Boring Finishes

Mark WW

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I love Guilds despite their penchant for rarely offering anything in finish that might elicit a little excitement. Plain and steady are great to a point but then it is just boring. Where are the cherry red and orange flame finishes. Heck Guild offered an amber with flame Starfire VI then it changed it back to blonde. Blonde...really? Is that exciting? I own 5 very boring Guilds but I would rather own 5 exciting or at least slightly stimulating finished Guilds.

Confession: I hate sunburst. But I know many of you choose that as your first choice and bless your predilection but please Guild give us some flavors already!!!:courage:
 

adorshki

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I love Guilds despite their penchant for rarely offering anything in finish that might elicit a little excitement. Plain and steady are great to a point but then it is just boring. Where are the cherry red and orange flame finishes. Heck Guild offered an amber with flame Starfire VI then it changed it back to blonde. Blonde...really? Is that exciting? I own 5 very boring Guilds but I would rather own 5 exciting or at least slightly stimulating finished Guilds.

Confession: I hate sunburst. But I know many of you choose that as your first choice and bless your predilection but please Guild give us some flavors already!!!:courage:

I agree for the most part but I have a suspicion the economies of scale are at work here.
It wouldn't surprise me if there are onerous minimum orders for the tints/pigments to add to the lacquer or to paint the bodies.
Even if the minimums weren't particularly large, cleanup between colors might be pretty costly..
Adds overhead to what's already a pretty costly NCL application model.
We are seeing colors on the imports.
Those guys are mass production, Guild's just a piece of it.
And it's not NCL.
 

GAD

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I also agree, though I love a good sunburst. I love my Guilds, but I find myself more drawn to finishes that aren't common. The reason I fell in love with this Nightbird is because the finish is different than most:

5D3_7619_1600.jpg



Sadly for me, I also really dislike tobacco-burst, which seems to be the go-to burst finish for Guild over the years:

_B0Z2552_800.jpg


Don't get me wrong - that's a beautiful guitar, but the burst is just boring to me. Then there's this one. This is a Fender Custom Shop Bluesbird-90. It's a REALLY great guitar! But it has that same boring tobacco-burst finish. Yawn.

Guild-CustomShop-Bluesbird-90-TopFull.jpg



Give me the unusual any day:

_B0Z75501_1600.jpg

_B0Z9127_1600.jpg


Guild-X3000-TopFull.jpg




Sure, those are all rare and unusual, and maybe that's the point of using killer finishes on them (along with the obvious upscale wood), but I really wish it was easier to find Bluesbirds and Starfires in these super-cool colors.
 

Nuuska

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Hello

Back when I was working at James Berns Music Store in MN - we had about 50 solid body Gibsons in stock ( about 700 guitars total ) . And whenever somebody came in saying "money is no object - I want Les Paul" we could have betted our lives that he goes with black Les Paul Custom with chrome hardware. Now THAT was boring. I still wish I would have bought the lovely sunburst Les Paul Artist and the Les Paul Artisan, that we had in stock. But I was busy playing my 12-string Guild....

But the story goes to show, that even if something nice would be available - customers choose "boring" - look at cars - black + 50 shades of gray + couple oddballs with bright colour. Things were different 50 years ago. Bright colours and all kind shapes in just about any product. We were shopping for a patio table the other day. Dark gray is the colour today - we could not find anything else. And we have these lovely chairs made of rattan.

So my conclusion is that the manufacturers do know what they are doing.
 

fronobulax

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There are a few colors I would gladly buy, but Guild isn't using them yet. But since the Newark Street line was "inspired by" and not necessarily replicating or reissuing vintage instruments, it would be nice if they had colors and finishes that were rare or not available back in the day.
 

adorshki

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Hello
But the story goes to show, that even if something nice would be available - customers choose "boring" - look at cars - black + 50 shades of gray + couple oddballs with bright colour. Things were different 50 years ago. Bright colours and all kind shapes in just about any product. We were shopping for a patio table the other day. Dark gray is the colour today - we could not find anything else. And we have these lovely chairs made of rattan.
So my conclusion is that the manufacturers do know what they are doing.
I think it's more that there's a minimum break-even quantity and it just ain't worth taking the chances on "unusual" not selling anymore.
I see the same thing with paper over the last twenty years:
Every 4 or 5 years a maker wants to "Refresh" the palette in a line.
There's always a new "green", and there's always a bunch of leftover green.
Given that it takes 5000 lbs just to break even on the paper making machine, and only 1500 lbs of it ever gets sold, after a while they quit offering green paper.
No matter what the new consultants tell 'em the season's fashionable colors are gonna be.
(Both car makers and paper makers hire consulting firms to get guidance on their color palettes)
That kind of ties directly back to what MarkWW said, too:
Gibson makes way too many variations of individual models and to be honest way too many models. Their thinking is why not offer this at $5,000 and sell 100 instead of 1,000 at $1,200 - $1,500.
You're better off making 100 $5000 guitars and selling all of 'em than you are making 1,000 $1500.00 guitars and watching half of 'em go unsold.
You might gross more but you probably barely recovered your costs if at all.
Guild in Westerly was small enough to be very flexible on their floor and do small runs and one-offs.
 

Jeff Haddad

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Overall, Guild production numbers are/have always been lower than many other company's. So it would appear that they don't make as many colorful/flamey guitars. But if you look enough some great examples of different finishes pop up:

ca. 2001 X160 in Catalina Blue:

TdzNN0.jpg


'86 SF IV in flamey blond - I don't consider it boring in the least:

nO8uEq.jpg


A lovely flamey back on a '61 (or '62?) X175:

WjwIj3.jpg


A late '90's X160 Rockabilly in flamey Tennessee Orange:

BjHf0J.jpg


Here's my '95 SF IV in flamey "cherry" red:

E6OeyD.jpg


Yawn...
 

davismanLV

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Hey Mark.... I think you have a valid point. However, are you talking about Guild historically? Or Guild NOW? Guild now is struggling to produce super nice guitars from a new plant with new people and so far, I think they're doing pretty well. My personal opinion. And I have HIGH HOPES for what they may achieve. But you must remember this company has been bounced around and people and locations and management and so.... what hopes we may have for the future are at best, tentative. You know? So we are talking about historically or currently?

I think Guild is gonna and currently turning out some amazing guitars that we've had some feedback on but at this point they're not up to full production which is when VARIATIONS (that's what they are) are manageable. So give 'em some time, okay? I full confidence they will prevail (I HOPE) and in the meantime... there are SO many guitars out there. My two newest guitars are not Guilds, but i'm not blaming Guild for that! Just my wandering eye and my love of blue and of course, alternative woods!! Stay calm I think, but branch out a bit. I won't hurt and when Guild gets up and running at full speed, you may see some truly amazing things. MAY!!

I give you my two girls. The younger and smaller concert sized Breedlove and her larger sister, the big (almost) jumbo, the Myrtlewood Concerto E!! Super nice guitars. If you're talking electrics, I don't know $hit. Ask the other guys okay?

cuFX2l.jpg


Sometimes I think we put too many hopes and dreams from too many people and .... let 'em go!! They'll do well or they won't. And I think they're doing very well right now. Great hopes, fabulous dreams..... and shop around. You wanna blue guitar?? Ask me how I know!!! And I got one of the BEST!!!
 
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Mark WW

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Hey guys some excellent points. The bluesbirds and nighthawks did come in some (the green is cool and if ya like blue that too) THe X160 Rockabilly's - yeah the blue and the orange. The flamey orange X170t - very nice. And yes the Starfire 4-6 definitely got same flame going on but the rest of the current line? I'm sorry blond and sunburst flames or not are just boring and I almost forgot black. I have a black SFIII but still...boring. The Newark Street line was conceptualized and inbtroduced as an entirely new but based on historicals generation of Guilds (import but that is just a fact of life) and really only a few years ago. The audience for price points above the NS line starts to diminish so you folks waiting for more Made in USA Guild Electrics...I just don't see a future there.

And again I do not mean to offend you lovers of sunburst, blonde and blackies...I just would like a little more flame and some orange and m,aybe a few more cherry reds...oh and greens and purples and paisley and...
 

DrumBob

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When I worked at Guild from 79-81, I could not convince Neil Lilien or Leon Tell to try anything out of the ordinary insofar as finishes. All they did was the usual: sunburst, black, white, cherry red, walnut, or a darker shade of brown. Boring and ultra conservative. At the time, Fender style custom colors were making a comeback after the "all natural" movement of the early 70's. Those Guild guys were stuck in tradition and refused to try anything new, and eventually, their thinking and mistakes put Guild into bankruptcy. Lilien was one of the most arrogant individuals imaginable. They were both "relieved of their duties" by Avnet, who brought Mark Dronge in to take over, a man who had better ideas about bringing Guild electrics into the 80's.
 
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I like the traditional sunburst, blonde, and cherry finishes because they show the beauty of the wood grain. It would have been cool, however, to see a few Starfires or Bluesbirds in some custom colors like daphne blue or surf green while Fender owned and made Guilds.
 

Bonneville88

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Not an arched top, but an arched back :happy:

My DCE3 in Tennessee Orange

mPoCEpJ.jpg

HNGZGTs.jpg
 
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adorshki

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I like the traditional sunburst, blonde, and cherry finishes because they show the beauty of the wood grain. It would have been cool, however, to see a few Starfires or Bluesbirds in some custom colors like daphne blue or surf green while Fender owned and made Guilds.
We kinda liked this '99 when GAD scored it a while back:
Guild-Blue-Starfire-V-Grass.jpg


Here's a Custom Shop M70 acquired by Hattedfrau a few years back::


GUILDCS2_zps35e3c7aa.jpg

and, comment from member Dadaist from way back in 2013 on "how they might have happened":
Initially when I saw the header, "...Light Blue Guild 12-String...", I thought that it was one of those Corona Guilds that was finished in an unusual color, because Steve in the paint booth had just shot ten 'Strats, and didn't want to waste the paint.
This looks like an '84, D-212, and the color actually looks kind of cool, in an pastel '80s sort of way....when you're doing your acoustic Duran Duran Set....if any of you are inclined to that sort of music and you have color co-ordinated suit.
As I recall, that Custom Finish was a $50 upcharge. Not cheap when you consider the guitar itself retailed for around $700.
David
Not sure if he was joking about Steve in Corona but it's definitely true that Fender colors were appearing on Guilds under their ownership.
There was an NOS '03 D25 in Seafoam shown here a couple of years back, too.
And there was a Honey Blonde (or Transparent White?):
100_1674.jpg

Ah, here we go, Corona's D25 palette, although I'm still uncertain if Honey Blonde and Trans White were 2 different colors:
Corona colors including Trans (or Woodgrain?) Blue, Natural, Cherry, and Fender's Seafoam and Honey Blonde:
guild-d25-14599.jpg

Honey Blonde:
guild_d25hblfm1.jpg

Transparent White:
bwk70vbwmxvple0xsjf3.jpg

Not sure if those two are actually the same color under different lighting, and Corona's lack of color ID on label makes it difficult to tell.
After all these years leaning towards 'em actually being Honey Blonde since it actually appears in the '01 Frontline, but have never seen an official reference to Trans White.
In any case have only seen these pics of that color(s), so must be pretty rare.[/QUOTE]


And that '01 Starfire in "Catalina Blue" looks an awful lot like Fender's "Lake Placid Blue" as shown in their 2001 Fender Frontline catalog....so who knows what undiscovered little gems might be lurking out there?
 
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