BY WALLACE MARX JR.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LYNN WHEELWRIGHT
A 1955 Guild Model 200 Double-Twin combo with “TV-front” cosmetics.
Although the electric guitar era officially
began in the late 1920s, it wasn’t until the
early 1950s that the electric guitar fully
established itself as an instrument of major
popularity. Manufacturers and retailers realized the electric guitar represented a sales
bonanza—not just as far as selling the guitars
themselves, but also in selling the accompanying amplifiers. As retailers began to ask
for amps, many companies that built guitars
were happy to comply. (Some companies, like
Fender, came from the opposite direction,
too.) Guild was no exception.
Guild Guitars Inc. was formed by guitar and
accordion retailer Alfred Dronge and ex-Epiph-
one manager George Mann in New York City
in late 1952. The first guitars to bear the Guild
brand were made at Guild’s lower Manhattan
factory by a group of workers that consisted
in part of ex-Epiphone employees, with some
Gretsch expatriates sprinkled in. Epiphone had
recently de-camped from New York in favor of
Philadelphia because of labor issues, something
that would affect Guild as well. The first Guild
guitars reached the market in early 1953. In the
spring of 1954, Guild printed its first catalog,
which featured a new line of acoustic archtops
to go along with the acoustic flattops and elec-
tric archtops already available. Business was
brisk, and approximately one year later Guild
released its second catalog. The 1955 catalog
featured jazz great Jimmy Smith on the cover
and was packed with stellar guitars—including
the sublime new Aristocrat M- 75, a low-pro-
duction Les Paul killer with mahogany back and
sides, a spruce top, and P-90-style pickups. The
new Guild catalog also presented the compa-
ny’s maiden foray into the wild and woolly world
of guitar amplification with the Masteramp line.
