Guild was founded by Alfred Dronge, a professional guitarist and music store owner, and George Mann, a one-time Epiphone executive who formed a partnership and registered the Guild name in October of 1952.
Guild attracted the biggest guitarists of the day. Johnny Smith worked with the factory to develop a signature guitar which became the Artist Award. Another jazz giant, George Barnes, helped develop another signature guitar. Both of these models were in high demand among studio performers, and Guild's Duane Eddy signature hollow-body became a rockabilly classic.
Through the 1970's and early 80's guild produced some of the great American flat tops with their 112, 212, 312, 412, 512, and the XL versions of their legendary 12 strings and their F50, D25, D25M and D55 dreadnaughts.
Guild was eventually purchased in 1995 by Fender Musical Instruments which committed its resources to the survival and prosperity of the Guild vision of tradition, innovation and value. But it didn't seem to quite work as planned and many dealers, including The Podium, became a little disappointed with Guild guitars during this period and felt they had lost a step from their heyday.
In 2005, with a renewed dedication to excellence in craftsmanship and a newly invigorated devotion to "getting it right" that would make Alfred Dronge proud, Guild began building all of its Traditional and Contemporary Series guitars in Tacoma, Washington. This shop was dedicated to building a great acoustic instrument. In addition, the Guild Acoustic Design (GAD) Series instruments started to be built in China.
The bottom line is that the musicians and luthiers took over and they got it right this time with no sacrifices to the accounting gods. Now there is nothing quite like the strong, lush and crystal-clear sound of a fine and finely built Guild acoustic guitar which are as good as they were in the 70's.
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Guild D-40 Bluegrass Jubilee Natural
After playing a Guild for 25 years or so myself, it was with great sadness that we had to drop Guild as a brand because their guitars had lost...
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Our Price: $1,495.00 |
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Guild D-40 Richie Havens Signature
After playing a Guild for 25 years or so myself, it was with great sadness that we had to drop Guild as a brand because their guitars had lost...
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Our Price: $1,349.00 |
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Guild GAD-25 Natural
The GAD series of guitars are a major good surprise. All solid wood, hide glue, bone nut and saddle for the price of laminate, vinyl glue and...
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Our Price: $549.00 |
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Guild GAD-JF30-12E Blonde 12-string
Guild Acoustic Design Series guitars were designed to be the right tools when the job you're doing is expressing yourself. Experience the...
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Our Price: $1,239.00 |
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Guild M20 Mahogany Concert w/ Fishman Matrix
The vintage-style, concert-body GAD-M20 has solid mahogany top back and sides, a one-piece mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, and a...
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Our Price: $749.00 |
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Used Guild D40NT w/hsc
The Guild D40 Dreadnought acoustic has a solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard and bridge,...
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Our Price: $850.00 |
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Guild DV-4
Another pleasant surprise from Guild. The DV-4 is an all solid wood, mahogany/sitka spruce Guild at a great price. It's got a nice big voice with...
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Our Price: $799.00 |
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Guild GAD-30 Ice Tea Burst w/ HSC
The GAD series of guitars are a major good surprise. All solid wood, hide glue, bone nut and saddle for the price of laminate, vinyl glue and...
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Our Price: $749.00 |
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Guild GAD-30R-Natural w/hsc
The GAD series of guitars are a major good surprise. All solid wood, hide glue, bone nut and saddle for the price of laminate, vinyl glue and...
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Our Price: $759.99 |
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