Guild Family Portrait

The Guild story is a long and interesting one, one with many myths and urban legends. Many collaborations and owners, good times and some not so good. These three guitars are from before the ownership upheavals, now that Fender owns the company, things seem to have gotten better. The craftsman can concentrate on making great guitars without cutting corners and worrying about profits and business. Many people I've talked to think this was a good thing. Fender isn't getting in the factory and trying to change things, but they have added a new twist with the D'armond line!

There are myths about Masses of Epiphone employees fleeing to or being stolen by Guild, rumors about Johnny Smith, etc, etc. The S-100 looks like the Gibson/Epiphone SG, several Jazz guitars look similar too, but there are Strat-alikes and the Crossroads that looks like a Tele too, there are only so many guitar shapes in the world and some of the more innovative are Guilds. Hans Moust has a lot of history of the company and guitars in his book, and like all good urban legends there is some root in truth, but his book sets the story straight. If you can't get a hold of his book, and you have a question, feel free to ask me, I may add another page with some more info from his book.

In these three guitars, and my S280/S281, I've seen collaborations between DiMarzio, EMG, Mosrite and Kahler. Guild also has a pretty good Website, as does DiMarzio and EMG.