Up for sale is a beautiful small body Guild F20 that really packs a punch. This Rare Bird was built in 1961, and is an early example of just how special Hoboken, New Jersey built guilds can be. The guitar is in good condition. The guitar plays wonderful, with a perfect neck angle, and low string action. Here are the things good and bad i found when going over the guitar. The black headstock cap has little to no shrinkage. I have had several Hoboken guilds and this happens to pretty much every headstock cap, unless they have been replaced. The F20 has a bit of separation on the tips of the headstock, but could be glued back down without the help of a luthier. The tuners are Kluson Deluxe tuners. It is scripted on the back of each of them. They are work properly and the guitar tunes up and holds tune just fine. There is very little wear on the fretboard or the metal frets. I am sure the fretboard is Brazilian Rosewood, because that was what guild used in the 1960s. The back of the neck shows some light wear signs with several small dings, dents, and scratches, but is in very good shape for a 60 year old instrument. I do not know for sure if the bridge and saddle is original. Most guilds had a bit wider bridge and a cut through saddle. But the F20 could have been an exception. That is also why on each side of the bridge there is a bit of lighter colored under wood showing. The nitrocellulose finish on this guitar is in excellent condition. I see no weather checks or bad smudges in the normal wear spots. It still slick and shiny like a newer guitar. The Sitka Spruce top is beautiful with some nice straight grained lines. It has darkened to a great amber shade that can only be earned with time and age. The sound quality and volume output are incredible for this small of a body size acoustic. I am mainly a guild jumbo and dreadnought player because i like a lot of volume and deep bass. This little f20 can actually hang with the bigger size guilds and not get drowned out. It responds very well to finger picking. The spruce top on this F20 acts as a spring board or natural amplifier. It takes so little effort to get this top moving and vibrating at a high rate. I can achieve a level 10 volume output with about a level 5 strum attack, is the way i would describe it. Its a phenomenon you won't believe until you play it yourself, but there is something truly special about the way they built these Hoboken Guilds. There are various dings, dents, scratches, scuffs, swirls, and pick marks. But no real eye sores that jump out, and is in very good shape for this age guitar. The top binding is tortoiseshell to match the pick guard. The body binding top and back have no issues. The neck angle is nearly perfect on this f20. That is very unusual for this age guitar. It may of had a neck reset to be this good, but i don't see any signs of a neck reset. A straight edge measurement from the fretboard to the bridge has the ruler resting on top of the bridge and meeting up at the base of the saddle. The back and sides are sold mahogany and the back has some great figure to it. Lots of hog wood guitars tend to give off this purple color and get very dark. This F20 has an unusually light set of mahogany back and sides, that are a great shade of light brown. The back does have a hair line crack in the upper bout. I included a picture of this. It appears to be stable, and does not affect sound or play ability. It would be an easy fix for a luthier if you chose to repair it. The butt end of the sides does have various dings, dents, and scratches around the guitar strap/end pin hole and some around the lower bout sides. The case is a really cool brown gator skin chipboard case. It is not the original case, but this one was made by Gibson, so i'm sure it is worth a good bit of money by itself. You can find hard shell guild cases for the f20 for under 100 bucks if you prefer a new style case. Overall I think this is a superb guild. You can tell that someone put great effort into caring for this guitar daily. I have seen 5 year old guitars with more play wear, scars, and bruises than this 60 year old F20. These do not come up for sale often, and strangely, the natural tops are harder to find than the sunburst F20s. Prices have gone through the roof on this model. Plenty of Hoboken F20 owners are asking 2500-3000 for their guitars. I think my price is fair and is about 500 under the other F20s that are listed. These are hard to find guitars. Guild did not mass produce any of their guitar models, compared to the other big USA brands like Martin and Gibson. Therefore they are always going to be in demand because the supply is low and they demand for these is very high. It's a great investment guitar, that will only go up in value. If not for the hairline back crack, i would of listed this guitar in excellent condition. This guitar will bring you pleasure and joy for decades to come. Don't miss your chance to score such a wonderful piece of music history. The only guitars i buy, sell, and collect, are guild acoustics. I daily search for the best guilds in the best condition, to offer up for sale. I have over 20 years of experience dealing with guilds, and have hands on knowledge and experience on hundreds of guild guitars. I prefer to make my guitar deals privately or through my website. So if you have any questions, requests, or offers for me, please send me a message. I have many other guilds for sale, and i am adding more inventory each week. So please check back with me soon to see what gems i have found. Thanks for looking!!
