Fender vs Guild

Fender and Guild share 1 plant and 1 company on record. Fender Corona built for both at the same time.

Two names on two headstocks can come out of the same building. When they do, the difference between them is the badge, the spec and the price, not the factory. When they share an owner, one company decided what each name stood for. Here is everything Fender and Guild have in common, from the records.

Side by side

	Fender	Guild
Founded	1946^{[1, 2]}	1952^{[3, 4, 5]}
Eras on record	14, from 1946	22, from 1952
Owners	4	6
Plants	15	10
Countries built in	USA, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and China	USA, South Korea and China

Plants that built both

Plant	Fender	Guild	Both at once
Fender Corona Corona, CA, USA^[6]	Fender USA 1985–now^{[7, 8]} Fender Custom Shop 1987–now^{[9, 10]}	Guild USA 2001–2004^{[11, 12]}	2001–2004

Companies behind both

Company	With Fender	With Guild
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation	owns 1985–now^{[13, 8, 2]} parent company 1985–2015^{[13, 8, 2, 14, 15, 16, 17, 7, 9, 10, 18]}	owns 1995–2014^{[19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 5, 24]}

More comparisons

Sources

Every numbered marker on this page points here: the document, its grade and the passages relied on. An era is computed, so it cites the facts it was derived from. A fact marked “no source” has no claim attached yet.

1
Fender ownership historygraded secondary
2
Fender Musical Instruments Company Historygraded secondary
3
bluebookofguitarvalues: guitar amplifiers/manufacturers/guildgraded secondary
- "started in 1952 by Alfred Dronge"Guild, founded
4
Guild (manufacturer history) - Blue Book of Guitar Valuesgraded secondary
- Guild was founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge (who did hire great guitar builders).Guild, founded
5
Guild (Acoustic Guitar magazine feature, AG282, hosted by Guild)graded secondary
- The Guild Guitar Co. was founded in 1952Guild, founded
- Another big change for Guild came in 1995, when Fender purchased the company.Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014
6
Fender Announces Free Public Visitor Center and Factory Toursgraded secondary
- The Visitor Center is located at 301 Cessna Circle, Corona, Calif. 92880Fender Corona, location
7
Fender factoriesgraded community
8
The End of the CBS Era: Inside the 1985 Fender Buyoutgraded community
9
Fender Custom Shopgraded community
10
re: korean squires (forum thread)graded community
11
mmone: guild guitarsgraded secondary
- "moved to Fender's headquarters in Corona… until 2004"Guild USA at Fender Corona, 2001–2004
12
Wikipedia: wiki/Guild Guitar Companygraded community
- moved all Guild production to its factory in Corona, CaliforniaGuild USA at Fender Corona, 2001–2004
13
Fender Musical Instruments Corp, Form S-1/A (2012), accession 0001193125-12-298421graded primary
14
Fender Japangraded community
15
Fender Japan history (Fachblatt article, 1987)graded secondary
16
Fender Japan: A Brief Guidegraded community
17
Fender Japan Historygraded community
18
35 years of Fender Mexico: a timelinegraded secondary
19
blogspot: 2025/11/the convoluted history of guild guitars.htmlgraded community
- "FMIC bought Guild from U.S. Music Corporation in November 1995"Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014
20
fender: newsroom/news/408graded primary
- "(May 6, 2014)… letter of intent to sell the Guild guitar brand"Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014
21
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation announces intent to sell Guild brand to Cordoba Music Groupgraded primary
- Guild joined the FMIC family in 1995Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014
22
Guild in the Post-Fender Eragraded secondary
- When Fender bought the company in late 1995, Guild was headquartered in Westerly, Rhode Island.Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014
23
Fender Musical Instruments Company (International Directory of Company Histories)graded secondary
- In 1995, Fender acquired the Guild Guitar Company, a Rhode Island-based manufacturer of handmade electric and acousticFender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014
24
The Convoluted History of Guild Guitarsgraded community
- The Fender Musical Instrument Company (FMIC) bought Guild from U.S. Music Corporation in November 1995.Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, owns, 1995–2014

See something wrong, or know a better source?