Guild JF-65E

1999 US-made blonde jumbo. Solid spruce top, maple back and sides. The grain on this maple is stunning and sooooooooooo deep. Lots of abalone and mother of pearl on the fretboard, bridge pins and soundhole rosette. Acoustic electric with passive bridge pickup. If Anna Nicole Smith were a guitar, she'd be a Guild JF65E.

Big and loud with lots of sustain. There are lots of natural harmonics and overtones -- so many that it can become irritating when capoing up to the higher frets. The open chords are unbelievably strong!

This is a great guitar. There are some minor annoyances. First, the banding strip came loose at frets 1 & 2. This was fixed at the store, but they said it would take 6 months to get the finish restored under the warranty, so I left it unfinished in that one spot. Second, my G-string keeps popping at the nut (an interesting thought, eh?), which seems to have lessened with use of some graphite there. Finally, the finish got all scratched up when I ran into a ping-pong table in the dark. Also, my 5-year-old was able to mar the top quite easily with a toy truck. You'd think Guild would put a warning label on these guitars...like "don't scratch the sitka spruce top with metal toys" or something.

Chicks dig it. Bring an extra G-string or two if you borrow my Guild for your next gig.

Takes too long to bother.

I also own a Guild Bluesbird electric and a Takamine cd132sc classical/electric. For some reason, everyone thinks the Guild sounds terrific when I play it, but I think I can execute better on the Takamine. I think it is the steel strings and jumbo sound they are hearing. If this guitar were stolen or lost I would replace it with a less expensive but well made guitar, probably of standard size, perhaps a Tacoma. The Guild JF65E is a novelty -- big, gorgeous and loud. Like the showy blonde she is, this guitar plays a very limited role -- and always looks better on someone else's arm.