guildman63
Senior Member
After recently trading my '61 X-175 for two Guilds I quickly realized how nice my X-175 was. I have been searching since then, and finally found a replacement.
This is a 1966 X-175 with the mini buckers instead of the Franz pups on my previous '61, but I am very anxious to get it as I'm sure the sound, while different, will still be fantastic.
Based on the provided SN (EG 108), and assuming the online charts are correct in this case, it is the first X-175 produced in 1966.
8/3/12:
This guitar actually arrived on Tuesday, 7/31/12, but I was withholding my initial review because my first impression was not good at all, and I wanted to give it time before putting up a negative review.
On first glance the condition of the finish was very good almost all around, although the binding around the body has begun shrinking slightly, which wasn't mentioned by the seller. It is intact, and is a long way from needing attention, so it is pretty typical. There were a few more dings on the top than I was expecting that didn't show in the photos, but it does look very good. neck appears straight, but the bridge has previously been filed down a fair amount, yet the action is still fairly high. I am not good at assessing neck angles or necks, so I will leave that to my Guild tech on Saturday (tomorrow).
Sound: Good for the bridge pickup, horrible on the neck pickup. The neck pickup was extremely muddy, and it sounded like a $300 knock-off. The action on the treble side was a little higher than on the bass side, and there was a fraction left to drop that side of the bridge, so I did. I then began getting what almost sounded like harmonics when playing the high E string on the upper frets and noticed that the string was very close to the pickup. I then dropped the bridge pickup slightly which helped, but the muddiness continued in the neck pup, and the pickups were way out of balance from string to string. I then spent some time adjusting the pole pieces until I got it reasonably balanced, and then the neck pickup cut out :evil: I couldn't get it to work again, so I took off the ring around the toggle switch, wiggled the switch around a bit, and then replaced it. It now worked again and OH MY GOD! Please tell me what the likely cause was, because I adjusted the pickup heights and pole pieces, and wiggled the toggle switch around, but now the tone on both pickups was very clear and balanced, and was slightly bright, yet very jazzy. I would call it a cross between the HB-1 and the Franz, with a slight lean toward the Franz. Now I understand what all the fuss regarding the mini buckers was about. I then played it until about 11pm as I couldn't put it down.
Conclusion: The setup on arrival was horrible, and considering that I paid more than the listed book value after being told that its condition is as nice as any guitar of its age, I expected the setup to be flawless. I didn't pay what the shop was initially asking, which was quite a bit above the suggested BV in the 2012 Vintage Guitar book, but any shop that understands guitars, which should be every shop, should not only understand how to do a proper setup, but should feel obliged to give the customer the best possible setup as a matter of normal business. On the positive side, the guitar shipped out late Monday and was at my door Tuesday afternoon, so delivery was as good as it gets.
I was very close to returning the guitar after I couldn't get the tone right for the first two days. I did everything I could with my Henriksen Jazzamp, and it only got to the level of maybe a $500 guitar with that, and it definitely was not the amp! It wasn't until I began noodling with the pickup and pole positions that the Guild tone I expected really opened up. I did notify the store after the first day about the very high action and the moderately filed down bridge (I also question the originality of the bridge as it is compensated, yet all others I have seen on X-175's of that era were uncompensated. Any thoughts?), and expressed my dissatisfaction given the premium price that was charged, and unfortunately their reply was that they had given me a big discount off of the originally listed price, and didn't charge me the normal $75 shipping, so I should be happy that I got a good deal. This gentleman also said that it had been set up the way their customers like it, which is nonsense since the person I dealt with told me from the start that the action may need to come down a bit. In fairness, the person that gave me this reply was not the person that sold me the guitar (out that day), and my dealings previously with the person that sold me the guitar were good, although even he insisted that their initial asking price was fair given the exceptionally good condition of this guitar. I currently have, and have had guitars in better condition while being older, so that isn't flying.
All in all, the guitar now sounds fantastic! I only hope the action can be brought down to a level and kept there for a fair amount of time with little expense in keeping with the price I paid for this guitar. I can't wait to get home later and pick it up again!
Updates regarding the action will follow after it is looked at tomorrow.
This is a 1966 X-175 with the mini buckers instead of the Franz pups on my previous '61, but I am very anxious to get it as I'm sure the sound, while different, will still be fantastic.
Based on the provided SN (EG 108), and assuming the online charts are correct in this case, it is the first X-175 produced in 1966.
8/3/12:
This guitar actually arrived on Tuesday, 7/31/12, but I was withholding my initial review because my first impression was not good at all, and I wanted to give it time before putting up a negative review.
On first glance the condition of the finish was very good almost all around, although the binding around the body has begun shrinking slightly, which wasn't mentioned by the seller. It is intact, and is a long way from needing attention, so it is pretty typical. There were a few more dings on the top than I was expecting that didn't show in the photos, but it does look very good. neck appears straight, but the bridge has previously been filed down a fair amount, yet the action is still fairly high. I am not good at assessing neck angles or necks, so I will leave that to my Guild tech on Saturday (tomorrow).
Sound: Good for the bridge pickup, horrible on the neck pickup. The neck pickup was extremely muddy, and it sounded like a $300 knock-off. The action on the treble side was a little higher than on the bass side, and there was a fraction left to drop that side of the bridge, so I did. I then began getting what almost sounded like harmonics when playing the high E string on the upper frets and noticed that the string was very close to the pickup. I then dropped the bridge pickup slightly which helped, but the muddiness continued in the neck pup, and the pickups were way out of balance from string to string. I then spent some time adjusting the pole pieces until I got it reasonably balanced, and then the neck pickup cut out :evil: I couldn't get it to work again, so I took off the ring around the toggle switch, wiggled the switch around a bit, and then replaced it. It now worked again and OH MY GOD! Please tell me what the likely cause was, because I adjusted the pickup heights and pole pieces, and wiggled the toggle switch around, but now the tone on both pickups was very clear and balanced, and was slightly bright, yet very jazzy. I would call it a cross between the HB-1 and the Franz, with a slight lean toward the Franz. Now I understand what all the fuss regarding the mini buckers was about. I then played it until about 11pm as I couldn't put it down.
Conclusion: The setup on arrival was horrible, and considering that I paid more than the listed book value after being told that its condition is as nice as any guitar of its age, I expected the setup to be flawless. I didn't pay what the shop was initially asking, which was quite a bit above the suggested BV in the 2012 Vintage Guitar book, but any shop that understands guitars, which should be every shop, should not only understand how to do a proper setup, but should feel obliged to give the customer the best possible setup as a matter of normal business. On the positive side, the guitar shipped out late Monday and was at my door Tuesday afternoon, so delivery was as good as it gets.
I was very close to returning the guitar after I couldn't get the tone right for the first two days. I did everything I could with my Henriksen Jazzamp, and it only got to the level of maybe a $500 guitar with that, and it definitely was not the amp! It wasn't until I began noodling with the pickup and pole positions that the Guild tone I expected really opened up. I did notify the store after the first day about the very high action and the moderately filed down bridge (I also question the originality of the bridge as it is compensated, yet all others I have seen on X-175's of that era were uncompensated. Any thoughts?), and expressed my dissatisfaction given the premium price that was charged, and unfortunately their reply was that they had given me a big discount off of the originally listed price, and didn't charge me the normal $75 shipping, so I should be happy that I got a good deal. This gentleman also said that it had been set up the way their customers like it, which is nonsense since the person I dealt with told me from the start that the action may need to come down a bit. In fairness, the person that gave me this reply was not the person that sold me the guitar (out that day), and my dealings previously with the person that sold me the guitar were good, although even he insisted that their initial asking price was fair given the exceptionally good condition of this guitar. I currently have, and have had guitars in better condition while being older, so that isn't flying.
All in all, the guitar now sounds fantastic! I only hope the action can be brought down to a level and kept there for a fair amount of time with little expense in keeping with the price I paid for this guitar. I can't wait to get home later and pick it up again!
Updates regarding the action will follow after it is looked at tomorrow.
