Why Guild Solid Body?

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PittPastor

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I was just wondering what makes people buy a Guild electric as opposed to a Strat or Les Paul (or variation of)?

With Acoustic it is often "sound" -- which is primarily the wood, bracing, etc. With a solid body that isn't the case, right? (I'm still trying to figure out why the material the solid body is made out of matters at all. I don't understand how the electric's sound and tone is made.)

What made you choose Guild over something else? Logo? Pickup combos? Neck feel? Tone?

I'm tryna figure the electric side of the world out...

(If this has been asked and answered, please just point me there, but I didn't find it)
 

AcornHouse

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Part wood, part pickups, part design, part price, part brand loyalty, part be different from the crowd, part hand feel.
 

DThomasC

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I bought my first Guild solidbody (in the early 80's) because it was WAY cheaper than a Gibson of similar quality. I grew to really appreciate it for what it was no matter the price. Then it became all the stuff Chris said.

I absolutely appreciate the quality and feel and sound of Guilds, but I'll be honest: if they cost the same as Gibsons then I probably wouldn't be as much of a fan boi.
 

fronobulax

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I bought my first Guild bass because everyone around me was playing Fenders and I wanted to be different. Every other Guild was bought for a combination of features I didn't know how to find elsewhere, and brand loyalty. There is definitely a sound quality available from a vintage Starfire bass that is hard to get from any other instrument. Guitar players have had similar stories. I know the Starfire is a hollow body but my first Guild was a solid JS II so...
 

GAD

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I have a Les Paul - a Custom Shop Historic R9.

I have a Fender Strat - American Deluxe.

I also have 40+ Guilds. :encouragement:

I'm not really a Strat guy. I have one for Stratty songs. I could very easily become a Les Paul guy, but for the price I paid for my R9 I could have six Bluesbirds. Maybe seven.

US-Made Guilds have every bit the quality and playability of the other brands (often moreso) for a significant fraction of the price. Import Guilds are another matter.

As for what makes an electric sound the way it does, that's a whole 'nuther discussion.
 

JohnW63

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Your question about tone...
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Tone-...F8&qid=1531969297&sr=8-2&keywords=Guitar+tone
51x1LY9KArL._SX389_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 

Los Angeles

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HB1 pickups, phase switch and thinner neck profile = THE PERFECT ELECTRIC GUITAR ... for me ;)
 

Quantum Strummer

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My interest in Guild solidbodies is fairly recent as it was the hollow Aristocrat/Bluesbird, semi-hollow Starfires and chambered Nightbird that first attracted me to the brand. Then I had the chance to play a couple Thunderbirds (S-200) and a few S-100s. I really liked the way they all felt and played. I already had a pair of '60s Gibson SGs, and it was clear the '70s S-100s were right up there in the same league. But different enough in sound & feel, despite the obvious visual resemblances, to be alternatives rather than copies. HB-1s in particular have a distinct & musical voice, different to anything else out there. So here we are! :)

-Dave-
 
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Feel/playability, tones and cost are my criteria in that order. My first good guitar was my new 1975 Guild D50 because I could afford when I graduated high school. and yes I still have it now. at the time I wanted the S-100 SC and a Starfire. Now I have all three and then some.
Thanks John
 

krysh

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as a teenager some million years ago, I once saw a then to me incredibly expensive X-500 in a music-shop shown behind glass, and of course I didn't have the guts to ask to play it. well, I was just a beginner at that time anyway, but the brand name and the look burned itself into my mind.
but, for years a guild was out of my reach and price range. so I rehearsed a lot, played a lot, owned many different guitars, but then around 2007 I had the vision of a semi acoustic guitar with maple body and neck and an ebony fretboard. I searched the web for a suitable es-335 or ibanez as-100/200, but I couldn't find one with the specs I wanted.
then I found a limited run 1990 sf-4 at ebay that had the exact wood combination and it was in my city. I checked it out, and immediately got hooked. a beautifully playable neck, great action, and great tone. the deal was made. and the virus transfered.

since then I sold all other brand guitars and most basses and replaced them with guilds and replaced some of them with other guilds.
most of them were bought unseen and I never really was disappointed. there hasn't been any bad guild guitar or bass I tried. some a tiny bit less great, but not even one I didn't like. and it is a brand a lot people don't even knew, so I always played something different and greater than most of the other players at a fracture of a price they paid for other brands (thanks to the 2nd hand market)- something I like a lot.

all of them have a similar neck feel, something that is recognizable through the decades, the only exception is my new cordoba M-20. she's a little different, but nevertheless a truly inspiring little gem.

to me the magic of guild guitars is, that somehow they build instruments that speak to me and make me speak more clearly on them to you than on any other brand - except maybe some custom made instruments (and basses - no, I didn't mention LeFay ;) ). but on guitar these are the ones I always try not to check out. ;)

I love my guilds.
 

fronobulax

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there hasn't been any bad guild guitar or bass I tried

*snicker*

Well there was a certain black B4CE that you correctly identified needed some work to be playable, but the lack of that work was not the basses fault ;-)
 

mellowgerman

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Though admittedly I currently don't own ANY solid-body 6-string guitars (my Starfire III and Yamaha classical cover all of my 6-string needs), I will agree that the 90's S-100 I owned for some time (passed along to a friend) had a neck on it that was hands down my favorite I've ever felt on a solid-body electric. Chunky, comfy, and just right. The fretwork was perfect and the way the guitar would sit/hang while playing it was also incredibly comfortable. Many different pickups found their way in and out of that guitar (from p-90's, to humbuckers, to Burns single coils, to a vintage Franz, etc.) but the resonance of the guitar made all of them sound great. Of course the guitar was visually very sleek and unique (in a sea of strats and les pauls).
Furthermore, my ears and eyes have grown weary of strats and les pauls. I don't argue that in and of themselves they may be great instruments, but to me they are both so incredibly overused in music, that they end up looking and sounding unexciting and like "just another" strat or les paul to me. Sure every player has their own style that will make an instrument sound different and you have the option of running it all through a million different pedals, scramblers, fuzzes, and modulators, but there is just something so refreshing about hearing some Guild Franz or HB-1 pickups straight into a nice tube amp.
Similar things could be said about other less-common quality pickups and instruments... there are so many out there, why just keep coming back to the same two models hanging on the wall at Guitar Center? Great instrument designs, perhaps, but by no means the best or greatest like they are often championed to be.
On a side-note, when it comes to Gibson solid bodies, I much prefer the SG to the Les Paul for comfort reasons. For Fenders, I lean toward Teles because they feel much more solid without the giant swimming pool carved out of the back for the floating springy bridge.
 
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matsickma

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Guild has made many different type of solid, chambered, semihollow and hollow body guitars. All different pickups, neck lengths, number of frets, bodies, different vibrato's, hard stops, and harp stops.
In spite of the wide variety they all feel like and have playability of a Guild!

And that is why I play Guilds.
Their necks just always feel like a Guild and that feel is what I bonded with at a very young age. Fenders and Gibson just don't feel comfortable to me.
M
 

Mr. Lumbergh

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I was just wondering what makes people buy a Guild electric as opposed to a Strat or Les Paul (or variation of)?

With Acoustic it is often "sound" -- which is primarily the wood, bracing, etc. With a solid body that isn't the case, right? (I'm still trying to figure out why the material the solid body is made out of matters at all. I don't understand how the electric's sound and tone is made.)

What made you choose Guild over something else? Logo? Pickup combos? Neck feel? Tone?

I'm tryna figure the electric side of the world out...

(If this has been asked and answered, please just point me there, but I didn't find it)
I picked up a Guild Bluesbird when I was on the hunt for a "Les Paul" because
A) The price was great for what I got.
B) It felt good to play.
C) You don't see them all over the frickin' place at jams.
D) It wasn't a Gibson. I didn't want Henry J. to get any of my money.
Win-win-win-win. :triumphant:
 

PittPastor

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I appreciate all of the input.

I confess to be totally ignorant about electric guitars. (But I still manage to have opinions. Go figure!)

I'm not buying the "Wood gives tone" argument. I watched the Fender video. But, although I will admit that striking the wood with a metal hammer yields different results, I am not at all convinced that those differences translate -- at all -- to the sound coming out of the electric coils. I would agree that in a sound lab setting, with an expert pointing out the differences, I might be able to pinpoint the sound change. But, without an A/B test, and with the sound going through a pre-amp, amp, and speaker, I would be shocked if 1 person in 50,000 could listen to one guitar playing, and tell you what wood it was made out of.

My reasoning is that I have a really great sounding DG40 acoustic. Great wood. 36 years old and seasoned. But when I put the piezo pickup on it, it instantly sounded pretty much like every other piezo amped acoustic out there. If you were close enough to the stage that you were getting the acoustic sound filling in, you could tell a difference. But an electric played on a solid body? I honestly don't see how. I would say that wood may contribute a small amount, but it seems to me that the pickup, tailpiece, and even the way the neck was joined probably make up 90+% of an electric's sound. I may be totally wrong, but it seems to me that it has to be so.

Buying a Guild because of the Logo is a fair reason, I guess, but I was hoping for more.

The guys talking about how they like the neck actually struck a chord with me (see what I did there?) My left hand is kind of used to the Guild shape. When I tried out a Martin last year it didn't go well for me at all -- and that was all about the neck. Also interesting to hear that some guys like the difference in the sound because of the pickups. I can see that may very well be true. I don't know what sounds I like on an electric yet. But I can see where Humbucker fatigue could set in for sure. I probably don't play out as much as you guys do, so that might not affect me as much. But I can understand it.

The "more for less" argument is always appealing to me. I wasn't sure if it were true in used Guild electrics though -- only because the market is so flooded with Strats and Les Pauls that I would expect the price for a used one to be pretty low. But I guess its like anything else. If you want a good one, you'll pay, eh?

Anyway, thanks again everyone for chiming in!

It isn't just an idle question. I've been thinking about trying some electric guitar. Part of me reminds myself of my schedule, and how I really have no time for the acoustics I already have. But, the other part of me has always wanted to try an electric and see how it is different. I've always put it off, because I thought: "Meh. I really don't like "shredding" songs,anyway". In fact most of the time I like electric-centric music is when they are making it sound kind of acoustic.

But lately, I am kind of getting into Mark Knopfler's music. And when I saw he was playing electric guitar as a bare fingerpicker, I was like: "Why did no one ever tell me that could be done?"

It will be awhile before I pull the trigger. But next question: What guitar would you suggest for an acoustic crossover player, as his first electric?
 

GAD

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Regarding the "wood doesn't affect tone", prepare to do battle. :chuncky: This argument has gone on since there's been electric guitars. I'll simply say this: if wood doesn't affect tone, then why does an SG sound different than a Les Paul? Also, certain woods have different sustain and resonance. You don't think those translate to the pickup? If the note sustains longer isn't that sustained note different than one that doesn't sustain?

The reason this argument has sustained (get it?) is because it's tough to prove empirically what people perceive when it comes to sound. People can be taught to hear subtle difference and not everyone can hear them. To many hardcore single-coil players, all humbucker guitars sound the same. They don't to me, but I'm a life-long humbucker lover.

I appreciate your thinking it through, but ask anyone with experience and you'll get a different answer. Really though, the amp and effects can easily negate or change and difference you hear which is why any guitar Billy Gibbons picks up on stage sounds like Pearly Gates - they're all EQ'd to do so. :encouragement:
 

fronobulax

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Well you can have your opinion about wood in solid bodies but if I tell you I can't hear the difference between a Sitka topped and an Adirondack topped acoustic does that make me the heretic?

I have found in discussions like this to remember there is a distinction between "they sound the same" and "I think they sound the same/can't hear the difference". Just because I can't hear the wood based differences in solid bodies does not mean there is no difference. If I can't hear the difference between East Indian and Brazilian rosewood does that mean everyone who paid a premium to get Brazilian is delusional and got ripped off? I might suggest your experience with a piezo on an acoustic does not generalize to a guitar and pickup that were built from the beginning to be electric. I know I am mixing acoustics, hollow bodies and solid bodies but as far as wood goes the similarities and differences apply across all body types, perhaps not as noticeable.

If you want to explore wood differences you might try mahogany and maple Starfires. If you can't hear a difference then there is no point in looking for wood options in solid bodies. But if you can hear a difference than you might have a wood preference in solids. If nothing else a lot of people pick their solid wood based upon the weight of the guitar. If you can't do three one hour sets with it then the tone probably doesn't matter.

At some point an instrument is a very personal choice and the factors that influence that choice don't always match one brand, so you should expect a lot of Guild fanbois here and there may be no reason, other than the brand, that they play a Guild instead of a Fender. But you did get some brand differences so your disappointment might not be appropriate.

If you are eventually investing in an electric you probably should start with the sound you want or the genre you have to fit into. Sometimes the best choice is not Guild. :)
 
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