Does anyone know what happened to John Denver’s Guilds?

Butch

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Does anyone know what happened to John Denver’s Guilds?

I was curious if anyone knows what happened to John Denver’s iconic F50 Artist Award or his F612? I have seen both of his Yamaha’s show up for sale as well as his Taylor’s. I have also seen some of his lesser used guitars show up for sale. I really expected his Guilds to show up for sale somewhere, but to date, nothing. In addition, does anyone know why he moved away from using Guilds?
 

fronobulax

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The post here from a member of the John Denver Guitar Research Site has a link to the site that does not work for me, so they may be out of business.

I recall going through the Denver Airport last August and there were many of John Denver's guitars on display along one of the concourses. There were two or three Guilds. Under the circumstances we did not stop to read the displays so I have no idea who owned them now or how they ended up on display in the airport. Similarly it was not clear whether they were instruments actually owned by John or just the same make and model.

The F-612 is a pretty rare bird and most discussions here end up mentioning JD. I seem to recall an attempt to document all the known F-612's and there was one that was thought to have been JDs.

Use the search string "site:www.letstalkguild.com Denver 612" on Google and you can sort out whether my memory is correct or not. :)
 

GardMan

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My guess is the LTGer Taylor Martin Guild will have some knowledge re: J.D.s Guilds. He is a big fan, and attends the J.D. gathering in Aspen every October. As I recall, he has played one or more of Jhn's guitars, but I don't think they were the Guilds...
 

Taylor Martin Guild

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I have tried to find out what happened to the many guitars that John Denver owned.
John gave away some of his guitars to close friends.
Some of these guitars eventually were sold to other people. A few of these guitars that I know of were
a Greven White Lady and at least 2 of John's Yamaha guitars.
There was a Gibson nylon string and an Ovation that are also now in the hands of new owners.
As far as John's Guilds go, most of them are still in the estate.

John's Gibson that he got from his Grandmother is still in the estate collection.
So are some other guitars like his Mossman 6 and 12 string guitars.

Like many of us guitar players, John loved all types of guitars.
The one interesting guitar that isn't seen in his collection is anything by Martin Guitar.
John was once quoted as saying that Martin guitars are great for recording but he didn't like their on stage sound.
For this same reason, John became a fan of Taylor guitars.
 

Butch

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I had read somewhere that he had several vintage Martins but that he never took them on tour. I’ve also seen pictures of his Gibson f hole guitar in a museum display in Arizona, I believe. I came close to buying one of his Yamaha guitars a number of years ago, I just couldn’t justify the asking price, although I really tried hard to talk myself into it.
 

Brad Little

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Interesting nobody's mentioned this guitar, one of the oddities of guitar history. IMO.
r046fr.jpg
 

Taylor Martin Guild

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That guitar didn't belong to John.
It belonged to Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels.
Randy let John use it.

I have been told that there are no Martin guitars in the Estate.
This was from an inside source that I trust.
 

Butch

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I don’t remember where I read about his Martin Guitars, but I remember reading it somewhere. Of course, I have no idea how credible the source was either. Your source is much more credible. I can’t imagine trying to play an 18 string guitar. Did you know that John Denver’s uncle currently plays with the New Christy Minstrels?
 

amnicon

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I seem to remember reading at some point that his love of using hand-made leather cases meant a good number of guitars were damaged as well. the photos of the cases I've seen are beautiful, but not a bit structurally protective.
 

Stuball48

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I seem to remember reading at some point that his love of using hand-made leather cases meant a good number of guitars were damaged as well. the photos of the cases I've seen are beautiful, but not a bit structurally protective.
Less damage to Guilds because they were better and stronger built IMHO.
 

chazmo

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The post here from a member of the John Denver Guitar Research Site has a link to the site that does not work for me, so they may be out of business.

I recall going through the Denver Airport last August and there were many of John Denver's guitars on display along one of the concourses. There were two or three Guilds. Under the circumstances we did not stop to read the displays so I have no idea who owned them now or how they ended up on display in the airport. Similarly it was not clear whether they were instruments actually owned by John or just the same make and model.

The F-612 is a pretty rare bird and most discussions here end up mentioning JD. I seem to recall an attempt to document all the known F-612's and there was one that was thought to have been JDs.

Use the search string "site:www.letstalkguild.com Denver 612" on Google and you can sort out whether my memory is correct or not. :)

Only got that one post from that JD researcher, Liz... I think frono is talking about this: http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?183434-John-Denver-s-Guitars Maybe someone should try to contact this person. I'll try a quick email.

I used to ride by that guitar store in Berkeley every day for a while. Wish I'd been paying attention at the time.
 

idealassets

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Most likely all JD's 12 string guitars should be in good shape, since he mostly played with a capo, and tuned to D. We can only hope that today they are stored with proper humidity since we know how dry the climate is in Colorado.

A few of his more recent and non Guild guitars were recently to be sold at auction at I think it was Bonham-Butterfield auctions. I was not very excited about what makes and models they were.

I was never very interested in JD's later model guitars since nearly all of his most iconic songs were recorded on Guild guitars (except Thank God I'm a Country Boy). Its the Guild sound that I remember most.
 
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fronobulax

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:) Didn't see that, Fro. Tnx.

Time to get your glasses checked? Actually I find the blue that is the default color for links is getting harder and harder to see, to the point that I sometimes just paste the link and not descriptive text so people will know there is a link.

:)
 
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