Canard
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Has anyone owning a P-240 Memoir managed to find a hard shell case for it?
If you have, please tell me where. Thx.
I just bought one.
Some people here in other threads have asked about or discussed the guitar, so I will offer my review of the one I now own, along with some general thoughts.
It is an oddity in many ways, and there really is not a great deal of traditional Guildiness about it.. The head stock logo is non-traditional, I think. The P-240 is marketed as a parlor guitar (new territory for Guild?), but it is much larger than a standard parlor. The dimensions and body shape are most unusual – good luck finding a hard shell case for it – some Single-O cases might work, but you wouldn’t know for sure until you tried putting the P-240 in. The neck is unusual, too. It is quite a broad C shape, and it is bit chunky (I like chunky). The heel of the neck where it meets the body is not very pronounced, which is a boon for access to frets past the 12th. The strings are quite widely spaced – nice for finger picking. The light weight and light feel of the guitar puts it in the company things like Larrivees for feel rather than with the traditionally heavier Guilds. If you were blindfolded, handed the guitar and asked to guess what it was, Guild would not immediately spring to mind – budget Taylor or Breedlove models maybe – Guild? ... hmmm ... not so much. It has a lovely bright, clear, and loud simple voice with none of the darker but clear toned complexity that I love in solid mahogany sides-and-back smaller body Guilds. It is something entirely different – something quite delightful in its own idiosyncratic way.
The general build quality seems excellent. Looking inside with a snake light and inspection mirror, I see nothing alarming, nothing of any concern at all. Most things about it look very nice.
As for playing experience, the off-the-rack action is medium/low with a reasonable amount of camber in the neck, not too much, not too little – prefect for my tastes – no need for further setup for me. The effort in fretting is fairly consistent along the whole neck – pretty easy. There are no real dead spots or wolf-tones anywhere on the neck – and no fret buzz or rattle anywhere, well ... anywhere where you would normally play. Yes, some notes do not articulate quite as nicely or quite as brightly as others but not so as you would notice them if you were just playing and not consciously looking for them by going up the neck on each string fret by fret – they certainly don’t advertise themselves while playing. Overall the tone is quite consistently good across and along the fret board. The big weakness of the guitar is in the bass which is not surprising for a parlor. With the open E 6th, for example, you don’t get a really strong sense of the fundamental tone – all the harmonics are there bright and true but the fundamental is a little weak, and there is just a bit of a boxy quality to the sound here – not unusual for a parlor. It might be better with medium gauge strings rather than the light gauge ones it ships with -- or with a custom set with a heavier bottom end. And in drop-D tuning, the sixth string does not offer a lot of tension over the guitar’s scale length, and so it is easy to sharpen notes a little accidentally if you fret too heavily (not a problem in standard tuning, though) – again ... heavier strings might be better.
Now on to issues -- there are some issues but none entirely serious. The top on mine is not cosmetically the best. It is definitely not unattractive – just not as pretty as I would like, but I only had a choice of one P-240. Notes on the E 1st string, from about the 10th fret up, can sound a very tiny bit crunchy (not buzzy or rattling) if you are not careful with attack, and the last two frets on the high E string, those way out on the top of the guitar both sound the same note, both with a bit of buzz/fuzz. Also the compensated bridge saddle is very crudely fashioned with rough, sloppy, hurried-looking file work, but the intonation is bang-on perfect at the 12th fret on every string – not a bit out even when checked with a higher-end orchestral tuner, and the radius on the saddle is perfect, too. The saddle just isn’t pretty. The stock Guild branded tuners seem to hold tune well enough once the guitar is acclimatized and the strings are settled, but fine tuning with them is a bit more effort - adjustment/readjustment – over/under – over/under - than should be necessary. Grovers Sta-Tites might be in order if I am feeling cheap or Wilkersons, Schallers, or Rubners if I am feeling extravagant.
Overall, IMHO, it is a brilliant piece of work, especially for a $499 street-priced, off-shore-made guitar with plywood sides and back.
If you have, please tell me where. Thx.
I just bought one.
Some people here in other threads have asked about or discussed the guitar, so I will offer my review of the one I now own, along with some general thoughts.
It is an oddity in many ways, and there really is not a great deal of traditional Guildiness about it.. The head stock logo is non-traditional, I think. The P-240 is marketed as a parlor guitar (new territory for Guild?), but it is much larger than a standard parlor. The dimensions and body shape are most unusual – good luck finding a hard shell case for it – some Single-O cases might work, but you wouldn’t know for sure until you tried putting the P-240 in. The neck is unusual, too. It is quite a broad C shape, and it is bit chunky (I like chunky). The heel of the neck where it meets the body is not very pronounced, which is a boon for access to frets past the 12th. The strings are quite widely spaced – nice for finger picking. The light weight and light feel of the guitar puts it in the company things like Larrivees for feel rather than with the traditionally heavier Guilds. If you were blindfolded, handed the guitar and asked to guess what it was, Guild would not immediately spring to mind – budget Taylor or Breedlove models maybe – Guild? ... hmmm ... not so much. It has a lovely bright, clear, and loud simple voice with none of the darker but clear toned complexity that I love in solid mahogany sides-and-back smaller body Guilds. It is something entirely different – something quite delightful in its own idiosyncratic way.
The general build quality seems excellent. Looking inside with a snake light and inspection mirror, I see nothing alarming, nothing of any concern at all. Most things about it look very nice.
As for playing experience, the off-the-rack action is medium/low with a reasonable amount of camber in the neck, not too much, not too little – prefect for my tastes – no need for further setup for me. The effort in fretting is fairly consistent along the whole neck – pretty easy. There are no real dead spots or wolf-tones anywhere on the neck – and no fret buzz or rattle anywhere, well ... anywhere where you would normally play. Yes, some notes do not articulate quite as nicely or quite as brightly as others but not so as you would notice them if you were just playing and not consciously looking for them by going up the neck on each string fret by fret – they certainly don’t advertise themselves while playing. Overall the tone is quite consistently good across and along the fret board. The big weakness of the guitar is in the bass which is not surprising for a parlor. With the open E 6th, for example, you don’t get a really strong sense of the fundamental tone – all the harmonics are there bright and true but the fundamental is a little weak, and there is just a bit of a boxy quality to the sound here – not unusual for a parlor. It might be better with medium gauge strings rather than the light gauge ones it ships with -- or with a custom set with a heavier bottom end. And in drop-D tuning, the sixth string does not offer a lot of tension over the guitar’s scale length, and so it is easy to sharpen notes a little accidentally if you fret too heavily (not a problem in standard tuning, though) – again ... heavier strings might be better.
Now on to issues -- there are some issues but none entirely serious. The top on mine is not cosmetically the best. It is definitely not unattractive – just not as pretty as I would like, but I only had a choice of one P-240. Notes on the E 1st string, from about the 10th fret up, can sound a very tiny bit crunchy (not buzzy or rattling) if you are not careful with attack, and the last two frets on the high E string, those way out on the top of the guitar both sound the same note, both with a bit of buzz/fuzz. Also the compensated bridge saddle is very crudely fashioned with rough, sloppy, hurried-looking file work, but the intonation is bang-on perfect at the 12th fret on every string – not a bit out even when checked with a higher-end orchestral tuner, and the radius on the saddle is perfect, too. The saddle just isn’t pretty. The stock Guild branded tuners seem to hold tune well enough once the guitar is acclimatized and the strings are settled, but fine tuning with them is a bit more effort - adjustment/readjustment – over/under – over/under - than should be necessary. Grovers Sta-Tites might be in order if I am feeling cheap or Wilkersons, Schallers, or Rubners if I am feeling extravagant.
Overall, IMHO, it is a brilliant piece of work, especially for a $499 street-priced, off-shore-made guitar with plywood sides and back.
