Guild Standard Series acoustics

[Larry Mal]

Hi again, this is my second Guild post of the day because I seem to not know what forum I'm on- I'm kidding, I know that Guild has a lot of fans here and a lot of support for the brand also.

So Guild is once again organizing under the current ownership, which is now ultimately Yamaha, who bought Cordoba who bought Guild from Fender. All caught up now? Anyway, Yamaha is a great company and synonymous with quality and value, and so is Guild, so one hope this will be a good fit.

But Guild's American made acoustic lineup was largely confined to the "Traditional" series, and are excellent. I could quibble with them a bit, they use African mahogany and not Honduran, for instance- I'm sure I could never really tell the difference in a blind test. But they do some other cool things like use Adirondack spruce for the bracing, which they say is stronger and allows for lighter bracing to be used allowing the top to ring out more.

Full gloss coats on these.

However, now they have rolled out the Standard Series.

These emphatically don't have a full gloss coat, Guild is suggesting that it's not a satin coat but something in between. I don't know what to make of that, but a lot of acoustic guitar makers are rolling out models with satin finishes because they look great and we are told that a lighter coat of paint is better for the sound. I can see that.

Guild is still using the Adirondack bracing here with the Sitka tops.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a new acoustic, these guitars are great. Guild has its own sound with acoustic guitars, it's subtle. The idea is that these are not bass heavy "cannons" but rather well balanced instruments with even response from each string.

All that being said, I ask myself, well, where does Guild fit in? They seem to consider the guitars to be good enough to go head to head with their better known competitor Martin on price, the Guild D-40 Traditional and the D-18 both go for $2799. Martin has a D-18 Satin for $2399 and the Guild D-40 Standard is exactly the same price in natural and this awesome burst is actually a hundred dollars more than the Martin equivalent,. Well, Martin doesn't have an equivalent to that finish, and it really is beautiful.

So why pick Guild? Well, you do get the Adirondack bracing, then again Martin offers an ebony fingerboard to the Guild rosewood. I don't think ebony is "better" but anyway that's the only two things I can really see that are divergent.

Other than the Guild vs Martin sound, and I can easily imagine one preferring the Guild sound to the Martin. How that translates in an age of internet sales I don't know. They also won't play the same- Martin has a 1.75" nut width and a 16" flatter fingerboard, Guild clocks in at 1 11/16" and a 12" fingerboard. Again, one might easily prefer one to the other.

But guitar shops are disappearing. This isn't going to slow down, either- I saw where a couple of stores closed down because Taylor has now decided to sell directly to the customer. If you are a Taylor dealer, how do you compete against Taylor? Who can undercut you more than Taylor?

So I'm glad to see Guild being re-positioned and I hope it works out for them. I'd sure love to see the brand and their excellent models and guitars flourish.