Saw a Fake Guild today

[GEFan]

I went into a Pawn Shop last week. In the mix of the usual crap was a Guild D50. I don't see a lot of Guilds in my wandering but it did not look quite right. Big oval label centered under the sound hole. Also no case which is a red flag. Anyway made a note of the SN and went home to do some research. Good SN from 1992. Was doubtful anyone would go to the trouble to fake a Guild but looking at Forums I learned this was far from the case.
Looked at a lot of 90s era D50s and then went back today. Very obvious fake to anyone who had done a little research. Headstock was wrong, bracing was wrong, binding was black not white. Most likely not solid back and sides.
Still to the unsuspecting it did not look that bad.
Found out labels have been for sale in the past on the internet.
Have seen questiionable Martins, Fenders and Gibsons before but the Guild was something new. The price was just a little too good to be true. Told the guys it was fake. We will see what they do.

[brad4d8]

Over on the Guild forum (http://letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/index.php), fake Guilds are exposed regularly, hardly a week goes by without a fake D-50 or F-50 showing up. One member has been keeping a database of all of them. My guess is that Guild is both known and unknown, that is, many people recognize the name as a quality instrument, but don't know enough about them to recognize that it's not genuine. Especially on line, they might be duped into buying one without playing it first. FWIW, I seem to remember that most of them were in Pawn Shops, not music dealers.
Brad

[Judson]

I saw a Takamine "lawsuit" Guild 12=strijng at an open mic a short while back. Like all the "lawsuit" era Takamines, from a distance everything looked exactly like a Gulid including the headstcock which was a cleverly disguised, but not particularly subtle rip off of the Guild headstock and logo.