what guild guitars did george benson play.

hi everyone my name is tony, I'm new to the forum.
My interests are mainly jazz guitar & guild archtops. I have a few nice guilds from the early 60's & one from the 50's, a newyork x550.
My question out of general interest is, does anyone have any info regarding the guitars George Benson played while endorsing guild? & what his relationship with the company was,ie, how long he endorsed them, dates etc.

Welcome Tony, you're in the right place. I'm pretty sure Benson played an X175 or X500 - probably the later. There's a picture of him with a Guild archtops on one of his albums. I'll try to find a link. I'm sure everyone would love to see some photos of your X550. If you have any, let us know if you need help getting them posted.

Ah, here we go - The Other Side of Abbey Roadhttp://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Ab ... B0000062P2

I can't make out the headstock very well, but it looks like a 175.

tony said:

My question out of general interest is, does anyone have any info regarding the guitars George Benson played while endorsing guild? & what his relationship with the company was,ie, how long he endorsed them, dates etc.

Click to expand...

Hello tony,

Welcome! I don't think there's anything I can tell you about the relationship between George Benson and Guild, other than that George Benson was an endorser during the '60s and that the endorsement agreement ended some time during the '70s.

As far as the Guild instruments he played, I can only tell you what I've seen him play in photos. No idea if he owned and played all of these.
The only endorsement photos that come to mind are for the X-500 and the Artist Award.

There are a few photos in The Guild Guitar Book that show him holding the following guitars:

Guild Artist Award
Guild A-500 Bld.
Guild George Barnes Guitar in F

Then there is the mysterious Guild George Benson Custom guitar, of which only one has surfaced so far and which is pictured in the book as well.
It may very well be the only one that was 'custom made' for him.

I've also seen a '70s album cover in which he was holding a Guild Starfire XII.

That's about what I remember off the top of my head. There might be more?

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

response to replies to george benson question

Hello Hans & Graham,
Thanks for responding to my question, I have seen various photos of benson with both a blonde & sunburst x500, also the album cover you mentioned Graham I think your right it looks like an x175, & I've seen him playing an artist award.
Until I read you're book hans, I had no idea the george benson model existed & it seems to be quite a mysterious item. More than likely guild only produced one or two for his personal use. It was only a general question out of interest, butr thanks for you're input.
p.s, I'll see if I can sort out some photos of my guitars for you graham, but it may take a while I'm no computer wiz.

What? I was just correcting the link.
You'll soon learn Tony.......


BTW, welcome to LTG

[IMG:120:80]http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/capnjuan/refs.jpg[/img]

That guy, the Leaf skating in circles w/ a computer in his hand....high sticking!!

I saw GB in concert a couple years ago. Great show! He has several guitars handy, but no Guilds. I don't recall what they all were, but I'm pretty sure there was at least one Epiphone.

He's currently sponsored by Ibanez, and the George Benson models are really nice archtops. I like them because they are really compact archtops with a small lower bout, but deeper bodies. Although, they sound great, the necks are too clubby for my tastes.

In my opinion, the Guild necks are consistently the best around.

Tony,

Welcome to Coastie's band of merry men. That big pic Graham posted is Coastie after trying to drink Aussie beer.

Thanks for asking this question. It makes me want track down those old Benson recordings, especially the ones with the A500.