The Guild Guitar Company is a United States-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a guitarist and music-store owner, and George Mann, a former executive with the Epiphone Guitar Company. The brand name currently exists as a brand under Córdoba Music Group. In February 2023, The Yamaha Guitar Group acquired Cordoba Music Group.
Beatle John Lennon's 1966 Guild Starfire XII twelve-string
A 1979 Guild D25M
A-150 Savoy
Richie Havens, who famously played a Guild at Woodstock, performing in 2006 with a D40
Epiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in İzmir, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his father's business, Epaminondas Stathopoulos named the company "Epiphone" as a combination of his own nickname "Epi" and the suffix "-phone" in 1928, the same year it began making guitars. From the 1930s through to the early 1950s, Epiphone produced a range of both acoustic and (later) electrified archtop guitars that rivalled those produced by Gibson and were the instruments of choice of many professionals; a smaller range of flat-top guitars were also produced, some designations of which were later continued during the Gibson-owned era for the company.
An Epiphone Casino, one of the brand's best known models
Epiphone Blackstone (non cutaway), 1947
Epiphone Triumph Regent, 1951
headstock of Epiphone Zephyr Deluxe, 1951