LMG IV report for the M-75 lovers

feet

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Messages
23
Reaction score
2
According to my source, they were 100% built in NH. They were clownbursts and the jigs were set up wrong on the run, but Fender pushed them out the door anyway. I owned one briefly and the pups are jammed all the way to the side of the cavity, as well as the tailpiece being offset. In this guitar, the disparity in output between the neck and bridge was obvious and unpleasant. If the pups and tailpiece had been properly aligned, I would have kept it and had the bridge pup rewound or replaced. It played great, but for the price at the time, I couldn't justify keeping it.

I have a NS M-75, and it is inferior to the GSR in most aspects. A damn shame! I would have loved to keep it.

i'm not sure i'd call that a ringing endorsement, but its strangely intriguing just the same. for every good thing i hear about them, there's something about the materials, origins or "quirks" in the build quality to give one pause. and those facebook photos aren't really comforting, either. hard to tell if the tailpiece is crooked or the pickups and rings are off, or the tuners are askew or what.

i suppose that my next question is this: are they worth it? given that you can't get those specs anywhere anymore, and there are no current american made guild electrics, are they worth a dice roll? kind of a lot of money and hassle for a fixer upper, no? assuimng you can straighten out the quirks, you'd have a winner, right? are the pickups the same as what are currently available in other models?

still really curious, even though i'm deeply concerned about the build quality, origins and i'm not a huge fan of the finish. but the allue of a usa made guild with humbuckers that's sort of an archtop with a spruce top under 5 pounds... hard to shake. its almost everything i'd want on paper.
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,596
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
To be honest, it depends on what you can get it for. You will have to put some money into it, but if you can get it cheap enough and have a decent luthier. I would be tempted, but not at $2500.
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,596
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
If you align the strings withe the polepieces, the e string is off the fingerboard. From what l understand, NH was forced by Fender to complete and ship the guitars, when they should have been run through the bandsaw. These guys were Hamer and Ovation veterans - they must have been revolted sending out that messed up a guitar. No way l would pay 3-4k for one.
I still look at the pics and sigh, because that was my ideal guitar too. :-(
 

jcwu

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Messages
2,958
Reaction score
37
Location
San Jose, CA
These guys were Hamer and Ovation veterans - they must have been revolted sending out that messed up a guitar.

How'd Ovation and Hamer veterans produce such shoddy workmanship, that's what I want to know.
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,596
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
How'd Ovation and Hamer veterans produce such shoddy workmanship, that's what I want to know.
Because the jig was set up wrong (CNC I guess?) and Fender ordered them to shut up and build the guitars.
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,596
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
Buy one, then you can sell the sf-6 to me 

Michael, I had one and sent it back, knowing I could never get another. I *might* pay a grand for one, but I would have to pay to have the tailpiece moved to the centerline of the guitar, then I would have to rout out the top for HB-1s, hoping that I wouldn't hit the braces due to the larger pickups. At best, you would have to elongate the pickup rout and have to make wider pickup rings to cover the gap. And in that guitar, the feeble bridge pickup really stood out. The going out of business price was 2600 bucks. If it would have been 1500, I would have kept it...
 

feet

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Messages
23
Reaction score
2
If you align the strings withe the polepieces, the e string is off the fingerboard. From what l understand, NH was forced by Fender to complete and ship the guitars, when they should have been run through the bandsaw. These guys were Hamer and Ovation veterans - they must have been revolted sending out that messed up a guitar. No way l would pay 3-4k for one.
I still look at the pics and sigh, because that was my ideal guitar too. :-(
did they all have these exact problems? were they all equally flawed, or some more than others?

Michael, I had one and sent it back, knowing I could never get another. I *might* pay a grand for one, but I would have to pay to have the tailpiece moved to the centerline of the guitar, then I would have to rout out the top for HB-1s, hoping that I wouldn't hit the braces due to the larger pickups. At best, you would have to elongate the pickup rout and have to make wider pickup rings to cover the gap. And in that guitar, the feeble bridge pickup really stood out. The going out of business price was 2600 bucks. If it would have been 1500, I would have kept it...
it seems crazy to do that much work when you could get a perfectly built guitar (an aristocrat, even) for much less. but i like the idea of it being unique and i've been known to mod every single guitar i own, anyway. i wonder just how salvageable they are, i guess. if i have to put in different pickups, so be it, as long as its safe for the guitar and actually possible. would it need a new bridge, also?

all that aside, how did you like it? :D still trying to get my head around what it is, exactly. no clips or demos, obviously. how is acoustic or archtoppy is it? how much will remain after the guitar is "corrected"? i'm generally a cleanish electric player who tunes down and uses heavy strings but this could be a boon as an electric singer/songwriter kind of thing, i would think. more travel friendly than my other hollowbodies- might make an interesting busking guitar. assuming it works :)
 

F312

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
2,760
Reaction score
958
Because the jig was set up wrong (CNC I guess?) and Fender ordered them to shut up and build the guitars.

What about all that I heard about Fender stressing about better quality control over production when they bought Guild.

Ralph
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,596
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
What about all that I heard about Fender stressing about better quality control over production when they bought Guild.

Ralph

Probably because of all that debt Fender had. Outgoing guitars = incoming money
 

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
24,708
Reaction score
8,836
Location
Central Virginia, USA
Guild Total
5
What about all that I heard about Fender stressing about better quality control over production when they bought Guild.

Ralph

All of those comments were made about Westerly. I don't recall any QA/QC type discussions about New Hartford and what Fender was or was not telling them to do. The biggest thing I recall was the push to have warranty work done in New Hartford. That eventually happened and was a key part of QA/QC feedback for the factory. But the push for that came from "the locals" and was not a Fender mandate.

Your memory about the comments is correct but they apply to a different factory and a different decade :)
 

F312

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
2,760
Reaction score
958
I was referring when Fender bought Guild, that was in Westerly and I would assume quality would be kept to the same standards moving to the other locations. I personally have had no issues with any of the locations however, I own no Coronas.

Ralph
 

fronobulax

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
24,708
Reaction score
8,836
Location
Central Virginia, USA
Guild Total
5
I was referring when Fender bought Guild, that was in Westerly and I would assume quality would be kept to the same standards moving to the other locations.

OK. That is an assumption I would never make, hence my response.
 

feet

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Messages
23
Reaction score
2
hell of a time for an abberation. why couldn't they have screwed up something i didn't want? i thought the gsr's were custom shop level instruments. guess i'm lucky i didn't buy one of these sight unseen because i would have trusted them blindly before this thread.

i did reach out to guild and they provided some vague "we don't know, it wasn't us" type info about this special run in particular. so we'll never officially corroborate what they are, where they happened or what went wrong. they did state that at some point, they will bring back usa made electrics, so i guess that's good news. maybe if we're lucky, at some unknown point in the future, they'll make a fancy aristocrat again. i'll just have to settle for an american patriarch, i guess. :p
 

Default

Super Moderator
Platinum Supporting
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
13,596
Reaction score
3,008
Location
Philly, or thereabouts
Guild Total
11
I was not happy, let me tell you. And I know some of the NH folks, so when I told you what happened, that was what happened. It is not CMG's product, so they aren't worrying about it. If I can find one cheap enough, I'll buy one and put the work into it.

I ain't paying 4K though.
 
Last edited:

chazmo

Super Moderator
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Messages
25,472
Reaction score
7,131
Location
Central Massachusetts
I think this was an aberration, myself. Every other GSR I own is exemplary.

I think I'd agree wtih that, Steve. I didn't know this story about the M-75 GSR, and that's sad to put a stain on (mostly) great guitars.

This is unrelated, but I was aware (but asked not to discuss) that some of the first electric GSRs (I can't remember the model) were actually built from bodies-in-white that NH had gotten from Tacoma. Those bodies had been commissioned in Tacoma but were built in the Orient somewhere. It didn't matter, really.... The finished guitars were definitely NH product, and there was nothing negative to say about that. They did feel a little odd about the origin, though. The important thing to me was to see electrics (Guilds, that is) coming out of NH!

On the acoustic front, I don't recall any flaws/problems reported on any run of GSRs.

Honestly, the only quality "problem" I remember in NH was that there was a period when final assembly was making pretty low saddles on the 1 and 2 strings, but that was not really a "problem".
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
580
Reaction score
94
And where in the orient were those bodies made? Were these the Donnie Wade project? NH is gone and it's time we let the cat out of the bag.
Thanks John
 
Top