Product Description
Rare Custom Artist award with 1 3/4′ nut and 2 1/8″ (2.12″) at 12th fret. Guild Artist Award Model Arch-Top Hollow Body Electric Guitar, made in Westerly, serial # 200963, natural blonde lacquer finish, maple back and sides, spruce top; laminated maple neck with ebony fingerboard, black hard shell case. Flamed back and spruce top with great sinking that looks like flamed spruce. It is equipped with an original gold Vintage DeArmaond pickup which alone can sell for $1200.
The Guild Artist Award model was the top of the company’s line in the 1960s and for founder Al Dronge represented the pinnacle of his firm’s achievement. It is a carved cutaway acoustic arch-top guitar with a floating DeArmond pickup and very fancy trim, intended to compete directly with Gibson and even John D’Angelico’s best offerings.
The 17″ body is made of curly maple with a carved spruce top, 5-ply bound on the top and back and 3-ply bound on the sides. The f-holes are bound as well. The neck shows its Epiphone ancestry with a 5-piece lamination down the back and bound ebony fretboard inlaid with “Emperor-style” split pearl and abalone blocks. The large elaborate center-peak headstock is multi-bound on the face with an inlaid abalone-bordered pearl centerpiece showing the engraved logo “Artist Award Model’ and an etched trophy cup. All hardware except the pickup rig is gold-plated, including the Grover imperial tuners and the engraved Guild harp tailpiece.
