Whatever happened to the Guild Branded Strings?

[CurtO]

I've been trying to buy a few sets of light guage 12 - 53 phos bronze and they are no where to be found. Except one dude on Ebay selling them for 12 bucks a set. I can find a few Medium gauge here and there but no lights. Did Fender stop making the Guild branded strings?
Thanks for any insight ya'll might have.

CurtO

 

[JerryR]

You will get a load of replies, as this issue has often been raised in the past. Usual answer (some may disagree) is that they were made for Guild by D'Addario - the brand I personally favor.

 

[chazmo]

Another interesting tidbit, Curt, is that DR strings (www.drstrings.com, though the website seems to be currently down) are made by the Al Dronge's son (Al Dronge was Guild's founder). They're not associated with Guild in any way, but a lot of folks like them on their Guilds. I haven't personally tried them, but they're on my list.

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

So it's my guess that because Guild didn't make their strings but rather had a string company make them, when Fender took over, they opted to drop the strings line.
How close am I?

 

[12 string]

...oops.

 

[CurtO]

I've been told they were made by Fender, but I can't find any Fender Acoustic strings that are phos bronze with the same guage. The Guild light strings have a heavier low E string which I prefer. I'll check out the DR strings. I'm also a Dadario fan so may just end up going with those. But I did really like the sound of the Guild light Phos Brnz strings on my D50

 

[Bing k]

We've been out of the L350 12-53 strings for weeks and have been unable to reorder. We get a "phased out" reply.

 

[BluesDan]

http://www.stringitup.com/gld-l350.html

Didn't call to see if they were actually in stock, maybe worth a shot.

 

[JimbowF212]

Hey Guys;
Try this link

http://elderly.com/brand/STGA_vinci.html

The folks @ First Quality Music Supply told me that Vinci Made the strings for Guild, not D'Adarrio and since the LT guage of the Vincis match the LT gauge of the Guilds it sounds like reliable info to me. Besides you can't beat the price and I have used these strings and I highly recommend them.

 

[jte]

I know that from 1977 through at least 'mid 1988, Guild strings were definitely made by D'Addario. M-450s were the same as J-17, L-350s were J-16, E-210s were XL-110, E-220's were XL-120's. I got out of retail music in 1988, so I have no idea what they did after that.

My information came form my own research while I managed a guitar store, information from our Guild sales reps (both the phone-rep and two different travelling reps over the 11 years I managed the store), and what our former GHS rep told me. D'Addario of course wouldn't confirm nor deny the connection.

John

 

[adorshki]

So it's my guess that because Guild didn't make their strings but rather had a string company make them, when Fender took over, they opted to drop the strings line.
How close am I?

Pretty close, see JTE's explanation above. Also somewhere here a few months back Cuthbert mentioned that Fender just dropped D'Addario for a manufacturer they already owned but I can't remember the name. I'm sure this is why the G string changed from .025 to .024 which is another little "gotcha" CurtO should be aware of. I'm never gonna forgive 'em for that gauge change as I always have to buy the extra single when I get Daddarios.... ( :lol: )
My current guess is that since the New Hartfords list mediums as the standard gauge they simply see no reason to list and stock light gauges any more.
Now that I see all this in one place, I wonder if Vinci really did play a role as Jimbow says since their light set really does reflect that .025 as part of the set whereas Daddarios j-16's actually contain an .024...I know the Guild website continued to list that .025 gauge long after the change occurred but I first noticed it around '03 I think.