Guild Serial Numbers

The Westerly Collection pays homage to Guild’s early history renowned for exceptional craftsmanship, quality, and the introduction of many beloved Guild acoustics. Inspired by this golden era, the Guild Westerly Collection carries on the tradition of impeccable workmanship and unwavering excellence by incorporating high-quality materials and classic Guild designs into each instrument. Getting started - Guitar Dater, Decoder and Serial Number Search Lookup Tool Currently, we are working on getting our guitar dater lookup and search tool fleshed out. Enter your serial number and we'll look up the date of manufacture using our lightning fast engine. The Serial number is AJ321885. I can't find this number on any of the Guild websites. It has a Westerly sticker with handwritten numbers in the soundhole and the stamped numbers on the back of the headstock also match. I'm thinking about selling it but I need to know all about it first. For sale is a Guild X-550B 1955 Blonde w / Vintage Lifton Case in Very Good Condition! Serial Number: 2414 The Lifton Case alone is very valuable and fits like a glove with this beauty!

A question we have been asked about recently is that of serial numbers for GUILD and I wanted to help clarify the situation.

To this day no official GUILD document has been reported that would give any indication into GUILD’s early serial numbering system.

The earliest GUILD guitars that have been reported so far have potentiometer codes that don’t date back any further than the 5th week of 1953 , all of these were electric archtops.

The serial numbers of these early instruments have a 4 digits and no instruments with serial numbers below 1001 are known to exist.

Since the GUILD COMPANY was officially registered on 24th

October 1952, the start of production was announced

On 17th April 1953 , it would be correct to assume that

Setrial numbers 1000 or 1001 would be the first .

All early GUILD guitars have the serial number written

On a label, but since the M 75 did not have a label the

Number was stamped into the back of the headstock.

This does not tally with the list printed in the “ Gruhn’s

Serial

Guide To Vintage Guitars “ however the list compiled

After 1955 and further seem to be reliable , so if you

Have any queries , please let us know … from the Essaness

Team … Happy Playing .

The two variants to the Guild S-300, the S-300A (with an ash body / maple neck) S-300D (Dimarzio super distortion humbuckers).

The Guild S-300 was launched in 1977, effectively a replacement to the SG-style S-100 solid body guitars. Guild had not tried any particularly original solid body designs for several years, so the S-300, (along with its companion S-60 and S-70 guitars, and B-301 and B-302 basses) was a welcome change for the guitar buying public. Functionally the guitars were well-equipped, with dual humbucking pickups, three-way (neck/bridge/both) pickup selector switch, volume and tone control for each pickup, and a phase switch for 'reversing pickup polarity'.

The 1978 Guild guitar catalogue (right) featured a pair of white S-300 guitars on its front cover.

Guild S-300 variants

The S-300 was available in a number of different forms. Different wood and pickup combinations, for a much wider range of tones.

Guild S-300 mahogany body and neck, two Guild humbucker pickups
Guild S-300D mahogany body and neck, DiMarzio PAF and Super Distortion humbuckers
Guild S-300A ash body and maple neck, two Guild humbucker pickups
Guild S-300AD ash body and maple neck, DiMarzio PAF and Super Distortion humbuckers

All models have a 24 fret curved ebony fingerboard, with dot markers (24¾ inch scale), and traditional Guild Chesterfield headstock inlay.

The ash models were available in blonde (natural) and sunburst finishes. The mahogany models were also available in natural (though obviously much darker than ash) aswell as sunburst, cherry, black, walnut and white.

The S-300 remained in production until 1989, when it was discontinued. The Ash and Dimarzio pickup options were stopped earler still in 1982.

Vintage Guild S-300 Advertising

Electric guitar advertisements originally published from 1977 onwards. Click on the images for larger copies. Check out other vintage Guild advertisements

Guild S-300 - New Generation of Solid Bodies By Guild (1977)
United Kingdom Guild advertisement for two new solid body models, the S-300 guitar and single pickup B-301 bass.
[more]

Guild S-300 - Youve made it the most popular solid body guitar weve ever built (1978)
The Guild S-300 came in a number of variations, the model pictured is an S-300D, signifying the standard mahogany body and neck with (D) DiMarzio PAF and Super Distortion humbuckers. Non-D versions...
[more]

Guild Serial Numbers Ksg

Guild S-300 - The Guild Rush (1980)
The Guild S-300 came in a number of variations, the model pictured is an S300-AD, signifying (A) ash body and maple neck, and (D) DiMarzio PAF and Super Distortion humbuckers.
[more]

Guild S-300 - Balance of Power (1981)
1981 Guitar Player advertisement for Guild solid body guitars, featuring the S-300, available since 1977. The S-300 was available with different body and neck woods and a choice of Guild or Dimarzi...
[more]

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