Hello ! New member . Vintage Guild Archtop question .

[jeffmac]

Hello everyone. Thanks for the add. So, this guitar makes my 3rd vintage guild . I believe it’s from the late 50s or early 60s . It has no label inside and no serial markings on the back of the headstock. I’m 99.9 % sure someone a while ago refinished this from a natural finish to a gold finish. There’s a lot of oxidation but the checking from the previous finish is still intact which leads me to believe it was natural and they just sprayed the gold over it . I know guild did have a gold finish as an option but I would think they used better paint for sure . There is also some over spray in the cavity . I was curious mostly in what you guys think of this guitar in terms of year and model ? Clearly someone loved this guitar a lot and it has a nice acoustic property to it being a hollow body . The thing that surprised me the most is how nice this pickup is . It’s strong but very mellow sounding . I’m a bit over my head with this guitar as I’m not a jazz box player . Here are some pics . Jeff

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG! What a cool old archtop!! It looks like you have an X-150, but hopefully Hans Moust will stop by and tell you what you have.

 

[Teleguy61]

Welcome!
It sure does look like someone got out the model car spray paint can and went to town!

 

[jeffmac]

Welcome!
It sure does look like someone got out the model car spray paint can and went to town!

haha . It’s not the worst refin I’ve seen but , I can only imagine the person who did this must of had limited resources. (A thing we all at times take for granted ) I just don’t get why they didn’t cover the f holes ?

 

[walrus]

Is that the guitar that has been on Reverb for a while? Advertised as a '58? If so, that may be the original finish. "May" being the key word! If not the guitar I'm thinking of, ignore this post!

walrus

 

[Default]

That looks older than a 58 to me, ATROBH.

 

[jeffmac]

Is that the guitar that has been on Reverb for a while? Advertised as a '58? If so, that may be the original finish. "May" being the key word! If not the guitar I'm thinking of, ignore this post!

walrus

I just checked and that listing is still available. The paint on mine has a sparkle texture to it . Because of the refin it has I was able to get it for a lot less . (The only reason I have it really ) what’s throwing me off mostly is the decal. I looked at a few online and isome from the 50s had a more bubbly font . Also most of the ones with this guild logo have the crown thing under it . That’s why I assumed it might be closer to the 60s ?

 

[Rusty Chops]

Welcome!
Cool guitar!

 

[walrus]

I just checked and that listing is still available. The paint on mine has a sparkle texture to it . Because of the refin it has I was able to get it for a lot less . (The only reason I have it really ) what’s throwing me off mostly is the decal. I looked at a few online and it some from the 50s had a more bubbly font . Also most of the ones with this guild logo don’t have the crown thing under it . That’s why I assumed it might be closer to the 60s ?

Ah! I checked and didn't see it, thanks! So as I said, ignore that post!

walrus

 

[Default]

Waverly Tuners and tailpiece, so it is pre-harp for that model. Ice cube knobs and angled Guild inlay. Middle 50's is my guess.

 

[BradHK]

I also agree that it looks older than late 50’s or early 60’s. My opinion is based upon a few items. The first is the truss rod cover. These 2-ply TRCs were the very early ones as my 1954 Aristocrat uses this style then they moved to more layers. The second is the binding but that could have been replaced. When I see solid one-piece white binding it reminds me of my Aristocrat where they used the one piece binding until sometime around 1955 when they went multi-ply. The last is the Guild inlay and it looks Ike the very early ones where they appeared to remove more of the peg head overlay in a “chevron” shaped cut and filled in at the top between the letters.

These are just my observations and I am sure I will be corrected from somebody that knows these details better! Either way, cool guitar!

 

[Walter Broes]

Earlier than 58 - looks like a NY gitar to me. Hard to say from a few pics, but there's a chance that finish is factory!

 

[walrus]

Earlier than 58 - looks like a NY gitar to me. Hard to say from a few pics, but there's a chance that finish is factory!

Right, the "turning green" is what makes me think so, too. A very cool guitar!

walrus

 

[Uke]

The finish on the neck really looks "rough" in every sense of the word. Neat guitar, though. Welcome!

 

[Midnight Toker]

The bronze powder in older gold paints, when finish (nitro/clear) coats wear off, often oxidize, turn green, and in cases of ph imbalanced (acidic) sweat of the player, can also blister. From the looks of the checking on the lower bout, and checking w/ greening on the upper, my guess is it very well may be original! (Personally, I wouldn't change a thing if the neck feels ok to you)

Sweet guitar!

 

[jeffmac]

About the finish … I know very little first off but, I guess it would depend on what guild used at that time for a gold finish . There doesn’t appear to be any top coat / clear coat anywhere . I thought maybe they painted over a serial # on the back of the headstock but , the paint is so thin that it wouldn’t have completely filled it in (that leads me to thinking there was no serial on the back of the headstock.) there’s no label on the inside either ( though it would be hard to remove that and there is no evidence of one ever being there) did guild make guitars with no serial and no label ?

 

[jeffmac]

The bronze powder in older gold paints, when finish (nitro/clear) coats wear off, often oxidize, turn green, and in cases of ph imbalanced (acidic) sweat of the player, can also blister. From the looks of the checking on the lower bout, and checking w/ greening on the upper, my guess is it very well may be original! (Personally, I wouldn't change a thing if the neck feels ok to you)

Sweet guitar!

Hi! The neck is a v shape (first time for me ) it does have a texture to it though . It doesn’t seem to bother but , it will most likely continue to green with more sweat etc .. when I got it last week it looks like it hadn’t been played in a very long time . I was thinking to do a clear coat over the whole thing at some point ( I’m still thinking it’s a refin anyway .

 

[Default]

Also, the rounded corners on the position markers...

 

[geoguy]

Possibly an X-150G (where the "G" represents a gold-sparkle finish, per Hans' book), from '54 or '55?

(edit: although I just noticed some gold paint on the back binding where it looks like masking tape was applied, so maybe not a factory finish)

 

[Nuuska]

These two details . . . can't find them in "The Bible"






Someone propably knows better.