Extra holes for X170 tailpiece. Thoughts?

[johnbiscuti]

I had a friend pluck a gorgeous 1987 X170 off of Philly CL for me a few days ago. I'll hopefully be picking it up on Sunday. Beyond excited!

He sent me a few pics and there are some added holes near the tailpiece. What do you guys think this was for? Maybe some kind of Bigsby/Guildsby?

 

[Los Angeles]

First of all, that is a GORGEOUS guitar, and I hope you like the model as much as I do.

very interesting that we both got X-170's this week.

It looks to me the exposed holes are from a bigsby vibrato. Many guild harp tailpieces were designed to use the same three mounting screw positions as bigsbys, so you could swap back and forth without extra drilling, but it is my understanding that X-170's used a smaller harp tailpiece with a different screw configuration.

The X-170 that I'm working on right now came with a bigsby, and here are the holes that were left behind:

Thank you for posting your question and picks, I now know what my guitar is going to look like when I put an X-170 harp on it (which I am going to do anyway).

 

[kakerlak]

Could well just be reflection, but it might be a good idea to take a close look at the hinge on that tailpiece and make sure there aren't signs of fatigue there. I've seen these fail on occasion and its better to catch and replace before it does, as the failure tends to result in some nasty dings to the top when the harp pops free of its mount.

 

[johnbiscuti]

@Los Angeles, thanks! I've been following your thread as well, you've got quite a cool guitar there! I've never played an X170, and in fact I thought I wanted a real deal thick bodied archtop, but I think I'm going to enjoy this more, especially if I start playing live. BTW - I think you own my old black Starfire bass!

@kak - thanks for that. I've seen many a Rickenbacker "R" tailpiece explode, so I'll be cognizant of that!

 

[Los Angeles]

I bought the Starfire bass new (or at least new-ish) around 2000 or 2001, Are you sure that one is yours?

 

[johnbiscuti]

I bought the Starfire bass new (or at least new-ish) around 2000 or 2001, Are you sure that one is yours?

Ah, no! But mine was also a black mahogany bass with Darkstars: