Since I now own two Madeiras, six DeArmonds and a(nother) Burnside - I'm well on my way to becoming a "by Guild" expert. I can't say I'm authorized, but I'm intrigued, and would like to know more where there isn't any current knowledge. Just as the other companies were offering less expensive, usually off-shore made, spin-offs - so did Guild. As a matter of fact, my first acoustic guitar was a used Madeira - and that was in '73! Gibson used Epiphone (although they had some pretty expensive guitars too), Ovation got Applause, Martin had Sigma and Fender had Bullet, Squier, and the Squier Bullet (and until recently discontinued, sold some Guild/Dearmond designs as Squire). They came out with the Madeira in the late 60's and early 70's - about the time campfires and acoustic jam sessions were in vogue. The majority of the guitars imported were acoustic, and even though they advertised electrics - probably only 10% were electrics. They came out with the Burnside line in the 80's when guitar hair-bands were all the rage. Except for serious finger-style players, and with several portable amps on the market - metal guitars were in demand. Although they look like nice acoustics, I've only ever seen two - and I got outbid... drats. MADEIRA - a Portuguese archipelago west of the country famous for it's wine, an imported guitar brand distributed by Guild known for acoustic guitars with solid wood tops and rich full bodied tone. I've tried to glean some information from the web, and you read things - but can't verify them. Of interest are comments like: (Madeira is) THEIR SECOND LINE OF MORE AFFORDABLE GUITARS (Madeira Guitars) were imported and distributed by Guild. The early ones were built in Japan, the later ones in Korea... although the ones from Japan seem to be slightly superior. Madeira was a brand imported by Guild. Can't find exact dates but early '70's through early '80's should cover the time period when they were imported. I believe they were made in Japan to Guild's specs. One guy selling a CD of scanned images from a 1975 catalog listed the following models: Jumbo Bodies P-600R , P-600M, 12-Strings A-12A, P-812, P-712, Classic Guitars C-60, C-600, C-900, Mandolins M-300, M-800, 5 string banjo BA-5, Dreadnaughts P-500, A-75, A-35R, A-30M, A-25, A-15B, and Folk models A-1 & A-2. The A- series of Acoustics are most often (but not often) found. There is (at least) a G- series of Acoustics and C- series of Classicals, EG- series of stratish electrics, mostly with humbuckers, and the SGish guitars and basses (of which I have one) that mimics the Guild S-100 line, and I've seen a couple of stranger shapes too, (I remember printing one out to test my wireless printing connection, I'll see if there was any good information there). There are suffix letters that seem to be the usual abbreviations, such as M for Maple (unless it stands for Mahogany - let the color of the wood be your guide), R for Rosewood, Spruce is S, and there are occasional SB for Sunburst. Therefore, an A30R would be a pretty high end Acoustic with Rosewood back and sides, and an A30M would have Maple for the back and sides. But I've also seen an A26M that had dark wood, and although I only saw pictures, the description said Mahogany. From an observation of guitars for sale , it looks like the oval sound-hole stickers are the more desirable Japanese built guitars and the rectangular stickers are Korean - so you might be able to tell at a glance if it was assembled in Korea or Japan. The headstock also seems to follow a pattern, the early Japanese guitars have a flat top, the "All New" (according to an ad) Korean ones have a curved top. I have also observed Guitar ads, mostly from my collection of Guitar Player magazine going back to the early 70's. Although none list the country of manufacture, and the oval labels do not include the country of assembly/manufacture, several sources list Japan and that makes sense since they were building guitars, like cars, trying to infiltrate the market. At that point Korea, Indonesia, and China were not producing guitars destined for the US market. This changed around |