Guild M-40E and M-240E Troubadour £1,785 & £445
Back in the late 1960s Guild enjoyed a golden era, building concert-sized guitars that attracted a wealth of folk players. Alongside the all-mahogany M-20, associated with Nick Drake after its inclusion on the cover of his 1971 album Bryter Layter, the spruce-topped F-20 and the longer scale F-30 won favour for their surprisingly full sounds. But for years they remained something of an underrated gem on the vintage market.
Now the old Troubadour has returned with a new name and the expectation of recharging its reputation. Alongside it there’s a more affordable Westerly Series option that also hosts the surprise 21st century return for DeArmond. For the gigging player, these two guitars offer distinctly different experiences beyond the obvious build, spec and price comparisons.
This isn’t the first time the F-20 design has returned to Guild’s line-up, but it is a Californian debut. In 2012 Guild, then under Fender ownership, recognised the growing interest in parlour-sized acoustics and began producing the standard model again in its facility in New Hartford, Connecticut.
Two years later the factory ceased production, and those models are hard to find, but with ownership of the Guild brand passing to the Cordoba Music Group and the New Hartford machinery moving to Ventura County in the Golden State for production in 2015, a Californian F-20 now makes a return. Of sorts. Unlike Guild’s M-20, it’s now under a new moniker. The ‘M’ denoting the body size and the 40 signifying spruce top/mahogany body. So, can this new edition uphold the reputation?
Joining it is a new model under the Chinese-made Westerly series, an affordable take on the F-20 blueprint with an interesting twist; a new DeArmond product. The first new design from the Guild-owned brand in this century, no less. And fittingly from the company that brought players the first attachable magnetic pickup, it’s a passive soundhole affair. A rare addition indeed for an out-of-the-box acoustic.
With the more understated charms of satin finishes still very much in demand amongst players, Guild has adopted to change from the F-20 gloss tradition and adopt it for both models here, with the M-40E available in this natural and an antique sunburst.
For our Californian Guild it brings a contemporary touch to the tradition, and it works well here with the minimalist pinstripe rosette and purfling. The tortoiseshell scratchplate also ties in pleasingly with the dark mahogany back, sides and neck.
The M-40E is a lightweight guitar but its neck is an interesting blend of
The old Troubadour has a new name, but can this edition uphold its wellearned reputation?
accessibility and substantial width. The smooth satin finish and C-shape is welcoming to the palm, but the nut width on this new chapter for the F-20 story is actually wider than the 1960s examples at 44.45mm, with vintage F-20 examples we’ve seen at around 43mm. It’s a surprising change.
The M-240E Troubadour is billed as a homage to its American sibling, but that doesn’t extend to its finish options. Though a piezo-fitted M-240E is available in natural, this Troubadour version is only in antique sunburst. But Guild has clearly put thought into making the aesthetic of a soundhole-mounted pickup work here. It’s a neat touch to see the tortoiseshell trim match the scratchplate, that in turn ties in with the dark edges of the two-colour sunburst and making this soundhole more at home here than it could have done. It’s a tidy build, with an aesthetic only disrupted by the notably lighter shade and different grain of the mahogany neck compared to the body.
The 240’s deviations from its inspiration go even further than electronics and the laminate back sides, though: the 240E features Guild’s arched back, and the nut width is closer to the 60s F-20s at 42.86mm, with a narrower string spacing at the bridge of 55mm compared to the M-40E’s 57mm for a slimmer C-shape neck. The Troubadour is clearly more than a lower spec version of big bro. Instead, Guild has taken the body blueprint to do something distinct.
Feel & sounds
With a wide neck and ample string spacing, the M-40E is a guitar that responds well to more muscular playing – whether that be chordwork or strong fingerpickers from the Nick Drake school of folk finesse. Its light weight and intimate proportions actually encourage that kind of physicality. The tension and medium action here on our test guitar mean we need it too, but the payoff is strong treble response and a defined vintage warmth rather than modern hi-fi chordal sparkle. It’s a natural home for blues roots and country folk with a low end that feels broad for this body size while allowing the throaty and ringing high mid and treble strengths to come to the fore. And it’s a voice that lends itself to recording without having to worry about dialling the low end out at the mixing stage. This is the kind of voice and neck experience that also feels like a good excuse to tune down and dust off the slide too.
The M-240E’s lower action and slender neck profile will be more welcoming to those used to more modern acoustic experiences, and is certainly easy on the digits for fingerstyle and fast runs, though unsurprisingly the satin neck isn’t as luxurious as the M-40E’s. The action is so low here things get a little buzzy in DADGAD and more so in open G, but Guild’s open gear tuners perform smoothly and stably as we adjust.
The voice that comes through here is one that leans in favour of resonant mids rather than the warmer, stronger definition of the M40E. Lows are thinner but not unsurprisingly so for this shape and in chord work there’s an airy brightness with light phasing in comparison to the Californian guitar’s darker tonality.
Plugging in reveals some interesting results. The M-40E is fitted with the LR Baggs Element VTC under-saddle pickup and setting the tone control at its mid point immediately reveals a hotter bass response than expected. As the tone control here is a treble roll-off we took our acoustic combo’s bass EQ down two notches to regain more of the guitar’s natural acoustic balance.
Some may prefer the prospect of boosted lows and the Element – which also captures the soundboard’s movements – certainly reflects an acoustic timbre very well for an undersaddle system. The dynamics sound and feel natural without any unwanted compression.
The reputation DeArmond built with its magnetic soundhole pickups has meant they are still in high demand on the used market to this day. Rather than reissue a classic from the 60s, the brand has opted to launch the new Tone Boss passive humbucker found here. The results are pleasing; rounded rather than metallic or harsh. With only a volume control on the pickup you’ll need to EQ with amp or preamp pedal, and due to the passive nature of the Tone Boss it benefits from some external boost too. It’s intriguing to see both DeArmond and Guild demo videos featuring this guitar show it being played with overdrive, too, and Guild are keen to point out that flexibility by stating it’s ‘compatible with any amplifier’, unlike a piezo where the results can be teeth-
The M-40E is a natural home for blues roots and country folk with a broad low end
rattlingly unpleasant. It’s not too shabby through our VOX AC15 when EQ’d, furthering this guitar’s potential versatility.
verdict
There’s two different continuations of the F-20 legacy here, and we admire Guild’s commitment to offering distinct new models to the market that each bring a new experience to players. The caveat is they’re not trying to please everyone with a vanilla all-rounder approach. The addition of the soundhole pickup to the M-240E is a new option for gigging players in a hotly contested area of the market and currently a unique out-ofthe-box proposition. And the decision to update the F-20 with a new name and wider neck means it is not merely a reissue in satin – though the classic F-20 shaped void that it now leaves is somewhat surprising to see. But fingerstylists especially may well delight in the change and the result is a vintage voice of its own in the pantheon of contemporary smallbodied electro acoustics.