When Alfred Dronge, a former professional guitarist, founded the Guild Company in 1952 to produce fine jazz instruments he employed several luthiers from Epiphone. After two years of testing prototypes it is not surprising that the earliest Guild instruments released for sale in 1954 bare similarities to Epiphones of the period with their large single cutaway bodies. The top of the Guild range was the Artist Award model (the equivalent of the Epiphone Emperor) and it has remained Guild's flagship model.