The Al Dronge Era

Avram "Alfred" Dronge — "Al" to many — was born in Warsaw, Poland, on Aug. 16, 1911. His family left Warsaw for Paris in 1914, and left Paris for New York City in 1916.

He practically grew up in Manhattan's Park Row music stores, becoming an accomplished banjo player and guitarist along the way. Dronge gave guitar lessons and played professionally in New York clubs and cruise ships, and opened his own successful Park Row music store in the mid-1930s. An astute, hard-working and well-liked businessman, he sold the store in 1948 and amassed a small fortune in the late '40s and early '50s importing and distributing accordions.

Guild's genesis was simple. In 1952, Dronge's friend George Mann suggested that the two men start a new guitar company with former employees of another guitar company that had recently left Manhattan for Philadelphia in the wake of labor problems. Another friend of Dronge-Gene Detgen-suggested the name "Guild," and that was that. Guild was in business with Mann as president and Drongee as vice president.

The first catalog and pricelist, from April 1954, referred to Guild as "The Stradivari of Guitars," with a small selection of arch-top electric and flat-top acoustic guitars. Arch-top acoustics were added to the line in 1955, by which time Mann had left and Dronge had taken the company's helm.

Healthy sales, vigorous growth and Dronge's vehement opposition to what he called "inappropriate union interference" meant Guild needed new digs with more room; the factory was consequently moved to several thousand square feet on the sixth floor of the Neumann Leathers building, across the Hudson River in nearby Hoboken, N.J.

Guild flourished in the rest of the '50s and in particular throughout the '60s. Although they had started out as a line of mainly jazz guitars, Guild's popularity and solid reputation spread quickly, and over the years its instruments found their way into the hands of high-profile rock, pop, blues and jazz guitar heroes including Johnny Smith, Duane Eddy, Roy Orbison, John Lee Hooker, Merle Travis, Paul Simon, Keith Richards, Dave Davies, George Benson, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Richie Havens, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Miller, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Doc Watson, Ry Cooder, George Strait and so many other acclaimed artists.

In 1966, the Guild Musical Instruments Corporation was bought by electronics giant Avnet Inc., and, having once again outgrown its factory, was moved to a new plant in Westerly, R.I., where operations remained for almost three decades. Sadly, Dronge perished in May 1972 when the small aircraft he was piloting-on the way to Guild's Westerly plant-crashed in Connecticut. Even with such a tragic loss, Guild guitars continued on as popular, distinctive and highly regarded instruments.