Guild™ Celebrates Distinguished 50-Plus Year History
-- World's Premier Acoustic Guitar Maker Builds Upon Tradition of Quality --

In the April 1953 issue of Musical Merchandise Magazine, a brief ad appeared marking the debut of a brand-new company.

A new corporation, known as Guild Guitars Inc., with headquarters at 220 Fourth Ave., New York, N.Y., has been formed to manufacture high-quality guitars, including Spanish and Hawaiian electric - solid wood body electrics, amplifiers, cases and strings.

With this rather modest announcement, the Guild™ company began its rise from a small Manhattan guitar workshop to one of the world's premier makers of high-quality acoustic (and several popular electric) guitars. Registered in October 1952, the fledgling Guild Guitars company set up a 1,500-square-foot manufacturing facility on the second floor of a factory at 536 Pearl St., not far from where Al Dronge's Park Row music store used to be in the 1930s and '40s.