What's wrong with a Guild?

[laocmo]

I find it odd that the MSRP for the Guild D-40 and D-50 is right up there where it belongs with the Martin D-18 and D-28. I think they are both better sounding guitars than the Martins. Yet when you go to sell one you have to give it away. See for instance Columbus Craig's List. This one with no takers at $1150 with free shipping.

http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m198/laocmo/D-50/

And on eBay they seem to go for $800 - $900 in fine condition. Something ain't right here! Is it the economy or some false impression that a Guild ain't really a serious bluegrass-er?

 

[Scratch]

Thats a real good question laocmo. I bought my D40 in 2007 for 800.00. It was NOS with electronics. It just gets better and better as it ages, and I wouldn't part with it for twice what I paid.

 

[Pike]

I think it's part economy and also where built. I don't think we'll see a mint Westerly D50 sell for $800 to $900. The Tacoma builts were priced a lot lower when they first came out, that could part of it as well.

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

Lack of knowledge, is the biggest factor in resale in my opinion.
Guild/ Fender doesn't do much in the way of advertising.
The distributing people don't seem to get Guilds into many stores.
For an example, why can't you find new Guilds in Guitar Centers?
I live in Northern Utah and there is 1 dealer that it about 50 miles away and that's it.
Moving the manufacturing from State to State didn't help Guilds quality or reputation any.
Look how stable Martin is.

On the good side though, you can sure pick up some fine Guilds for a great price.
So as a buyer, it's a great thing.
As a seller, it isn't.

It does look like Guilds are getting more popular though.
As this happens, the prices will go up.

 

[GardMan]

What's wrong with a Guild?

Absolutely nothing!

 

[Tunes]

I agree with TMG, the biggest factor is simply lack of knowledge. Surprisingly few people know about Guilds. Part of me wants to spread the "truth", and part of me wants to keep this great secret to "ourselves" (LTG 4EvR) and keep resale prices low. 'Cause for the most part (I hope), we buyin - we ain't sellin.

However, there are some in the know. I am talking to a Westerly D-55 owner here in Ottawa who wants to sell this pristine git to fund the purchase of a Mossman (had not heard about those either). Turns out these are fantastic guitars with a very interesting heritage. However, he's asking north of 2 grand for the D-55. Worth it - probably, but it's far more than anyone else is asking.

So the only thing wrong with Guild IMHO is that the secret is getting out. These are superb guitars on par with Taylor, Martin, Larrivee and other sticks that easily command 2 thou plus (for a roughly similar make / model etc.)

 

[jte]

It's a chronic problem with Guild, and has been as long as I've been around them (which means going back to the early '70s). People just don't know them. I managed a guitar store between 1977-1988 and we carried acoustic guitars by Guild, Ovation, Martin and Gibson among others. I'd say "I can make this Guild sound just like that Gibson- then I'd strum a chord and clamp my palm down on the lower bout of the Guild, choking all the top vibrations...

Anyway, in those 11 years, I had a lot of people come in and play the Guilds side-by-side with Gibsons, listen to others play them side-by-side, and spend a lot of time with both. And there were so many who would tell me that the Guild sounded better and felt better, and was also a lower price. But they'd buy the Gibson becuase it said "Gibson" on the headstock.

Add in the chronic mis-management of marketing (and FMIC ain't the only ones who screwed this up royally) so dealers aren't that knowlegable about them (one local store confused the whole Guild/Epiphone history and told people that Guilds were Epiphone seconds). Then there's the fact that to be successful, a Guild dealer has to SELL people on trying the guitars, but if they walk in looking for an acoustic, they're genearlly pre-sold on a Martin, Taylor, or Gibson. And given the widespread appearance of Taylor and that awful Taylor/Fishman acoustic guitar sound, there's a whole generation who think an acoustic guitar is supposed to sound like Taylor Swift instead of like Stephen Stills...

jte

 

[Graham]

When I was talking with Paul Clark I was checking out of the Inn and had a JF30 with me. He asked what guitar was in the case and when I told him he said "Oh wow a Guild". I passed the guitar to him and played quite a little warm up thing, looking very comfortable with it and it sounded great. He handed it back saying, "Sorry man it's 7:30 in the morning and my fingers aren't working right yet." :shock:

A few minutes later Phil Keaggy came downstairs and after introducing Cid and I to him he says, "He's got a Guild in the case."

So as Gardman says to the question, What's wrong with Guild?

Absolutely nothing! :mrgreen:

 

[capnjuan]

... I they're genearlly pre-sold on a Martin, Taylor, or Gibson ...

I was in the West Palm Beach Guitar Center today; that was it - Martin, Taylor, Gibson ... couple of Ovations. J

 

[workedinwesterly]

there's nothing wrong with a guild, if you get a good one.

It was a small company, and lots of ownership changes over the years kept it from remaining focused.
Since they were competing with Gibson and Martin, they had to sell for less or they wouldn't sell.

 

[fredpamm]

Knowledgeable people know Guilds. I took my first lesson at a well known Chicago folk school not long ago and brought my D-212 to play. We were in an auditorium tuning up and several instructors came over and asked if they could play it, how old it was and several questions about it. There were several Martin's around me but they came over to see the ol' D-212. The ol' D-212 was the hit of the day, and those people KNOW guitars.

 

[Scratch]

Great post, fredpamm!

 

[cuthbert]

I think that the main problem with Guild was the mismanagement of the company, almost since it was born.

Guild always had little advertisement and is mainly known for its archtops and 12 string, mainly because the guild was the first design that really worked, besides that, the brand is almost ignored by most of the guitar world.

The changes of ownership and location made the things worse, in the end the only period when Guild could heavily promotei its guitar was in the first Fender period, in the 90s, when effectively you could see a lot of artists using these instruments, people like Eric Clapton etc...

Now it seems that FMIC doesn't want to invest much money in its high end acoustic brand, or when they spend money to introduce new products (the contemporary series) they miss the target.

 

[Tunes]

Interesting ...

So what we have here is a company that happened to make technically superior guitars, but was otherwise mismanaged from a marketing / promotional perspective. Perhaps folks that were so into the art of guitar making that they missed the prosaic part about how to make them popular with the masses. :?:

Clearly very informed players know Guild - but these alone do not a "household brand" make. A sad thing for Guild as a company. I consider myself lucky to have almost stumbled across Guild guitars, and recognize them for what they are - which is literally among the best production guitars ever made. All you gotta do is close your eyes and listen.

As I mentioned in another post, a local luthier who could play almost any guitar he wanted plays a Suzuki that he found in the dump. Sold his vintage Martin D-18. Looks like hell - but what a sound! His only other favorite guitar to pick up and play during slow periods in the day was the Guild I bought.

Moral of the story - what's wrong with Guild guitars? Nothing! Guild management appears to be another story.

 

[jgmaute]

I find I have 2 basic reactions to my Guilds:

What kind of guitar is that? It sounds amazing!

or

Oh, you've got a Guild, mind if I give it a play?

 

[krysh]

I find I have 2 basic reactions to my Guilds:

What kind of guitar/bass is that? It sounds amazing!

or

Oh, you've got a Guild, mind if I give it a play?

+1

and btw, my 1990 sf-4 just won a shootout with an es-335 dot from 1991 by far!

 

[dogberry]

Nothing wrong with a Guild. I got together with some other string players last night, and one brought a Taylor (310, I think), and my D-40 just flat outshone it. The Taylor didn't have the depth, tonal quality or resonance, whether playing loudly or softly.

 

[COUNTRYPICKER]

Folks that know guitars know guilds quality, espesially guild USA guitars. but people who arn't right into it may have heard of or seen a Guild at local music store. they all aspire to own a martin or gibson because of the so called legend factor!!! Martin and Gibson have been the names for a long long time, Just making folks aware of these awesome Guilds is the point here. i know i walk past my Martins these days to pick up my D55

 

[cuthbert]

Folks that know guitars know guilds quality, espesially guild USA guitars. but people who arn't right into it may have heard of or seen a Guild at local music store. they all aspire to own a martin or gibson because of the so called legend factor!!! Martin and Gibson have been the names for a long long time, Just making folks aware of these awesome Guilds is the point here. i know i walk past my Martins these days to pick up my D55

For the sake of discussion, Taylor is a younger brand than Guild, but it reached success in a relatively brief time.

Surely Mr.Taylor is a good chairman of his company, like the Martin family.

 

[COUNTRYPICKER]

sorry cuthbert, i forgot about taylor, down here in australia taylor has no higher profile then guild.