Hi All,
I wanted to introduce myself to all of you in this very cool forum. My name is Paul and this is my first post to tell you about my first Guild. I figure this was one place I could come and rave freely about my new Guild and everyone would likely understand and not mind too much.
I turn the big 6-0 in a week or so and my lovely wife decided I should have a wonderful new guitar for the occasion. So, I've been looking for some time. I've been playing over 50 years and I've possibly had close to that many guitars over that time. I've dabbled in virtually every style it seems and still gig out a couple of times per month with a classic rock band. However, my personal passion has been arranging standards and pop tunes for solo fingerstyle. I've tried many types of guitars for this genre and even tried going with a classical for a few months with a Kenny Hill Signature. However, I seem to keep coming back around to archtops. I love their playability, but I wasn't really going for that traditional warm jazz tone. Rather I was looking for clear fundamental rich tones with good sustain, but not a lot of overtones. I wanted more of a great flat top sound in an archtop body. Seemed impossible to find in any guitar.
Well, in all my years I never remember saying "this is the best guitar I've ever played". That is until a couple of days ago. I sort of stumbled on to this particular Artist Award model after finding a youtube video from a couple of years by MusicStoreLive.com. I really loved the sounds of it on their video and I checked and they happened to have one. They described mine as used/b-stock, so I was prepared for the worst when opening the box, but it seems absolutely perfect to me! It's just beautiful!
Anyway, what do I love about it?
1) Everything about it is absolutely beautiful...the wonderful grains of the maple (looking down at the tiger striped neck is really a delight), the beautiful inlays and multiple bindings, the shape of the body, the "skinny" f-holes, the fantastic head stock! I just love all of it.
2) Playability. I was concerned that the neck width would be too skinny or the scale length too short (I had been looking for a 25.5 and this is a 24.75). Well the masters who built this thing know what makes a guitar playable. You can fret notes by blowing on the strings it seems. The combination of the neck shape and everything else makes it a perfect player for me. I wouldn't change a thing.
3) Acoustic tone - amazing rich clear responsive tones. You can hear each note in a chord. The trebles just sing and the bass just growls. It has this incredibly pleasing tone that I can't describe, but it just rings true to me and the tone is very "adjustable" depending on where you pick the strings. Another thing I love...as you dig in the volume of the notes seems to swell and blossom. I guess you'd call it head room, but it makes for such a very responsive and expressive instrument. I feel my playing has already improved because of it.
4) Amplified tone - I've read a lot about the pick ups on these. All I can say, it's wonderful. That's the only way I can describe it's amplified tone. And it seems to bring out the best of any amp I've plugged it in to. It's not muddy at all but produces a clear amplified sound of the guitar itself which is perfect in my opinion.
I had taken delivery on a used L-5 a week or so before finding this guitar, but I returned it the next day because it just didn't speak to me. I don't mean to negatively compare a Gibson L-5 to this guitar. They are just completely different animals. In my mind I always thought they were very similar, but I feel the Guild is perfect for me and the way my style has evolved.
Anyway, thank you for listening to this! I look forward to reading more and participating in this forum.
I wanted to introduce myself to all of you in this very cool forum. My name is Paul and this is my first post to tell you about my first Guild. I figure this was one place I could come and rave freely about my new Guild and everyone would likely understand and not mind too much.
I turn the big 6-0 in a week or so and my lovely wife decided I should have a wonderful new guitar for the occasion. So, I've been looking for some time. I've been playing over 50 years and I've possibly had close to that many guitars over that time. I've dabbled in virtually every style it seems and still gig out a couple of times per month with a classic rock band. However, my personal passion has been arranging standards and pop tunes for solo fingerstyle. I've tried many types of guitars for this genre and even tried going with a classical for a few months with a Kenny Hill Signature. However, I seem to keep coming back around to archtops. I love their playability, but I wasn't really going for that traditional warm jazz tone. Rather I was looking for clear fundamental rich tones with good sustain, but not a lot of overtones. I wanted more of a great flat top sound in an archtop body. Seemed impossible to find in any guitar.
Well, in all my years I never remember saying "this is the best guitar I've ever played". That is until a couple of days ago. I sort of stumbled on to this particular Artist Award model after finding a youtube video from a couple of years by MusicStoreLive.com. I really loved the sounds of it on their video and I checked and they happened to have one. They described mine as used/b-stock, so I was prepared for the worst when opening the box, but it seems absolutely perfect to me! It's just beautiful!
Anyway, what do I love about it?
1) Everything about it is absolutely beautiful...the wonderful grains of the maple (looking down at the tiger striped neck is really a delight), the beautiful inlays and multiple bindings, the shape of the body, the "skinny" f-holes, the fantastic head stock! I just love all of it.
2) Playability. I was concerned that the neck width would be too skinny or the scale length too short (I had been looking for a 25.5 and this is a 24.75). Well the masters who built this thing know what makes a guitar playable. You can fret notes by blowing on the strings it seems. The combination of the neck shape and everything else makes it a perfect player for me. I wouldn't change a thing.
3) Acoustic tone - amazing rich clear responsive tones. You can hear each note in a chord. The trebles just sing and the bass just growls. It has this incredibly pleasing tone that I can't describe, but it just rings true to me and the tone is very "adjustable" depending on where you pick the strings. Another thing I love...as you dig in the volume of the notes seems to swell and blossom. I guess you'd call it head room, but it makes for such a very responsive and expressive instrument. I feel my playing has already improved because of it.
4) Amplified tone - I've read a lot about the pick ups on these. All I can say, it's wonderful. That's the only way I can describe it's amplified tone. And it seems to bring out the best of any amp I've plugged it in to. It's not muddy at all but produces a clear amplified sound of the guitar itself which is perfect in my opinion.
I had taken delivery on a used L-5 a week or so before finding this guitar, but I returned it the next day because it just didn't speak to me. I don't mean to negatively compare a Gibson L-5 to this guitar. They are just completely different animals. In my mind I always thought they were very similar, but I feel the Guild is perfect for me and the way my style has evolved.
Anyway, thank you for listening to this! I look forward to reading more and participating in this forum.
