NS X175B Back From the Shop....yesssss

[Guildadelphia]

Picked up my new to me X175B from the shop today (was used but in pristine, mint condition). Had the nut slots filed and a general set-up. The nut ends were also not flush with the binding on both bass and treble sides. I initially thought that it would need a new nut to get the ends flush but the luthier was able to fill the gaps with a little bit of super glue and then buff it out. Along with lowering the nut slots he also polished the nut and it's now is perfectly seamless with the binding and it looks and feels perfect. The X175B is now strung with DR Pure Blues 10-46's (I know, too light for most, but works for me with my small, arthritic, 57 yr old hands). Didn't notice any tonal loss w/ 10's through the amp, but the guitar does not have as much volume acoustically. The 175 plays great w/ low action (low E 4/64ths at 12th fret, high E a smidge lower) with no string buzz, rattles, etc. Plugged in, instant tone to the bone through my deLisle Nickel Box amp. The tech actually did a really nice job dialing the pu's in and bridge and neck pu's are about as close in volume as you could get them w/o raising the whole bridge pu. Sounds big, clear and fat clean and w/ some natural tube amp grind. Pedals sound good too. Had the best results w/ a Caline Blue Sky OD (which is a Timmy clone) and very transparent. What this guitar really loves is some real tube driven reverb and trem....there's something about this guitar that just sucks every Dave Gonzales lick I know out of my fingers. Really glad I jumped on the opportunity to get this guitar....I passed on one a year ago and regretted it. I'm a happy camper now:adoration:

 

[Sleeko]

Picked up my new to me X175B from the shop today (was used but in pristine, mint condition). Had the nut slots filed and a general set-up. The nut ends were also not flush with the binding on both bass and treble sides. I initially thought that it would need a new nut to get the ends flush but the luthier was able to fill the gaps with a little bit of super glue and then buff it out. Along with lowering the nut slots he also polished the nut and it's now is perfectly seamless with the binding and it looks and feels perfect. The X175B is now strung with DR Pure Blues 10-46's (I know, too light for most, but works for me with my small, arthritic, 57 yr old hands). Didn't notice any tonal loss w/ 10's through the amp, but the guitar does not have as much volume acoustically. The 175 plays great w/ low action (low E 4/64ths at 12th fret, high E a smidge lower) with no string buzz, rattles, etc. Plugged in, instant tone to the bone through my deLisle Nickel Box amp. The tech actually did a really nice job dialing the pu's in and bridge and neck pu's are about as close in volume as you could get them w/o raising the whole bridge pu. Sounds big, clear and fat clean and w/ some natural tube amp grind. Pedals sound good too. Had the best results w/ a Caline Blue Sky OD (which is a Timmy clone) and very transparent. What this guitar really loves is some real tube driven reverb and trem....there's something about this guitar that just sucks every Dave Gonzales lick I know out of my fingers. Really glad I jumped on the opportunity to get this guitar....I passed on one a year ago and regretted it. I'm a happy camper now:adoration:

Very nice. Would love to see some pics when you get a chance, :unconscious:

 

[Guildadelphia]

I do need to take and post some pictures. Funny thing is this is my first Guild (unless you count a Madeira Tele copy) and I come from an area that historically, Guild guitars were more than plentiful. Back in the good old days of independent music shops, literally every big music shop in Philadelphia appeared to be a Guild dealer: Zaph's, Cintioli's, 8th Street Music, and Medley Music were all dealers with a nice selection of both electrics and acoustics.

 

[Walter Broes]

Cool, enjoy!

 

[Jeff Haddad]

Congrats!
Who did the work for you?

 

[Guildadelphia]

Kevin Coyle over at Coyle's Richboro Music in Bucks County, PA did the work. I had been using Pete Brown at South Jersey Guitar Repair, who is a superb luthier and loves Guild electrics (he owns a vintage Aristocrat). However, Pete's pretty busy these days producing his own line of guitars and I didn't want to have the guitar tied up for a month, so I figured I'd give Richboro some business. Richboro Music is an oldstyle family owned and operated local shop that up until about 5 years was an authorized dealer for Fender, Gibson, PRS, Gretsch, Taylor, etc with a well deserved reputation for excellent customer service, good prices and overall friendliness. However like many independent shops they no longer can carry Fender, Gibson, etc because of the huge buy-in numbers (and other those companies demand. They still sell guitars but concentrate on new imports (Ibanez, Washburn, etc) and used guitars and have expanded their repair business and repair facilities. This is an overly longwinded response to a simple question, but the short of it is, it wasn't a complicated job, but Kevin Coyle at Richboro did very good work, got it done in a reasonable amount of time for a very fair price, and sent me an email a day after I picked up the guitar to see if I was happy with how it turned out.

 

[guildman63]

Eddie McFadden is/was a jazz guitarist from Philadelphia who played with Jimmy Smith during the 1960's. He was known for playing a Hoboken CE-100 during those days. Speaking to the one I once owned (and may again if things work out right) it is as good or better than any ES-175 I have ever played, of any era.

 

[Default]

I do need to take and post some pictures. Funny thing is this is my first Guild (unless you count a Madeira Tele copy) and I come from an area that historically, Guild guitars were more than plentiful. Back in the good old days of independent music shops, literally every big music shop in Philadelphia appeared to be a Guild dealer: Zapf's, Cintioli's, 8th Street Music, and Medley Music were all dealers with a nice selection of both electrics and acoustics.

Howard Herbert told me once that the reason everyone carried Guilds was because you only had to buy 8 guitars to be a dealer. With that kind of buy-in, Guilds were everywhere.

Coyles did some repair work for me, but they don't carry anything I would be interested in buying beyond strings. :-(

 

[Guildadelphia]

I remember Howard Herbert....a very nice man. I recall him showing me some of his personal guitars which included a green Starfire with Dearmond pickups.
Richboro is still a G&L dealer but they generally stock much more of the "Tribute" import series but will order you a USA guitar. I think they will still order Godins too.
The good old days of Fender, Gretsch, Gibson, Taylor and PRS are gone at Richboro. They still get some nice used Gibsons, USA Fenders, etc. but they generally go fast.
I wonder what kind of buy-in there is for Guild now that Cordoba has them? They probably requier that a certain number of Cordoba nylon strings are part of the deal.
I can recall that whenever a big retailer got p.o'ed at Gibson and dropped the brand, all of a sudden a bunch of Guilds would show up. Eventually, when they made up
with Gibson, the Guilds would disappear.