Kim Thayil S-100 Coming

[GAD]

I emailed Loller this afternoon and they got back to me same day:

My question:

I just read that Jason Lollar wound the HB1 pickups in the US-made Guild Kim Thayil S100. These original pickups are quite rare. Does this mean that Lollar can make new ones and/or repair old vintage ones now?

Thanks!

GAD

Their response:

Hi Gary,

We won’t be offering a production model HB1 anytime soon. Guild provided the covers to us, so we no longer have those parts on-hand. It’s possible that if there’s a lot of demand, we may explore it at some point. But for now, the tooling costs for those parts along with minimum order quantities would make it a cost-prohibitive investment.

We may be able to accommodate vintage repairs on a case-by-case basis. It just depends on our production team’s workload.

Thank you,

Customer Service & Communications
Lollar Pickups

 

[matsickma]

Interesting the Muller type bridge usually has problems with the strings popping out of the saddle when the trapezoidal compensated hard stop is positioned far from the bridge. The Solid body Bluesbird and S300 type models moved it closer to the bridge to increase the downward pressure. On the KT S100 model it is even farther away than standard guitar location. He must have a light pick pressure to keep the string in the Muller saddle.

I can see the utility of those high freq harmonics for an effect. EVH does a high pitch swipe near the bridge or above the nut on "Running with the devil" intro and McCartney sounds like he is doing it on his Epi hollow body in the late jamming part of Helter Skelter.

I pulled a picture of KT with the S100 reissue advertisment that came out in the 90. The guitar has HB1 covers. The 90's S100 I previously owned came with SD pickups similar to a 90's Bluesbird.
The black guitar in the photo does appear to have the compensated stop back a little further. When ever I removed that part their was a ground wire and some notching of the finish that was very evident. No sign of that or the screw holes in the picture.

M

 

[GGJaguar]

Well, at least repairing vintage HB-1s is sort of on the table.

 

[S100]

Am I the only one who doesn’t care for the headstock? Not sure if it has a historic significance

 

[mushroom]

Well, at least repairing vintage HB-1s is sort of on the table.

Why wouldn’t any pickup repairer be able to repair HB1’s if they had access to the correct gauge wire etc?

Or are you talking about covers or other bits?

 

[Rocky]

Interesting the Muller type bridge usually has problems with the strings popping out of the saddle when the trapezoidal compensated hard stop is positioned far from the bridge. The Solid body Bluesbird and S300 type models moved it closer to the bridge to increase the downward pressure. On the KT S100 model it is even farther away than standard guitar location. He must have a light pick pressure to keep the string in the Muller saddle.

That all really depends on the neck set of the guitar. I'll refrain from judgement until I see one.

I can see the utility of those high freq harmonics for an effect. EVH does a high pitch swipe near the bridge or above the nut on "Running with the devil" intro and McCartney sounds like he is doing it on his Epi hollow body in the late jamming part of Helter Skelter.

The best use of extra-speaking length strings

</veer>

 

[GAD]

I pulled a picture of KT with the S100 reissue advertisment that came out in the 90. The guitar has HB1 covers. The 90's S100 I previously owned came with SD pickups similar to a 90's Bluesbird.
The black guitar in the photo does appear to have the compensated stop back a little further. When ever I removed that part their was a ground wire and some notching of the finish that was very evident. No sign of that or the screw holes in the picture.

The first few (10 or so?) had NOS 4-wire HB1s. When those ran out they went to SD pickups. The one I reviewed has HB1s and I think DRC's got one, too. In fact I think I got mine from him.

 

[Opsimath]

Was the inception for these two guitars begun and carried out under Cordoba and finished under Yamaha or did Yamaha put all of it together?

 

[mavuser]

Interesting the Muller type bridge usually has problems with the strings popping out of the saddle when the trapezoidal compensated hard stop is positioned far from the bridge. The Solid body Bluesbird and S300 type models moved it closer to the bridge to increase the downward pressure. On the KT S100 model it is even farther away than standard guitar location. He must have a light pick pressure to keep the string in the Muller saddle.

I can see the utility of those high freq harmonics for an effect. EVH does a high pitch swipe near the bridge or above the nut on "Running with the devil" intro and McCartney sounds like he is doing it on his Epi hollow body in the late jamming part of Helter Skelter.

I pulled a picture of KT with the S100 reissue advertisment that came out in the 90. The guitar has HB1 covers. The 90's S100 I previously owned came with SD pickups similar to a 90's Bluesbird.
The black guitar in the photo does appear to have the compensated stop back a little further. When ever I removed that part their was a ground wire and some notching of the finish that was very evident. No sign of that or the screw holes in the picture.

M

the original S-100's in the early 70's had the angled stop tail further back. At some point in the mid 70's they relocated it like the S-300. KT's original early 70's S-100 has the tailpiece further back, which is one of the key features he likes about the S-100, so he can play behind the bridge. KT's original early 70's S-100 may have also had "1-9 vol/tone" knobs, which I am guessing it did (even if 90's reissues had "1-10's").

 

[GGJaguar]

At some point in the mid 70's they relocated it like the S-300.

Same for the M-75. It moved closer to the bridge sometime in 1975.

 

[barrycreed]

I prefer the look of the reissue S100 Polara but the phase switch is interesting. I wonder if it would be hard to retrofit to the existing Newark St Polara. I guess the pickups may have to be changed too for the real Kim experience.

 

[Hammer]

The first few (10 or so?) had NOS 4-wire HB1s. When those ran out they went to SD pickups. The one I reviewed has HB1s and I think DRC's got one, too. In fact I think I got mine from him.

You did. And I have two of them, 003 and 007.

 

[Hammer]

I wish I was still travelling. I'd fly to Chicago or wherever Sweetwater is and try one so I can see if it's filled with silver dollars or something.

On paper I love that it's got Lollar-wound HB1s, I love ttat it's got a real Mueller bridge, and I love that it's got better tuners. The pickups and bridge no doubt cost some money to have made, but c'mon.

It looks like it uses the same psuedo-inlay headstock veneer as the imports and the knobs looks like they've got VOL/TONE on them which wouldn't be right. No idea why they put gold hardware on it. Maybe to make it look like it's worth more?

The gold hardware is because Kim digs it. He's had gold on some of his for years.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

I think you're right about them being backwards!! And what about those pastry cutter thumbscrews?

Depends on the version, but does look like right for an early one

Guild Bridges

Gibson Plastic Bridge Conversion

www.theguitarmechanic.com

 

[HeyMikey]

It’s a shame they didn’t do a US production run in the $2000-2,500 range, with some upgrades over the MIA line, including US made quality HB1’s.

I hope this isnt going to be the strategy moving forward where production builds are MIA only and US builds are custom shop limited runs for the wealthy.

 

[nickelwound]

I’d love to get one, but the price is really high. The 5/8” neck is vintage correct but I would prefer the 11/16” like the 90’s model (I think I have that correct as I don’t own either models)
Maybe Yamaha is pricing the guitars along the lines of the Chris Cornell ES 335. Those were very expensive as well and sold out quickly.
Granted they were much more difficult to make but with the very limited run of the KT model there is probably enough Soundgarden fans with enough money to sell them out.

 

[SFIV1967]

The gold hardware is because Kim digs it. He's had gold on some of his for years.

Right, and this is the one he used in the last couple of years which was the model for the new re-issue:

Kim Thayil S-100 Coming

Smart observation, lungimsam. I'd say we all agree that US built Guilds would be a much welcomed comeback, especially if they'd sell for less than five Grand... the Good Ole could use jobs and have skilled workers - let's see if our friends at Cordoba will be smart enough to somehow compress...

letstalkguild.com

Ralf

 

[Boneman]

I am one who loves Soundgarden, ever since the late 80's, and I love the fact Kim uses a Guild, but that alone won't make me go buy one even if it was reasonably priced.

To be fair to Guild, several versions of the Greeney and Slash builds from Gibson are ridiculously priced too imo, and they sell, so Guild is just hoping some rich Soundgarden fans want to part with their money and likely they will find the 30 that do.

 

[Walter Broes]

That's a lot of money for that limited one for sure. What I've been wondering about is where they're made. Oxnard is an acoustic guitar factory with equipment, jigs, production line and a workforce that builds really nice acoustics. I believe Yamaha has a USA custom shop, don't they? It would almost make more sense to build them there, wouldn't it?

As for the price...yes, it's a lot of money, and more than I'd spend on a guitar even if I could. But Fender, Gibson, Gretsch and Martin custom shop guitars have pretty insane prices too, especially artist signature guitars.
And since Guild doesn't even really builds electric guitars in the USA right now, those 30 limited pieces are kind of "Custom shop guitars by default" If you think of it..

 

[Rocky]

I would think establishing a demand for $2-3k priced USA Guilds would open the door to successful $5-10k custom models, rather than close it.