Serial Numbers From 1956 to 1965 production was continued from Hoboken, New Jersey. It was here Guild stopped the production of the Electric Guitar.ĭuring the 2000s the GAD ‘Guild Acoustic Design’ was born, guitars based on the iconic American designs.Ģ013 saw the creation of the Guild Custom Shop and celebrated 60 years with an anniversary guitar model. In 2004 production moved again to Tacoma, WA.
In 2001 Guild was on the move again, this time from Westerly, RI for a short stop at Corona, CA.
In 1993 Brian May and Guild produced a series of guitars based around May’s classic ‘Queen’ Electric Guitar. Later a green Godzilla version of this guitar was produced and can be seen with him in later GnR videos. He needed to change between the two instruments quickly during a GnR song. Slash once designed an acoustic and electric together on a napkin. Stevie Ray Vaughan plays a Guild JF6512 on MTV Unplugged.
In 1990 Guild had another member of Blues Royalty use one of their classic 12 strings. They created the flattop D62, D64, D66, F42, F44, and F46. The 80s also saw a big change in the Guild acoustic guitar. The X-82 Starfighter, SB-66E Bladerunner, and SB pilot basses were created. With Heavy Metal and Hard Rock owning the radio waves, Guild started to adapt. The first Guild Dreadnought was produced featuring a cutaway style (the D-40C) and the first 12 stringed G-212 and G-312)ĭuring the 80s, Guild had to change their style of guitar in line with the music scene.
Some documentation crosses over and some has been lost over the years causing gaps in our data. * We’ve tirelessly searched the internet for every record, the information gathered is the most accurate we could find. If you end up with an error message, please scroll down and find your guitar’s credentials manually using our helpful number grids. Type your serial numbers into the decoder below and you’ll get all the information Guild has on the instrument.
It’s simple enough with our Guild guitar serial number checker. Researching a guitar’s serial number can also stop you from being the victim of fraud. It’s also essential to have the correct information if you’re considering buying or selling a guitar. Your guitar’s journey from the factory into your hands may be a mystery, but it’s always a good way to dig into the earlier life of your instrument. Authority Guitar has collated a mountain of data to give you the history behind Guild Guitars Serial Numbers. It seems so odd that a guitar as well designed and built as the Korean DeArmonds would have such a short production run considering how successful they were at the time and that they continue to increase in their value and acceptance amongst players who have been discovering them.I think there is a deffinite snob factor when comparing Asian made Guild product variants to the American versions.This past year(2012)Guild announced the new "Newark Street"series of reissues.very nice but very pricey new versions of some Guild classics.in my mind,they should never have stopped making these wonderful hollow electrics in either the states or in Asian factories.Here is a tip,If you appreciate the quality of the DeArmond Guild guitars of the 90s but don't want to pay the inflated prices they have been commanding of late,Take a look at the current line of Cort hollow bodies made in Indonesia.The Source model es335 copies are amazingly well made guitars along with the more country/rock a billy toned Sunset models.The hardware on these guitars are TONEpros,graph trek and Bigsby,and all stock from the factory.A particularly sweet guitar is the Source BV model with p90s and a b70 licensed Bigsby.Discovering your guitar’s history can be a very rewarding thing to do. Both instruments were based on the Guild Starfire guitars. The Starfire features twin Gold Tone humbucking pickups and double cutaway, while the Starfire Special is equipped with two single coil 2K pickups a Florentine cutaway and a Bigsby style vibrato. There are also two semi-hollow instruments manufactured. The X155 is a large bodied guitar with a Venetian cutaway and twin humbuckers and the 400 is a slim body single cutaway instrument with a single Florentine cutaway, a Bigsby style vibrato and twin 2k single coil pickups. The hollowbody models, the X155 and the 400 are excellent jazz instruments. The block fret markers on these are made of PVC, the necks are bolt-on, the pickups on some of the budget models are not DeArmonds, the wood is agathis and the headstock logo is a decal. The Indonesian products are nice playing instruments, but are definitely inferior. The wood is superior using maple for the tops and walnut for the backs or solid mahogany for some of the models. They are bound on the top with plastic trim and the logo is inlaid. The Korean instruments have set in necks, the fret markers are much nicer plastic versions. The Korean made DeArmonds are excellent guitars.