Guild History

The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer begun in 1952 by Alfred Dronge. The first Guild workshop was located in New York City and produced exclusively crafted guitars from carefully chosen woods, hand wound pickups and fine lacquers.

Incorporating and merging the needs of both the jazz and rock and roll musician, the Guild company produces well made, warm tone electric and acoustic guitars. For some time this production took place in the hallowed Westerly, Rhode Island workshops. Now owned by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, production has ceased at Westerly and has instead been folded into the standard production process of the Fender Company. Thus, those made before the Westerly shutdown are considered to be of extra value.

Though well noted for their acoustic guitars (musicians from Nick Drake to Martha Wainwright have utilised various Guilds), the Guild company also produced a series of solid and hollow body electric guitars. Arguably the most popular of these electric Guitars, the Guild Starfire (and its subsequent editions) became a trademark product, being used by such notables as Ray Davies of British rock group The Kinks, Buddy Guy and Tom Fogerty of American bayou band Creedence Clearwater Revival. A battered blond Guild has been used by Tom Waits since his early days (he could be seen playing a Guild throughout his recent Real Gone Tour).More recently Guild also created several replicas of Brian May's Red Special handmade guitars throughout the 1980's and 90's, and was know in the grunge era for creating the S-100, the trademark guitar of Soundgarden's Kim Thayil.

The Guild Starfire bass was used by Jefferson Airplane Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady, Teton Brown bassist John Geltmeyer and Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.

The distinctive Guild S-200 Thunderbird was used by Muddy Waters in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and can be seen on the back cover of his "Electric Mud" album. Interestingly, Starfires can be seen on the covers of both The Kinks' Controversy and the Creedence album Cosmo's Factory, and a Guild M-20 acoustic guitar can be seen held on the cover of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter.