Guild Crossroads CR01 Semi-Hollow Body

1994 Guild Crossroads. To my knowledge only 97 have been made ever! Made in USA before Fender took things over. Solid top, semi hollow body, Piezo bridge pickup and EMG 89 active pickup in the neck position (splittable). Maple top with one piece carved mohogany backs and sides.

I bought this guitar because at the time I was predominantly playing blues music. I have since started playing my favorite style again which happens to be metal. I must say this guitar tackles both styles very well. The one complaint I have about it is there is alot of buzz when on the distortion channel. Not sure what is causing this but as soon as you touch the volume or controll nobs (any metal part) the buzzing stops. The guitar was definitly made for the clean channel though because it sounds great with a little chorus behind it. The range of sounds you can get out of this thing is amazing to say the least.

I bought the guitar New Old Stock from a local guitar shop. The instrument had been sitting in the back of the shop for 12 years before I happened to wander through and play it. I fell in love with it and knew I had to have it. This is definitely a quality instrument. The finish on the top and neck are superb and the stain on the sides and back is great too. There was some minor fret buzz but that was fixed later because the bridge sadle was in the wrong way so it was just a matter of switching that around when changing the strings. I must say that when I play this guitar out in public or even just amongst friends I get some great compliments on it.

All in all a pretty rock solid guitar. I will be running through a noise gate / filter when playing live but other than that its great. I think it will be my small gig / jam guitar. I am going to get an ESP MH-1000 for the heavy metal gigs.

Another quality instrument from the Guild company.

This is a 22 fret 6 string double-cutaway acoustic/electric made by Guild in Rhode Island while Guild was owned by US Music. It is NOT the same as or even similar to the Slash endorsed Guild Crossroads dual neck and body combination 12/6 string acoustic/electric. It has all solid woods, mahogany back and sides, select maple top. Back an sides are one carved piece. Guild called the body semi-hollow, but it has no center block and is completely hollow inside with x-bracing. The top, back and sides are heavier than an acoustic or archtop hollow body. The neck is bolt-on 3 piece maple with heavy rosewood fretboard. Headstock set is 15 degrees and has Guild's typical wide rectangular acoustic shape with concave sides and a dome on the top edge. Tuners are Grover Totomatics. The neck meets the body between the 16th and 17th frets at the small upper cutaway and at the 21st fret at the lower cutaway.. The bridge is an acoustic rosewood bridge, set in just like a flattop, complete with bone saddle and bridge pins. It has electric and piexo acoustic pickups, both active and powered by one 9v battery accessible through a back plate. The comprise an EMG 89 humbucker/single coil at the neck and a Fishman AG-125 piezo under-the-saddle acoustic in the bridge. Each has its own volume control. The electric volume control pushes and pulls to select the humbucker or the single coil in the EMG 89. The acoustic volume control is a remotely mounted pot from the internally mounted Fishman AGP-2 preamp. Fishman designed the AGP-2 for side mounting with its attached controls in the shoulder or upper bout of an acoustic. Instead, Guild hid it inside on a back plate. The AGP-2's treble and base controls are still functional and attached to it, hidden under the plate. A master tone control sits next to the volume controls in a straigt line on the top near the lower edge of the lower bout and a 3 position toggle above the upper cutaway selects either pickup alone or combines the two. The control knobs are knurled chrome cylinders with the combined electric volume/coil swithching push-pull knob knurled heavier than the others. The finish is wood-grain red on the body and natural on the neck and headstock back and sides. The headstock face is black with the underlined GUILD and large G logo inlaid. The inlay is very irridescent and pearly with a wide range of color. The truss rod cover plate is black plastic and has a white CROSSROADS engraved into it. The binding is 5 piece hand-set cream/black on the body top and headstock. The neck has no binding, but is beautifully finished rosewood with edge dot inlays on the fretboard edge. The fretboard face has small dot position inlays. It has no (and never did have a) pickguard. The overall appearance fo the wood colors, inlays, binding and hardwar is balanced and stunning. I wish all guitars looked this nice.

The person under whom I study (Michael Florio) and I have played this through a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus. I heard it briefly through a Trace Elliot when I was buying it. I heard it through my neighbor's Marshall stack when he wanted to see it. I will proabably keep using it through a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus for now because it handles all of its sound range well. I'm looking for a tube type pure jazz amp and will probably try its acoustic sounds through Roland's Acoustic Chorus sometime in the future. It is best suited for acoustic/electric or electric jazz, blues and fusion or for an "unplugged" finger-picking or flat-picking sound. It truely excels at clean sound and the EMG 89 cna make a good blues crunch if you want. It's not made for hard rock or metal, although one can get it to sound pretty close to a Strat or Les Paul with the right electric/acoustic pickup mix and tone setting. Because the body is hollow and it has an acoustic pickup, it has more potential for feedback than a solid body electric. One would need to do some feedback control if one one wanted to play really loud rock on this guitar. The controls allow one to vary the sound from almost pure acoustic to neck-humbucker to neck-single-coil electric with all variations and mixes in between. Selecting the single coil and playing with the mixes can get it to sound more like a rock guitar. I'm not ready to give up my Hirade H-15, Gibson Dove or the Heritage Johnny Smith on order, but I can use it for all the same acoustic and electric material for which I use the Dove and Johnny Smith. I don't play hard rock, punk or metal at this point, so I don't need to get any rock, distortion or overdrive sounds out of it. If I needed that sound, I could probably get it from this guitar, but it isnot its primary design. If I primarily played jazz, blues and fusion with some acoustic, and wanted a really versatile guitar, this guitar would be ideal. I would not consider changing anything on it except the master tone control treble rolloff. I may decrease its capacitance or increase its resistance to put its range a little brighter.

The action is set to the low side (where I want it) and is adjustable via the nut, bridge saddle and truss rod. The fretboard has a 16" radius and 1-5/8" nut and the scale length is 25-1/2". It feels very much like an acoustic neck, such as the one on my Gibson Dove flattop, except the action is a little lower and the strings lighter. Since I predominantly play a Hirade H-15 classical and a Gibson Dove accoustic, this acoustic/jazz like feel is great and does not disorient me. The controls are conveniently placed in a single horizontal row near the lower edge of the lower bout wit the pickpu switch conveniently in the body cusp above the upper cutaway. The electric volume/coil switching push-pull knob has heavier knurling to help it with the push-pull grip and identify it by feel. It has no pickguard (and never did) so it is not designed for violent or heavy, deep strumming or picking that is likely to put the pick into contact with the top. It plays as well as any guitar I have ever played and better than most. I am definitely spoiled by my other guitars and this one spoils me right along with them.

Everything about this guitar's construction and parts speaks quality. Guild put really good wood, Grover tuners, and EMG and Fishman pickups and electronics into it. They weren't trying to cut corners anywhere. It is built well enough and uses all the right stuff for steady live playing. The person who consigned it was a local jazz/blues musician who used it live regularly. He reluctantly consigned it to get another guitar he needed at the time. It rarely needs adjustments to anything. I would certainly do a gig with this as the only guitar. Because of its extreme versatility, it would make an outstanding backup guitar or take-along just in case something else broke down. The local indoor climate varies from humid to dry seasonally. It needs only the standard twice-a-year look at the neck and truss rod. I tweaked it once a couple of years ago and may tweak it again this year. I completely overhauled the set-up on this one and replaced its piezo pickup and bridge saddle when I got it. Someone had unevenly carved on the bottom of the saddle and gouged the foil shield from the piezo. Fixing that was easy and it has never needed attention since. The knobs, pots, switches and tuners are heavy stuff and should outlast me. My children and grandchildren can look forward to using this guitar.

Guild has been fantastic about answering questions on the background of this guitar. The foreman has spoken with me several times, both in February 1996 and March 2001. I am doing a circuit diagram for them from this guitar because they haven't got one from 1994 after the change in ownership. It will help other owners if they need to replace a pot or something in the switches, controls or electronics.
The luthiers, Ports Music in Tampa, FL (www.portsmusic.com), where I bought this guitar assisted in the bridge saddle and piezo pickup overhaul. The partners, Tom and Dave, have always been helpful in the extreme, especially with supporting any instrument I bought from them. I bought my Gibson Dove and Hirade H-15 from them and have bought other guitars (since sold), and my wife's violin and bow from them as well. I would trust them with any vintage or high-value stringed instrument, whether or not I got it from them. If you want expert luthery, these are the two guys to see.

I've been playing since mid 1994. In late 1995, I was looking for a hollow body archtop with clean acoustic and electric jazz sound for use in church. I looked at quite a few solid, semi-solid and hollow body archtops before finding this guitar, used, in near mint condition, consigned at my favorite luthier's at a really outstanding price. The new price listed at about $1850 in 1994. Even though it has a solid body electric shape (I was looking for an archtop), I bought this one because it can produce a clean jazz sound ranging from acoustic to humbuckers, and produce various acoustic and electric blues, fusion and rock sounds. Also, its price was very attractive. I also have a Hirade H-15 classical, a Gibson Dove, a Heritage Johnny Smith on order, a Seagull Folk 6+, a Chechoslovakian Tatra I classical and a Silvertone archtop. I don't consider the last 3 high-end instruments, but they are useful for use outside and taking just about anywhere when having a playable guitar is important but tone isn't. I don't have any other instruments that can produce the range of sound that this one can. According to the Guild plant foreman in 1996 (Fender owned Guild by 1996) they made only two runs of this guitar, less than 40 in total, and sold less than 30 of them in 1994, the only year Guild made them. According to Guild, the highest and last serial number is FA000097. They were serially numbered, so there are no more than 97 of these at the most, even if the foreman's recollection of the quantity is inaccurate. This one is FA000033. Guild has very little documentation on this guitar, but I have an original brochure and I am doing a circuit diagram of the electronics in mine for them. Kent Sonenberg, formerly of Thoroughbred Music and now operating Legends Music (www.legendsmusic.com), recalled the original retail sale of this one when I asked him in 1996. I was hesitant to buy this guitar when I did because I was looking for an archtop. Now that I have it, I'm sure glad I bought it when I did. Although I play mostly classical and acoustic, it's a definite keeper. As my studies take me into more acoustic and flat-pick accompaniment, it will get increasing use along with my flattop and the archtop I ordered. In my opinion, Guild gets consistantly under-appreciated for its designs and quality. If anything ever happened to it, I don't know how I would replace it. I would definitely try to find another one. However, it is completely unique and because so few were made, it would be difficult or impossible to replace. Count yourself amongst the very fortunate few if you own one or ever get the chance to buy one of these.