1971, maybe 72, I was in the Navy aboard the USS Independence on a Med Cruise. There were three sailors that would get together on the fantail in the evenings with guitars and they would play songs. I thought they were cool. We were in Mallorca Spain and I bought a guitar so I could be a cool kid too. I showed up with my new guitar and one of the fellows taught me a few chords, gave me a Johnny Cash fakebook and I became a folk singer. He happened to play a Guild. He was very proud of it.
Fifty years later, I had taken up guitar playing folk music again in retirement when I got caught up in country/bluegrass. I decided I needed a dreadnaught and went down to the big city looking for a Martin of course. One of the stores I went to was also a Guild dealer. I saw the Guilds, recognized the logo and the look, and lost all interest in the Martins on the opposite wall. I left without a guitar, I'm slow to pull the trigger, and for the next month I couldn't quit talking to my wife about playing the guitar with those guys in the Navy and how that one guy had a Guild and he was the coolest guy I ever knew. So when my birthday came around my wife took me down and bought me a D-20 for birthday present, mostly so I would just shut up about it.
I'm happier with my Guild than I would be with any other brand of guitar. Whenever I play it, it takes me back. I feel like a twenty year old kid, foot loose and free with not a care in the world on the fantail of a carrier in the Mediterranean Sea again.
Fifty years later, I had taken up guitar playing folk music again in retirement when I got caught up in country/bluegrass. I decided I needed a dreadnaught and went down to the big city looking for a Martin of course. One of the stores I went to was also a Guild dealer. I saw the Guilds, recognized the logo and the look, and lost all interest in the Martins on the opposite wall. I left without a guitar, I'm slow to pull the trigger, and for the next month I couldn't quit talking to my wife about playing the guitar with those guys in the Navy and how that one guy had a Guild and he was the coolest guy I ever knew. So when my birthday came around my wife took me down and bought me a D-20 for birthday present, mostly so I would just shut up about it.
I'm happier with my Guild than I would be with any other brand of guitar. Whenever I play it, it takes me back. I feel like a twenty year old kid, foot loose and free with not a care in the world on the fantail of a carrier in the Mediterranean Sea again.
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