Relocated Discussion on B4.

[dadglasser]

I owned one of these, almost. It was a Guild B4-AMB (very rare). The AMB means it had a mahogany top rather than spruce; however, don't quote me on that. I am not an expert. It was a great bass. The best part, to me, was that the neck was a bit wider than most Guild and other basses. I used to tell people that it felt more like an acoustic guitar neck as opposed to an electric guitar neck. It was the first Guild bass I ever bought. Unfortunately, the neck was also warped and so it was never comfortable to play. The local luthier/guitar technician said he got the neck as straight as he could. Anyway, they are wonderful since one can hear them without having to plug into an amplifier.

Best of Luck!

 

[GAD]

I owned one of these, almost. It was a Guild B4-AMB (very rare). The AMB means it had a mahogany top rather than spruce; however, don't quote me on that. I am not an expert. It was a great bass. The best part, to me, was that the neck was a bit wider than most Guild and other basses. I used to tell people that it felt more like an acoustic guitar neck as opposed to an electric guitar neck. It was the first Guild bass I ever bought. Unfortunately, the neck was also warped and so it was never comfortable to play. The local luthier/guitar technician said he got the neck as straight as he could. Anyway, they are wonderful since one can hear them without having to plug into an amplifier.

Best of Luck!

Pretty sure -AMB would be Amber.

 

[AcornHouse]

Pretty sure -AMB would be Amber.

He SAID, “don’t quote me on that…” Geesh!

Oh, now I’ve done it.

 

[dadglasser]

He SAID, “don’t quote me on that…” Geesh!

Oh, now I’ve done it.

Well, it didn't look amber to me. It looked mahogany. One other thing. Were I to buy one of these again, I would put tape wound strings on it. The bronze strings just would not interest me. I have black tape wounds on my Guild B-50. They give the bass a much more "woody" sound. It gets expensive trying different strings on basses.

 

[mavuser]

I owned one of these, almost. It was a Guild B4-AMB (very rare). The AMB means it had a mahogany top rather than spruce; however, don't quote me on that. I am not an expert. It was a great bass. The best part, to me, was that the neck was a bit wider than most Guild and other basses. I used to tell people that it felt more like an acoustic guitar neck as opposed to an electric guitar neck. It was the first Guild bass I ever bought. Unfortunately, the neck was also warped and so it was never comfortable to play. The local luthier/guitar technician said he got the neck as straight as he could. Anyway, they are wonderful since one can hear them without having to plug into an amplifier.

Best of Luck!

in all likelyhood your B-4 AMB had a spruce top. the rare part was that the neck and body were maple instead of mahogany (and "High Gloss" instead of "Hand Rubbed")

There is a slight chance, however:

-your bass was mislabeled
-your bass had mahogany back and sides
-your bass had mahogany top...if u say so...ive never seen one w mahogany top (now it is really mislabeled if it says AMB w mahogany top!)

the chance of it having maple/amber back, sides, and neck, together with a mahogany top...i'm going to say even for Guild...that I just cannot visualize. not very likely at all

 

[fronobulax]

Originally https://letstalkguild.com/ltg/index.php?threads/fs-guild-b4ce.214412/

The veer in FS was not helpful but the info is worth retaining.

 

[fronobulax]

It was a Guild B4-AMB (very rare).

Did it have the cutaway and electronics? The usual nomenclature was B4CE which had both so (without looking at catalogs) I wondering if there was a real model I can't recall hearing about or this is a case of Guild using what later became the "wrong" model.

 

[fronobulax]

Well, it didn't look amber to me. It looked mahogany. One other thing. Were I to buy one of these again, I would put tape wound strings on it. The bronze strings just would not interest me. I have black tape wounds on my Guild B-50. They give the bass a much more "woody" sound. It gets expensive trying different strings on basses.

Somewhere I've seen fine print that says tape wounds won't work with some pickup/electronics combinations. I don't remember the details of the Fishman that was on these basses but I wonder if the choice would be to upgrade the electronics or give up the capability.

 

[dadglasser]

Did it have the cutaway and electronics? The usual nomenclature was B4CE which had both so (without looking at catalogs) I wondering if there was a real model I can't recall hearing about or this is a case of Guild using what later became the "wrong" model.

It did have the electronics and cutaway. The, I think, usual Fishman setup, like:



However, I do remember that there were no extra characters on the label inside. It was simply "B4-AMB".

 

[dadglasser]

Somewhere I've seen fine print that says tape wounds won't work with some pickup/electronics combinations. I don't remember the details of the Fishman that was on these basses but I wonder if the choice would be to upgrade the electronics or give up the capability.

You may well be correct about that. My B-50 has a Fishman Rare Earth Blender pickup and it produces output from both the magnetic and microphone pickup.

 

[Nuuska]

Piezo under saddle pup does not care about the material of them strings - might as well be cat-gut.

Pressure and vibration is all that counts.

Magnetic pups are completely different animals.

veer . . . . what is the origin of expression "different animal" when talking about human mede objects ?

 

[fronobulax]

The non-factory LR Baggs iBeam in my B-50 specifically calls out that it is used for for steel strings. Mine's decades old but the current version has a different model for nylon string guitars.

My point was just that you cannot just throw nylon flatwoods on every amplified bass guitar and expect good results. You, at least, need to ask some questions about the pickup technology.

 

[Nuuska]

The non-factory LR Baggs iBeam in my B-50 specifically calls out that it is used for for steel strings. . . .

That might be because of the stronger tension of steel strings - thus stronger pressure. Perhaps different gain in preamp . . .