Category: Reviews

Today’s Guild rarity is the über-rare Guild Nightbird DX, and when I say über-rare, I mean it! They made only 20 of these guitars which means that I currently own a significant percentage of the global supply of Guild Nightbird DX guitars.

Is it worth the hype? What’s it like owning such a rare guitar? Did it cost one million US dollars? I’ll answer these questions and more in this, the only detailed review of a a Guild Nightbird DX that you’re ever likely to find. Let’s take a look at this rare guitar and see if it lives up to the Guild Nightbird name.  (more…)

Today’s Guild is a Newark St. X175 Manhattan Special from 2020, and I gotta say that as soon as I saw this guitar announced I knew that I had to have one. From the killer blue finish to the DeArmond pickups, this guitar looks like everything I’d ever want in a guitar. Is it? Read along while I take a look at this gorgeous Malibu Blue Newark St. Guild guitar right down to my comments about the ground wire leading to the tailpiece. And yes, I have comments about that wire.

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Here we have a 2020 Guild Starfire I SC (single cut) in Seafoam Green that I absolutely had to have based on the color alone.

There is a fair bit of stir in the online guitar forums about these Starfire I guitars, most of which revolves around the question, how is Guild making these for such a low price? This guitar has a street price of $599 new! In 2020! Hell a similarly equipped Newark St. Starfire III (which is sort of what this should be called – more on that later) has an MSRP of almost double that of this one ($1,555 vs. $835 in May 2020). So how are they doing this? Cheaper parts? Cheaper wood? Cheaper labor? There are only so many ways to lower production costs, so grab a cocktail while I tear this guitar open to see how they made it so inexpensive in a world where the price of everything is soaring.

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Behold the beauty that is the sunburst Guild S300AD guitar. I have bought and sold far too many Guild S300AD guitars with varying degrees of success in my quest to recapture the glorious days of my youth when the S300AD was all I needed in a guitar, but this one is special.

Read along while I regale you with everything I know about these great guitars including why it still may just be everything I need in a guitar along with the reason for me now owning a fifth sixth seventh copy.

I may have a problem.

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Today’s review is this beautiful 1999 Guild Starfire V in blue. Starfire Vs from this time period are relatively uncommon, but finding one in blue like this is a real rarity. A long-time fellow Guild collector had this one in his clutches forever and finally caved into to my incessant requests to sell it to me so long as I promised to give him first dibs should I ever decide to sell it. That means if you’ve already fallen in love with it from this picture alone, either prepare to offer me a lot of money, or prepare for disappointment when you offer to buy it from me. And yes — spoiler alert — it’s that good. Let’s take a look.

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One of the toughest guitars for me to get ahold of has been the Guild X160 Rockabilly model. They may not be all that common, but I think the main issue is that the people who have them don’t want to sell them or when they do, they want ridiculous amounts of money for them.

Thanks to a trusted member over on the LetsTalkGuild forum selling his, I managed to lay my mitts on this beautiful orange example which I will play, dissect, and otherwise review for your reading pleasure.

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