Guild F-30NT Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1969)
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Item # 11193
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Guild F-30NT Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1969), made in Hoboken, NJ, natural lacquer finish, mahogany body and neck, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, black chipboard case.
Smoked! This well-traveled 50+ year old Guild flat top has obviously seen the insides of many bars and clubs over the last 5 decades, played into "Real Relic" condition but still a great playing and sounding guitar. These older Hoboken-made Guild flattops can be surprisingly hard to find in good playable condition now, as many were played into the ground long ago. They were often not valued as highly or treated as well as Martins and Gibsons at the time. In retrospect at the end of the 1960s when this one was made at Guild was arguably producing flat tops as good as either, in many cases even better.
This is a 1969 natural-top F-30, made just as production was seriously shifting to Guild's new Westerly Rhode Island factory from Hoboken. This move would result in a lot of changes to the instruments themselves, many not for the better. This final-year Hoboken F-30 was the midline, mid-size model in Guild's 1960s line. It was ranked above the all mahogany M-20 (famously regarded as the "Nick Drake" guitar) and F-20, the same size and shape with a spruce top. The larger F-30 was a company mainstay at the time, popular with pro and amateur players alike and still one of Guild's best loved and most successful flat tops.
The F-30 is similar in size to a Martin 000 but with a slightly tighter-waisted body, more like a Gibson jumbo. The neck, back and sides are mahogany, the fingerboard and bridge rosewood. This is a very versatile instrument, a smooth finger-or-flatpicking guitar with a vibrant midrange sound which works equally well as a strummed chord machine. This Hoboken-made instrument is an extremely well-built and responsive guitar, much lighter than Rhode-Island made 1970's Guilds and easily on par -- or better -- with similar size Martin or Gibson offerings from 1969. It has been very heavily played, showing many scars but remains a true classic of the '60s and one of the most underrated instruments of the period.
Overall length is 40 3/4 in. (103.5 cm.), 15 1/4 in. (38.7 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 1/2 in. (622 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a very heavily played example of an (originally) natural F-30, with a finish darkened to a smoky mid-brown hue over decades of use probably in very densely packed bars and clubs. In its 50+ years on the planet, this guitar has obviously seen a lot but remains structurally completely solid and sounding fantastic, a real veteran with the scars and sound to prove it.
The all-original natural lacquer finish has darkened heavily showing plenty of wear, with dings, dents and scratches everywhere and a couple large areas of loss. The top has a deep pickwear spot above the strings, and a large deeper spot below the pickguard approaching Willie Nelson territory! The pickguard itself has been replaced with a replica; there are a couple of noticeable sealed spruce grain splits off its bottom edge with a fairly large cleat added underneath for stability. Kind of amazingly the top has no other cracks and less bellying than most.
The back has a decent amount of wear as well, with several repaired grain splits and a more jagged crack in the area below the neck block. These are all sealed solidly without any added finish. The sides and neck are crack free. Unsurprisingly the finish on the back of the neck is heavily worn to the wood over much of its length. As is often the case with these the plastic headstock veneer has shrunken noticeably all around (giving the appearance of a bound headstock!) and is a bit puckered in the center but has less lifting than many.
The original cheap Japanese tuners were replaced long ago with Grover Rotomatics, which would have been considered a major upgrade at the time. There is an old strap button added to the neck heel; four of the bridge pins are original and two are old replacements. This guitar has never had a neck reset; the original small rosewood bridge has been lowered somewhat but still has decent height, the saddle is low but functional. The fingerboard has some divoting but has recently been neatly refretted; the action is quote low for one of these and the guitar plays extremely well, likely better than it did back in the 1960's as Guild tended to set their actions fairly high by modern standards. While far from the cleanest of these we have had this "Real Relic" of the decades is a fine playing, smooth sounding guitar with a killer vibe. Overall Very Good + Condition.
Smoked! This well-traveled 50+ year old Guild flat top has obviously seen the insides of many bars and clubs over the last 5 decades, played into "Real Relic" condition but still a great playing and sounding guitar. These older Hoboken-made Guild flattops can be surprisingly hard to find in good playable condition now, as many were played into the ground long ago. They were often not valued as highly or treated as well as Martins and Gibsons at the time. In retrospect at the end of the 1960s when this one was made at Guild was arguably producing flat tops as good as either, in many cases even better.
This is a 1969 natural-top F-30, made just as production was seriously shifting to Guild's new Westerly Rhode Island factory from Hoboken. This move would result in a lot of changes to the instruments themselves, many not for the better. This final-year Hoboken F-30 was the midline, mid-size model in Guild's 1960s line. It was ranked above the all mahogany M-20 (famously regarded as the "Nick Drake" guitar) and F-20, the same size and shape with a spruce top. The larger F-30 was a company mainstay at the time, popular with pro and amateur players alike and still one of Guild's best loved and most successful flat tops.
The F-30 is similar in size to a Martin 000 but with a slightly tighter-waisted body, more like a Gibson jumbo. The neck, back and sides are mahogany, the fingerboard and bridge rosewood. This is a very versatile instrument, a smooth finger-or-flatpicking guitar with a vibrant midrange sound which works equally well as a strummed chord machine. This Hoboken-made instrument is an extremely well-built and responsive guitar, much lighter than Rhode-Island made 1970's Guilds and easily on par -- or better -- with similar size Martin or Gibson offerings from 1969. It has been very heavily played, showing many scars but remains a true classic of the '60s and one of the most underrated instruments of the period.
Overall length is 40 3/4 in. (103.5 cm.), 15 1/4 in. (38.7 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 1/2 in. (622 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a very heavily played example of an (originally) natural F-30, with a finish darkened to a smoky mid-brown hue over decades of use probably in very densely packed bars and clubs. In its 50+ years on the planet, this guitar has obviously seen a lot but remains structurally completely solid and sounding fantastic, a real veteran with the scars and sound to prove it.
The all-original natural lacquer finish has darkened heavily showing plenty of wear, with dings, dents and scratches everywhere and a couple large areas of loss. The top has a deep pickwear spot above the strings, and a large deeper spot below the pickguard approaching Willie Nelson territory! The pickguard itself has been replaced with a replica; there are a couple of noticeable sealed spruce grain splits off its bottom edge with a fairly large cleat added underneath for stability. Kind of amazingly the top has no other cracks and less bellying than most.
The back has a decent amount of wear as well, with several repaired grain splits and a more jagged crack in the area below the neck block. These are all sealed solidly without any added finish. The sides and neck are crack free. Unsurprisingly the finish on the back of the neck is heavily worn to the wood over much of its length. As is often the case with these the plastic headstock veneer has shrunken noticeably all around (giving the appearance of a bound headstock!) and is a bit puckered in the center but has less lifting than many.
The original cheap Japanese tuners were replaced long ago with Grover Rotomatics, which would have been considered a major upgrade at the time. There is an old strap button added to the neck heel; four of the bridge pins are original and two are old replacements. This guitar has never had a neck reset; the original small rosewood bridge has been lowered somewhat but still has decent height, the saddle is low but functional. The fingerboard has some divoting but has recently been neatly refretted; the action is quote low for one of these and the guitar plays extremely well, likely better than it did back in the 1960's as Guild tended to set their actions fairly high by modern standards. While far from the cleanest of these we have had this "Real Relic" of the decades is a fine playing, smooth sounding guitar with a killer vibe. Overall Very Good + Condition.