Guild B301-F. . . . . . . .

Guild Guitars are mainly associated with acoustic guitars, for folk,

country and traditional music, along with semi-acoustic archtops,

which gained a reputation with jazz players.

The company was established in 1953 and is still going today

but over the years has seen trouble and has had changes of

ownership.

The first Guild I ever played was an acoustic, owned by a guy who

used to fix roads for a living and had a beautiful guitar, that thing
was LOUD!

It may have had something to do with the fact that it was strung

with the heaviest available gauge of Martin strings - basically

tow ropes.

I always amazed me how the top remained on the guitar and was

perhaps a testament to the strength and quality of it.

The next Guild instrument I played was a B-301-F, fretless.

This arrived in the shop, along with an S-300D guitar, direct from

the Guild distributors, "on approval".

Basically, they were doing promotions on the solid body range

and they were ours until we had sold them or handed them back.

I spent hours on that fretless! I loved the sound, although my main

leanings at the time were Rock, Prog and Funk - not quite fretless

territory but who cared, I was determined to master the thing.

Well, more years on than I care to mention, I am still not a proficient

fretless player, although I have several with un-marked boards.

Will I ever get it 100%? Maybe not and that is why I also have several

"lined" fretless - much better with those - you get the sound and a lot more

accuracy in hitting the note.

So here it is, my B-301-F, which is strung with black tape wound strings,

which give a lovely, thick, warm, wooden sound.

Not much else to say about it, one pick-up, volume and tone, plug it in

and off you go.

I also have the fretted version in the Mahogany finish, which I will come to

another time.

There is a great web site, full of interesting Guild info - well worth a look.

http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/guildS300.php


Back next time with another Aria!!

Well, while I was at it . . . . . . . I thought I might as well carry on!

Cheers. :)