome to the ITB club!

Amigo looks mighty sweet in his new digs, Sandy. I miss that beautiful ITB bigtime...

 

[twocorgis]

Amigo looks mighty sweet in his new digs, Sandy. I miss that beautiful ITB bigtime...

He sure is. Sweet axe, too.

 

[markus]

Thanks Jim. I'm trying to take good care of Kenny's old axe. 8)

We could form a new group of owners of axes that come from Scratch …
Markus

 

[JerryR]

Called "Up to Scratch" :?: :mrgreen:

 

[Steve Hoffman]

I just got a Tea-burst Tacoma F47R from the same place (PowerAlley or whatever it's called) for 900 bucks, free shipping and it's amazing right out of the box. This guitar is obviously new and was for sure given a set up by these guys. It plays perfectly and the kicker is that it was perfectly IN TUNE right out of the Guild shipping carton. I mean from New York all the way to Los Angeles, dudes. Still in perfect tune. I couldn't believe it. (I would have personally loosened the strings before shipping but that's another story).

It's a risk buying a guitar without playing it first but this Tacoma Guild is just beautiful sounding and beautiful looking. The pattern on the back is just incred.!

At any rate, I'm a happy boy for not much money. If only life was this easy all the time.

I got both of my Guild/Benedettos when Fender decided to blow them out the door at 1/10 of the list price and one can only hope they will do it again soon for something else, heh.!

 

[chazmo]

Steve, congrats on a great guitar (at a great price)!

 

[cjd-player]

Congrats, Steve. They are great guitars.

 

[Scratch]

Nice score, Steve. I got my D50 from Mike at Power Alley. He has my highest recommendation for being honest, straight forward, and he goes the extra mile. His in store tech is also outstanding. I gave him my preference for setup and he nailed it. It took one extra day to ship, but it was worth it to have the guitar set up just right. Probably the best Internet store guitar purchase I've ever made...

 

[Steve Hoffman]

So these guys have a good rep? I didn't know and was just taking a chance. Glad I did. Mike gives good email and that helped convice me.

 

[Scratch]

When I bought my D50, Mike was home taking care of his wife who was sick at the time. He called me to say he would go to the shop to get the guitar ready. I told him I was not in a hurry and would prefer that he stay home with his Mrs., then we'd transact once he could make it to the store. He went in anyway and stayed in touch with me throughout the process to ensure I was satisfied. He also has a send-back policy if you're not satisfied.

If I were to buy from an Internet store again, I'd contact Mike at PowerAlley first. Hope you're as satisfied as I am Steve...

 

[shepke]

Yeah, mine arrived in tune too. I was a little annoyed when I first opened the case and and noticed that the strings weren't slack. But once I recovered, I just put it up on my knee and started playing "Key to the Highway". Amazing. One of Power Alley's additional services, I suppose (the setup they did is spectacular). I also got mine for 900.00 and I 'll buy another guitar from those guys in a heart beat (just as soon as my wallet recovers and the gas starts rising), although I might suggest they detune the guitar a liitle first.

 

[Steve Hoffman]

What bugs me is that (as we know) there are some stores (shall be nameless here) that also received some of these blow-out guitars and are selling them for FULL PRICE.

In the music biz when an album goes out of print, the stock is sold to a "cut-out distributor" who sells them cheap to whomever. Thing is, they either drill a hole in the album cover or saw a line in the CD plastic to ensure that the product cannot be sold at full price.

These guitars that some of these stores probably grabbed for 500 bucks each are still being sold as new stock for 2.5k!

That's not right.

That being said, it's really none of my business but buyer beware. Ask where your guitar was made before buying.

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

I have read that many shippers believe that the guitar will ship better with the strings at normal tension.
The Guitar Hut ships their guitars tuned up.
So did the place that I purchased a GAD JF-48 from a couple of years ago. Can't remember the name now but Brother Bob was the name of the person on the ebay acount.

 

[cjd-player]

As far as I know all of the manufacturers ship acoustic guitars tuned to pitch. It's the proper way to ship a guitar.

 

[shepke]

It was always stressed to me that the strings should be loosened when shipping because of the possibility of damaging the neck joint in the event of a sudden impact. I thought this made sense because of the already considerable pressure on the neck when the strings are tuned to pitch. But I guess this view changed when I wasn't looking. I just checked several websites and indeed the current widom is to leave the strings at pitch.

 

[iJamF47M]

Steve- LTG rules state you MUST post photos of this new acquisition before attempting any further posts......Teasing is not tolerated.... :mrgreen:

 

[Ridgemont]

As far as I know all of the manufacturers ship acoustic guitars tuned to pitch. It's the proper way to ship a guitar.

+1

This is also what I was told. According to my local shop, guitars used to be shipped tuned down, but manufacturers do not do that anymore. At least not Guild, SCGC, or Gibson (the main 3 brands that my shop deals with).

 

[adorshki]

As far as I know all of the manufacturers ship acoustic guitars tuned to pitch. It's the proper way to ship a guitar.

+1
This is also what I was told. According to my local shop, guitars used to be shipped tuned down, but manufacturers do not do that anymore. At least not Guild, SCGC, or Gibson (the main 3 brands that my shop deals with).

I'm guessing they figured out there would be less possibility of the old "whiplash" on the headstock if the neck was tension perhaps?