fearless
Member
As TF pointed out, it is time for me to put down my new guitar and pick up a camera. So, after long hankering, here is my 1973 S-100. Serial no. is 65833.
First off, this purchase would not have happened without LTG and my thanks go all those who offered assistance and advice. Special thanks and thumbs-up to Jeff for inspecting, negotiating, driving, buying, testing, packing and shipping to Australia. What a brotherhood this Guild community is – fantastic. International shipping via USPS was a learning experience and in due course I’ll post some tips on shipping to Australia.
So here she is:
Anticipation:
Excellent packing a la Jeff:
Voila:
The blue of the pick-up rings shows up much more with a camera flash. They are not so garish in real life.
Impressions: Not the original case, but very nice all the same. Very light guitar, only 3.25kg (about 7lbs in ancient American). Low and slightly buzzy action and the intonation is out a bit. No big deal – all adjustable once I’ve put 46-11s on. Frets are low as expected. The thin neck and flat fretboard feel alien after what I’m accustomed to. Unplugged, the tonality is nice and warm with good sustain. A little brighter and more woody than the SG and I can instantly hear an echo of Kim Thayil’s tone. Like the SG, it feels “all neck” and access to the high frets is excellent. I plug it in and – wow! These HB-1s really are rock monsters. A setting that is clean with SG (p-90s) is crunchy with the S-100. I’m one of those people who turns the guitar tone and volume up to 10 and uses foot control for changing volume and other settings. That is going to have to change – for clean sounds, guitar volume is going to be factor. I play with some heavier settings and can really hear the character of the pick-ups. Really nice and loaded with character. All three pick-up positions sound good and I try out the phase switch. Thinner sounding, as expected. I think it will have its uses.
Time for a closer look at the guitar. Condition is very good. It will need a re-fret soon, but that was expected. There are various dings and worn patches and a bit of buckle rash. The back of the neck has guitar-stand rash through to the wood. The headstock overlay is not peeling at all and the phase switch still has the plastic on. A couple of the tuners need tightening. They are far better than the “vintage” tuners on my SG. I always thought I wanted a white one, then I lusted after green after seeing Hammer’s. But the natural finish looks fantastic and I’m very satisfied with it. It is nice to see the natural wood grain and the clear pickguard is nice touch. I’d been slightly worried about the low E popping off the roller, but it has not happened yet. The neck joint is flawless and there is ample bridge adjustment remaining considering the frets are low. The pole pieces in the neck pick-up sit more proudly than I’d have expected. A couple of screws are missing. The end-strap button is the only thing that I suspect may not be original. Overall, the quality is high and it feels somewhat more substantial and classy than the Gibson SG, while being more raw than the Bluesbird.
End strap-button.
I notice a couple of things slightly awry. The lower bridge adjustment post sits higher than the upper one, even though the bridge is only slightly lower at the bottom. I’ll look into that later. The string spacing is slightly irregular and generally southwards. I can see why - all the bridge rollers are right at the end of the threads. The high E is easily adjusted but with the other rollers seem to be disengaged from the threads and I can’t get them back on by hand. Hopefully, once I take the bridge off, I’ll be able to get them all back on.
Odd bridge post height
Playability starts to bug me. I’m not playing chords cleanly and fluently. After all the long time I’ve wanted one, please don’t let me find it doesn’t fit me? The problem seems to be the combination of the thin neck and the high radius, i.e. very flat fretboard. I notice that the arch in the bridge is considerably more than is needed to match the fretboard shape and the middle strings sit higher than the high and low stings. I go back to the SG and find I prefer they way it feels more natural to roll my thumb over the top when muting. Hmmm. The last thing I want to do is re-sell it after all the trouble and effort to get it here. So I decide to play S-100 only for a while. After a couple more days it feels much better. I guess my muscle memory is changing and the neck shape is becoming imprinted in my brain. Phew, I didn’t want the honeymoon to go sour! Bends are still a bit uncomfortable, but I attribute that to low frets – too much contact between fingers and fretboard as opposed to fingers and string. I expect that a re-fret will not only fix that but will change the overall neck feel somewhat.
Tonally it is quite different from my other guitars and I’m looking forward to playing around with my AxeFX settings to better match it to the S-100. I've never named a guitar before but she seems to be want to be called Suzie.
Thanks again to the match-makers...!
Suzie in her new home and rightful place.
First off, this purchase would not have happened without LTG and my thanks go all those who offered assistance and advice. Special thanks and thumbs-up to Jeff for inspecting, negotiating, driving, buying, testing, packing and shipping to Australia. What a brotherhood this Guild community is – fantastic. International shipping via USPS was a learning experience and in due course I’ll post some tips on shipping to Australia.
So here she is:
Anticipation:
Excellent packing a la Jeff:
Voila:
The blue of the pick-up rings shows up much more with a camera flash. They are not so garish in real life.
Impressions: Not the original case, but very nice all the same. Very light guitar, only 3.25kg (about 7lbs in ancient American). Low and slightly buzzy action and the intonation is out a bit. No big deal – all adjustable once I’ve put 46-11s on. Frets are low as expected. The thin neck and flat fretboard feel alien after what I’m accustomed to. Unplugged, the tonality is nice and warm with good sustain. A little brighter and more woody than the SG and I can instantly hear an echo of Kim Thayil’s tone. Like the SG, it feels “all neck” and access to the high frets is excellent. I plug it in and – wow! These HB-1s really are rock monsters. A setting that is clean with SG (p-90s) is crunchy with the S-100. I’m one of those people who turns the guitar tone and volume up to 10 and uses foot control for changing volume and other settings. That is going to have to change – for clean sounds, guitar volume is going to be factor. I play with some heavier settings and can really hear the character of the pick-ups. Really nice and loaded with character. All three pick-up positions sound good and I try out the phase switch. Thinner sounding, as expected. I think it will have its uses.
Time for a closer look at the guitar. Condition is very good. It will need a re-fret soon, but that was expected. There are various dings and worn patches and a bit of buckle rash. The back of the neck has guitar-stand rash through to the wood. The headstock overlay is not peeling at all and the phase switch still has the plastic on. A couple of the tuners need tightening. They are far better than the “vintage” tuners on my SG. I always thought I wanted a white one, then I lusted after green after seeing Hammer’s. But the natural finish looks fantastic and I’m very satisfied with it. It is nice to see the natural wood grain and the clear pickguard is nice touch. I’d been slightly worried about the low E popping off the roller, but it has not happened yet. The neck joint is flawless and there is ample bridge adjustment remaining considering the frets are low. The pole pieces in the neck pick-up sit more proudly than I’d have expected. A couple of screws are missing. The end-strap button is the only thing that I suspect may not be original. Overall, the quality is high and it feels somewhat more substantial and classy than the Gibson SG, while being more raw than the Bluesbird.
End strap-button.
I notice a couple of things slightly awry. The lower bridge adjustment post sits higher than the upper one, even though the bridge is only slightly lower at the bottom. I’ll look into that later. The string spacing is slightly irregular and generally southwards. I can see why - all the bridge rollers are right at the end of the threads. The high E is easily adjusted but with the other rollers seem to be disengaged from the threads and I can’t get them back on by hand. Hopefully, once I take the bridge off, I’ll be able to get them all back on.
Odd bridge post height
Playability starts to bug me. I’m not playing chords cleanly and fluently. After all the long time I’ve wanted one, please don’t let me find it doesn’t fit me? The problem seems to be the combination of the thin neck and the high radius, i.e. very flat fretboard. I notice that the arch in the bridge is considerably more than is needed to match the fretboard shape and the middle strings sit higher than the high and low stings. I go back to the SG and find I prefer they way it feels more natural to roll my thumb over the top when muting. Hmmm. The last thing I want to do is re-sell it after all the trouble and effort to get it here. So I decide to play S-100 only for a while. After a couple more days it feels much better. I guess my muscle memory is changing and the neck shape is becoming imprinted in my brain. Phew, I didn’t want the honeymoon to go sour! Bends are still a bit uncomfortable, but I attribute that to low frets – too much contact between fingers and fretboard as opposed to fingers and string. I expect that a re-fret will not only fix that but will change the overall neck feel somewhat.
Tonally it is quite different from my other guitars and I’m looking forward to playing around with my AxeFX settings to better match it to the S-100. I've never named a guitar before but she seems to be want to be called Suzie.
Thanks again to the match-makers...!
Suzie in her new home and rightful place.
). Sounds like it might be worth getting a new nut with the string spacing cut a bit better to suit you. It's something I have considered on a few guitars where the strings seems a little cramped but there's enough room on the board to spread the strings a little. 1 mm makes a lot of difference.
