1970's Guild ads

fronobulax · Jul 24, 2023

GGJaguar said:
Well, that sentiment might apply now, but based on what @DrumBob has said, at the time it was a sales dud. Which makes the marketing-speak "You've made it the most popular solid body guitar we've ever built" even more ironic.

Yeah, I'd like to know the numbers behind that claim. S-100 might be my guess for the most popular.

chazmo · Jul 24, 2023

GGJaguar said:
Well, that sentiment might apply now, but based on what @DrumBob has said, at the time it was a sales dud. Which makes the marketing-speak "You've made it the most popular solid body guitar we've ever built" even more ironic.

Well, maybe so... Sometimes beauty is not recognized in its time.

chazmo · Jul 24, 2023

fronobulax said:
Yeah, I'd like to know the numbers behind that claim. S-100 might be my guess for the most popular.

I think so too. May depend on the era though. '70s, probably.

fronobulax · Jul 24, 2023

chazmo said:
I think so too. May depend on the era though. '70s, probably.

I assumed 70's and earlier since the ad was not trying to predict the future.

DrumBob · Jul 24, 2023

Let me clarify on the S-series guitars. They initially sold well, but after a while, sales went down the tubes. When I was at Guild, all the sales reps were fed up trying to sell them to dealers who got burned previously with S guitars that wouldn't sell. They all wanted something more traditional. so we brought back the M-80.

fronobulax · Jul 25, 2023

DrumBob said:
Let me clarify on the S-series guitars. They initially sold well, but after a while, sales went down the tubes. When I was at Guild, all the sales reps were fed up trying to sell them to dealers who got burned previously with S guitars that wouldn't sell. They all wanted something more traditional. so we brought back the M-80.

Thank you.

From your perspective what would you say was "the most popular solid body Guitar" that Guild had ever built? Cap it at 1982 unless there is a better date for the end of S-300 production.

DrumBob · Jul 25, 2023

fronobulax said:
Thank you.

From your perspective what would you say was "the most popular solid body Guitar" that Guild had ever built? Cap it at 1982 unless there is a better date for the end of S-300 production.

I really don't know. I suppose it could be the S-100 or M-75, but it's hard to say, because no Guild solidbody ever sold really well in the first place.

Guild probably said the best seller was the S series guitars, because they sold well in the beginning, but after a while, they bottomed out and became wall hangers in too many music stores. Our reps couldn't sell them after awhile. Neil Lilien had me calling dealers to blow them out at 50+15 just to get rid of them.

Actually, the basses sold quite well. Bob Bromberg once told me that that S shape looked good on the basses, but not the guitars.