Guild Brian May Model Guitar Image
Please see our listing of used Guild guitars following this brief history of Guild.
The Guild Guitar Company was founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, and is a USA based company.
New York City was home to the first Guild workshop, but production was later moved to Westerly, Rhode Island. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation bought Guild in 1995 and moved production to a factory in Corona, California.
FMIC acquired the assets of the Washington-based Tacoma Guitar Company in 2004, and all Guild acoustic guitar manufacturing was moved to Tacoma, while production of Guild electric guitars was discontinued.
The Starfire, Bluesbird, and other 1960s and 1970s models were reissued for a short time in Korea under the DeArmond brand name. The reissued models also included the Pilot Bass Series. The reissued instruments displays the DeArmond inlay on the headstock while the truss rod cover shows the Guild name and logo.
The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation introduced the Chinese-built Guild GAD series acoustic guitars in 2005.
Guild entered the solid-body arena in the 1980s with superstrat-style models such as the Flyer, Aviator, Liberator and Detonator, the Tele-style T-200 and T-250 (endorsed by Roy Buchanan), and the Pilot Bass. The Pilot basses were available in fretted, fretless, 4 and 5-string versions.
These guitars were the first Guild instruments to bear slim pointed headstocks, sometimes called "pointy droopy", "duck foot" and "cake knife" for their dinstinctive shape. Pilot basses were revived by DeArmond in the 1990s (including a 6-string through-neck version with fancy exotic woods) and discontinued along with the DeArmond brand in the early 21st century.
Many top performers have, and continue to use Guild's excellently crafted instruments. Below is just a short list of some of the players that recognized Guild's extraordinary craftsmanship.
- Eric Clapton F-30, GF-6
- Jerry Garcia - (Starfire III)
- Pat Methany - (D40-C)
- Stevie Ray Vaughn - (S-300)
- Bruce Springsteen - (D-40SB)
- Brian Setzer - (Bluesbird)
- Paul Simon - (F-30, F-212 12-String)
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 GUILD GAD C2 CLASSICAL ACOUSTIC 6 STRING GUITAR  US $750.00
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 1972 Guild D 25CH Mahogany Acoustic Guitar D 25 D25 US $437.00
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 GUILD GAD 40CE Acoustic Guitar US $598.00
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 Ice Blue Guild X 160 Rockabilly Hollowbody Guitar US $807.77
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 VINTAGE 1975 GUILD D25M ACOUSTIC GUITAR NO RESERVE US $347.00
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 Guild JF 30 12 String Guitar Sunburst Westerly 1995 US $349.00
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 Guild F 112 12 String Guitar Hoboken NJ Built 1968 US $349.00
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 Guild JF4 12 12 String Guitar Westerly 1993 Mahogany US $549.00
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 Guild 12 String Guitar F112 Vintage Tobac Sunburst 1976 US $400.00
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 Vintage Guild M 75 M75 Aristocrat Bluesbird 1955 Guitar US $2,499.99
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 1974 Guild D 50 Guitar Vintage US $229.38
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 Guild DeArmond Sevenstar 7 String Guitar Jetstar US $250.00
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