Hello,
a few years ago ~2015/16 I remember looking at the specs of various guitars on the Guild website. I always remember they used D’Addario strings and was surprised when there was a sudden shift to Guild branded strings. This seems to have changed back to D’Addario. Can anyone confirm that Guild used their own strings for a period, and provide any information on these strings if at all possible?
Guild
never made ("used") their own strings.
For the period you're asking about, and in fact for most of Guild's history the Guild branded
acoustic strings
were D'Addario's.
Putting 'em in Guild brand packaging was just part of re-building the brand image in New Hartford.
See post #1 here:
https://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?175701-NAMM-2013-New-series-of-Guild-strings/page2
The relationship goes back to the early '60's at least when D'Addario predecessor Darco was a supplier to Guild.
Guild was even the first maker to ship guitars with D'A's PB formula as standard, in '74.
Guild's L350= D'Addario EJ-16 but you need to sub in an .025 "G" single to match the "original" L350 set exactly.
We
have seen reports that DR was a supplier for a while, which has credibility since Mark Dronge was the son of Guild's founder Al Dronge as well as the founder of DR strings, but this would have been in the '80's in any case .
Fender switched off to a Fender-owned supplier sometime around '02-04.
***
The "Fender-owned" L350 sets had an .024 "G" and weren't as good as the D'Addarios in some folks' opinions (mine included).
In fact they never did update the gauge specs in their spec sheets for the guitars even through the Tacoma spec sheets, "L350" is always shown with an .025 "G".
*** Edit: Note I now see evidence of the change occurring as early as '99, as seen on pg 31 of the Winter '99 Guild Gallery:
https://www.gad.net/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Guild-1999-Winter-Gallery.pdf
Note the verbiage stating "Guild string manufacturing facility", which I'm certain is marketing-speak for the fact that Fender moved production to the Fender owned facility previously mentioned.
We saw another round of closeouts on the "Fender" sets coincidental with the close of Tacoma about '08, then no Guild brand strings until they were "revived" in New Hartford.
if someone has better luck or a better URL, let me know, I want to buy a set
For nostalgia's sake, I trust?
I'd be surprised if there were any left out there, they were already being used as "teasers" (traffic to a site stimulators) just like you're seeing now, back in '13.
