Guild Factory Trip: How I spent my weekend !
Last month I got a special one-time opportunity to see the Guild guitar factory in New Hartford Connecticut.
The Fender Guitar Co flew a number of their Guild dealers to the factory for this incredible opportunity to see the original plant.
After long airport delays at Toronto and Philly, we finally set down at Westerly for a late dinner and bed in the fanciest hotel I’ve every stayed in ( Thanks Gregg at Fender! )
Monday morning began with a thorough tour of the factory. A real eye opener indeed ! The Guild factory remains the real deal: very limited production and each and every guitar is a true one-off instrument.
Using tooling and jigs going back to the 50s and 60s, Guild effectively builds hand-made guitars in the style of the originals using materials, woods and Nitrocellulose finish. Only four or five guitars built per day!! Definitely not mass production!
All models in the Traditional Series use either Red Spruce – Adirondack or Sitka spruce tops and are braced as they have been from Day-One. Other than minor technical improvements; modern fretwire, truss rod, and glue technology, the only other change I can see is the current use of bone saddle & bone nut: something that was not done in the 1960s. These guitars are true “time machine” models!
At the end of the tour I was given the opportunity to personally choose several guitars for The Twelfth Fret. Like a kid in a candy store I wanted them all but Grant asked me to keep it to 6 guitars.
I’ve loved Guild guitars since I was a kid, so naturally I picked guitars that represent reissues of the older classic 60s models, mostly the classic Guild Jumbo body shape or big body Dreadnought. Everything has arrived except the Jumbo 12 string…I’m really exited about that one!
Hope you like them!!
Brian Dickie
