Budget rockabilly/jazzboxes from Guild @ Sweetwater

[Steve DeRosa]

Sweetwater is having a blowout sale on in-stock Made in Korea Guild Newark St. hollowbodies - $849-949 brand-new w/OHSC (even cheaper for demos):



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...vibrato-blonde



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ar-canyon-dusk
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...tar-gold-coast



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...al-malibu-blue
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ar-scarlet-red

Comparable to upper-midrange Ibanez build quality, with a hefty helping of Gretsch tonal/cosmetic mojo on the DeArmond Dynasonic X-175's - well worth a look if you missed out on the last of the MIK Gretsch 5400-Series E-Matics a couple years back...

[Puddleglum]

https://youtu.be/-5FlC0nmTQs?feature=shared

[Glennwillow]

Nice guitars, Steve! Good deal, too!

- Glenn

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

https://youtu.be/-5FlC0nmTQs?feature=shared

Not to throw fuel on the fire, but TMK these are still selling for $1300-1600 at other dealers - we're not just talking everyday bang-for-the-buck guitars here - and a comparable factory velour-lined arched-top case will run you around $200 as a stand-alone purchase; frankly, if I hadn't just gotten my Peerless-built early-2K's Carlo Robelli ES-5 knockoff rewired and bought a new tailpiece for it, I'd be all over that bright red 3-pickup X-350 right now...

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Not to throw fuel on the fire, but TMK these are still selling for $1300-1600 at other dealers - we're not just talking everyday bang-for-the-buck guitars here - and a comparable factory velour-lined arched-top case will run you around $200 as a stand-alone purchase; frankly, if I hadn't just gotten my Peerless-built early-2K's Carlo Robelli ES-5 knockoff rewired and bought a new tailpiece for it, I'd be all over that bright red 3-pickup X-350 right now...

One could buy the guitar, add the Plek service setup, and still be well in the black. It’s an absolutely insane deal.

[FrankHudson]

Look like nice choices. I've had and loved a set of Made in Korea DeArmond branded Guild-alikes from the turn of the century. Few understood them at the time.

Dynasoncs are so underappreciated as a pickup sound.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

One could buy the guitar, add the Plek service setup, and still be well in the black. It’s an absolutely insane deal...

From one of your prior posts:

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

...I’ve got a milestone in life coming up in a few months and am thinking of celebrating it with a new guitar. It will probably be a hollow body. So far I’m liking some from Guild...I’d like to keep it under $2k if possible...

Considering everything here checks all your boxes - heck, you could have any two of them for less than two grand (I'd go for the X-350 and one of the DeArmond 175's, set one up as a straight-ahead jazzbox with flatwound 13's and the other as a rockabilly axe with wound-G flatwound 10's or 11's - your choice which is which ) - my only question is what are you waiting for, given that they won't last forever...?

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

…what are you waiting for

Nothing. I ordered one! For that kind of deal, I’d be nuts if I didn’t.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

Nothing. I ordered one! For that kind of deal, I’d be nuts if I didn’t.

Congratulations - looking forward to the mandatory NGD review - and if you don't have a nice tube amp to go with it, this one's on sale for 15% off:



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...tube-combo-amp

[Dave Hicks]

Well... I didn't need to hear that!

D.H.

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Congratulations - looking forward to the mandatory NGD review :guitar

Thanks. I opted for the gold one, and a demo model at that which saved me another $100. This was an exceptionally good deal. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen a nice guitar like this that deeply discounted before. I'm not very good at speculating, but it seems to me there are at least a few things possibly going on here:
1 - These guitars are just not selling well because the style isn't very popular and SW wants to move them out;
2 - Guild is about to drop a new line of these and SW has to make room for new stock (I have to admit, if this is the case and Guild comes out with some really great colors, etc, I might be bummed: but I have always loved gold guitars, so I should be happy with this one);
3 - Maybe they are getting ready to drop the Guild line entirely;
4 - Maybe I'm wrong about all of this and it was just time for a good sale.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

Thanks. I opted for the gold one, and a demo model at that which saved me another $100. This was an exceptionally good deal. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen a nice guitar like this that deeply discounted before. I'm not very good at speculating, but it seems to me there are at least a few things possibly going on here:
1 - These guitars are just not selling well because the style isn't very popular and SW wants to move them out;
2 - Guild is about to drop a new line of these and SW has to make room for new stock (I have to admit, if this is the case and Guild comes out with some really great colors, etc, I might be bummed: but I have always loved gold guitars, so I should be happy with this one);
3 - Maybe they are getting ready to drop the Guild line entirely;
4 - Maybe I'm wrong about all of this and it was just time for a good sale.

Your choice numbered 1 would be my guess as most likely. This style of guitar (any brand) hasn't interested a great many electric players for decades, and for those that want a large hollow bodied guitar in this mode there are a couple of brands that start with G that don't go on to spell Guild that will supply guitars that look like those that someone's idol might have played. This sort of buying the guitar as a costume to get into the role factor attracts some guitar buyers and collectors.

I suppose one could say this is unfair to Guild's legacy or their current product. Taken as a whole, the Guild electric models never grabbed the public's mind, and big hollow-bodies likely even less so, but discounts come from this.

Let's further extend the "issues" that would keep these off the best seller lists: It's only been this century that folks have come back to the P90 pickup as a sound worth seeking out. Similarly, even today, Guild Franz style pickups or the Dynasonic larger single coils are not something that most buyers know anything about.

I haven't played these guitars. Back around 2001 I bought several "DeArmond" branded Guild-alikes from a line that failed for similar reasons back at the turn of the century. Korean made, like the ones Steve is linking to. Blown out at incredibly low prices when the line was discontinued that year. They were well made, had their own sounds and looks, and though I've gone through a raft of electric guitars since then as I enjoy variety so much, they've stayed in the rotation throughout. One of them was a big-box X175 with the DeArmond line's "Goldtone" humbuckers. Another was a singlecut Bluesbird shape with Dynasonic type single coils.

A few years back I bought Guild Starfire 1 import model with three Franz style single coils. I love the thing! Not finished to quite the higher end looks of the MIK DeArmonds, but I have bad eyesight and care less about the small details. The Franz pickups have their own thing, even if Guild even calls them P90s. Lower output. Mine are microphonic is a good way.

Of course I'm only "bench racing" from the pictures and specs, but I'm with Steve these guitars are likely a screaming good deal for those that are interested in exploring electric guitar feels and sounds beyond the "regular."

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

...I'm not very good at speculating, but it seems to me there are at least a few things possibly going on here:
1 - These guitars are just not selling well because the style isn't very popular and SW wants to move them out;
2 - Guild is about to drop a new line of these and SW has to make room for new stock (I have to admit, if this is the case and Guild comes out with some really great colors, etc., I might be bummed: but I have always loved gold guitars, so I should be happy with this one);
3 - Maybe they are getting ready to drop the Guild line entirely;
4 - Maybe I'm wrong about all of this and it was just time for a good sale.

My thoughts:

1. There's been a resurgence of interest in full-hollow big-body archtops over the last 25 years or so - ironically, a state of affairs that seems to be lost on Gibson (say goodbye to the Citation, Super 400, and L-Series flagship jazzboxes - they never bothered to train anyone how to carve/tap-tune them, and the luthiers who had the requisite skills have since retired) - such that Gretsch and Ibanez (to a lesser extent Epiphone and Godin) are doing a healthy business in the entry- through intermediate-level market. IMO Guild's issue here was/is price vis-a-vis their competition: model-for-model Gretsch was undercutting them by several hundred dollars with their own Korean production, unless you were a knowledgeable guitar geek (and/or lived in the NYC Tri-State area in the '60s) they just didn't have the panache or name recognition, and had they originally been priced as Sweetwater is pricing them now they undoubtedly would have sold better from the get-go...
2. The new entry-level Starfire I line (more closely in line price-wise with Gretsch's Streamliners and Ibanez' beginner jazzboxes) has been getting excellent reviews, so I wouldn't be surprised if Guild is going to focus their efforts in this sector. FWIW they've already introduced some "legacy" solidbodies (Polara, Aristocrat - the latter actually a downmarket Bluesbird solid rather than a sealed hollowbody like the original M-75), and I don't think it would be a stretch for them to add a couple inches' depth to one of their single-cut thinlines (and call it a Capri CE-100) to maintain a market presence - hopefully pending an eventual return to American production, and much as Fender did with their MIJ Squier instruments in the mid-80's...
3. TMK the offshore Guild acoustics (the current Westerly Series and its predecessor GAD lineup) have been perennial hot sellers for Sweetwater, so unless they're having serious availability and/or QC issues of late, I doubt they're going anywhere soon...
4. Once in a while Sweetwater does have these too-good-to-be-true sales - several years ago they had a $399 blowout on the all-hog D-1212 (BTW all the folks on the General Acoustic subforum seem to have grabbed them up, such that it acquired the name of "The Unofficial AGF 12-String"), and I cashed in on the Bugera T5 and T50 all-tube cage heads late in 2022 during similar sales ($50 and $100 off their already reasonable prices respectively) - and you're just fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time...

Sweet guitar BTW - those Dynasonics can be more complex and versatile than many folks give them credit for, and they'll take you from '50s bop and rockabilly to Strat-on-steroids clean to snarly-crunchy with a good tube (or analog SS) amp and a minimum of effects; keep 'em pure (IME they don't respond well to a lot of outboard gear), string it up with a set of modern hex-core flatwounds (crisper and longer-lasting than the old-school stuff - and the fringe benefit is that they'll let you set your action lower than with roundwounds), and let your hands bring out the tone...

[Puddleglum]

Great thoughts from Frank and Steve. I had been looking at these Guilds for a good while and like them a bit better than Gretsch or D'Angelico. I like the fact that the body is a bit deeper on the Guild. I also like that the fingerboard comes standard in ebony. I like Gretsch guitars but seriously dislike the cheap wood they are using on the fingerboards on the mid-range models. I also like the cleaner look of the Guild, the headstock shape, and the overall vibe of the guitar. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it. Will definitely report back when I've had it for a bit. I'm also looking forward to figuring out what strings work best on it. Flatwounds would be period correct and I will be trying some.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

...I like Gretsch guitars but seriously dislike the cheap wood they are using on the fingerboards on the mid-range models...

Same here - FWIW the Korean 5400/5600-Series E-matics used rosewood, same as many of the flagship Professional Series models...