What's a fair price for a Guild JF30?

Stuckfast

A friend is selling some of her late husband's instruments. One of them is a Guild jumbo which I think is a JF30. I've had my eye on a Guild maple jumbo for ages so it seems a good chance to help her out and get a guitar I've been looking for, but I want to pay her a fair price for it. Trouble is, it's not a particularly common model and there aren't many for sale. No completed eBay listings that I can see and asking prices are all over the map. Any thoughts?

Edit: just seen some photos, it's actually a JC30 AO7, which seems to be the cutaway version of the JF30 and thus even more obscure.

TheMadMick

Depends where it was made. I have a spruce and Maple Guild made in China. I paid about £650.00 for it about 20 years ago. I'd think it should fetch less than half of that even though it's in good nick.

Please make sure you're happy with the tone. Maple and spruce tends to be a bit bright to my ear although that's good in certain circumstances.

Hope this helps.

Stuckfast

It's a Westerly model so made in the US in the late 80s. Apparently they only produced this model for a couple of years.

Tannin

Note that "Westerly" these days means "made in China". But back when this was made, it meant Guild's New York factory. 

Any US-made Guild (Hoboken, Westerly, Corona, Tacoma, New Haven, or Oxnard) is worth a bit. I don't think they made any bad ones but some, of course, are worth more than others, and all are worth more than the made-in-China models. 

(I better translate. "Worth a bit" in my native language (Australian) means "worth quite a lot" in the Queen's English. Guilds are in the same high-resale-value class as Martins and Gibsons.) 

A little searching seems to indicate that the JF30 was a cheaper version of the fabled F-412 - i.e., a real Guild jumbo with an unbraced, arched Rock Maple back for no so very much, apparently. 

So:
* Rare model premium? No. ("Unusual model" <> "rare model".)
* Top-of-the-range premium? No. One of cheaper US-made Guilds at that time. 
* Genuine US-made Guild premium? Yes. 
* This-is-what-this-company-does-best premium? Yes. Arched maple backs are what Guild is famous for.

Adding all that up, I'd expect to pay at least $2000 AUD but probably not much over $3000  here in Australia, a bit more than that in the UK (where guitars are quite expensive). So let's say £1100 to £1600 as a starting point.

To that, add or subtract depending on the condition. Is the neck straight? Is the action OK? If not does it just need a setup (ignore), or is it in line for a neck reset? (-£600). Has it got much saddle left showing or is a neck reset going to be due before too many more years go by? (-£250ish) Is the finish in good shape? And how does it sound? 

Stuckfast

Thanks. Yes, it's definitely a US Westerly. I don't know if the cutaway makes a difference to the price, and I have no idea what the 'AO7' in the model designation means. 

I haven't played it yet. It's cosmetically in mint condition. The owner ran a guitar repair workshop and looked after his instruments so I expect it to play well without any issues.

Tannin

Cheers @Stuckfast I am no expert and there are people here who have bought and sold dozens more guitars than I have and are 12,000 kilometres closer - so take all that with a big grain of salt! 

But suppose you pointed an antique crossbow at my head (no vulgar modern weapons here!) and said "Give me your best stab at a fair-to-everyone price given all the information you have" I guess I'd pluck a number out of the air and say $2600-$2700  in this country (because I think in AUD) so say about £1400-£1500. That's toward the higher end of my very guesstimated range above, but from your description it sounds as though it's going to be towards the top of the condition scale too. 

BUT BE SURE TO GET SOME OTHER OPINIONS! I'm only having a punt in the dark.

(PS: Guild maple-back jumbo = as good as it gets in my book. I love them!)

TheMadMick

Fascinated by this thead, so searched Google and came up with

https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/guild-jf-30-usa-pre-owned-p6335/s6335?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_term=guild-jf-30-usa-pre-owned-p2304669&amp;utm_campaign=product+listing+ads&amp;cid=GBP&amp;glCurrency=GBP&amp;glCountry=GB&amp;gad=1&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpr3tt72OggMVhoBQBh168groEAQYASABEgIIj_D_BwE

Says the asking price commercially is about £1500.00 and the condition is "This guitar is in good condition (6 out of 10) and fully functional. There are surface scratches/hazing on the face of the headstock and the body as well as some dings on the bottom of the bottom. The guitar is fully functional despite signs of aging as it is from 1992"

Hope this helps?

Stuckfast

Thanks. There's also a couple on eBay that haven't sold -- a 12-string with built-in electronics at £1100 and a six-string with aftermarket pickup at £1495. Can't find any sold listings though.

thermionic

There’s a couple on Reverb (ignore the GAD version), but outside the UK. You can select the US model to find the price history.

https://reverb.com/uk/p/guild-jf-30-1987-1994?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=csp&utm_content=24336

GoFish

LetsTalkGuild may have some more info for you, though it will be in American.

Stuckfast

OK, I have it here to try. It's a beautiful instrument, pretty much in mint condition. Sounds like it should and plays very well. Action is about 2.5mm at the 12th fret, and the saddle is quite low already, but I can't see it needing a neck reset imminently. Comes with the original hard case.

Am I tempted? You bet...