Useful mods on my Aristocrat

[Stefan Eff]

I really love my M-75 but she had got some annoying faults I‘ve recently changed.

1) Bridge pickup

The bridge pickup sits too high on the Newark St. models, I guess because of a shallower neck angle compared to the old ones.
I removed 1-2 mms from the Pickup cavity to get a useful distance to the strings:

(Not the final result on this picture)

Much better. Now I‘m able to set the polepieces sweet, the pickup sounds less harsh and lower string action is possible. Great!

2) Fret height

The frets on the Newark St. models are unusual high. I‘ve lowered them a tad to a more common height with a nice crowning- much more comfortable to play!

3) Nut

The nut on my guitar wasn‘t good- slots imperfect, far too high, unfinished and very bad intonation on the first frets. I‘ve swapped the nut for a TusqXL (which I prefer compared to bone), perfectly slotted and finished: better tone, easy playing and fine intonation:

The distance between top of 1. fret and bottom of strings is 0.45 mms. No buzz, perfect!

4) Trussrodcover

Just cosmetics, but hey…
On the Newark St. models the lower screw is sawn shorter to prevent touching the truss rod- an amateur solution!
I closed those holes and drilled a thicker but shorter lower hole:

…then I shortened a screw, glued it in the trussrod cover and put some heat shrinking tube over the screw that turns into a pin this way:

Not visible…

…and works like a charm!

5) Headstock and tuner bushings

Since I’ve already customized a set of Sta-Tites…

…I wanted to get rid of the hexagonal bushings. And since I really don‘t like the dipped-in-plastic look of the faceplate I‘ve sanded the polycoat flat and matte and refinished with a handful Truoil-coats, handrubbed and buffed glossy:

Hard to photograph!
The Truoilvarnish looks like old nitro, much warmer and more 3-D compared to the Poly. A lot prettier and slightly antiqued- a perfect match to the thin Urethane on body and neck and my antiqued hardware!

6) 11 gauge strings

I‘ve changed my usual 10‘s to 11‘s on the Guild and that‘s a very good decision: more loudness, more warmth, more „proudness“.
A tonal upgrade besides the much better tuning stability. I thought the neck profile was too slim for me-wrong! The sloppy 10‘s on the short scale are simply too thin. I‘m playing D‘Addario pure nickel 11-48 on my Aristocrat.

Now she‘s really mine- a superb looking, killer sounding guitar that plays like a dream. Tuning and intonation problems are history. Now it‘s playing time, finally!

 

[GAD]

Nice pics! Not sure I agree with all of your mods, but then it's not my guitar so rock on!

 

[Stefan Eff]

Nice pics! Not sure I agree with all of your mods, but then it's not my guitar so rock on!

Thanks, you’re welcome!
The M-75 is a high potential guitar- It would be a shame not to use this potential.

 

[Walter Broes]

The neck angle on vintage aristocrats is the same as on the reissues, but I think the pickup covers are a little shorter. Except for the tuneamatic bridge and the bigger frets, I think the aristocrats are the model in the Newark St line that's closest to the originals.

I actually like the jumbo frets on the Newark street guitars a lot, but that's entirely a matter of taste of course.

I'm in the process of tinkering with another Korean Guild too - bumped into a 2015 X175 with the plastic still on the pickguard that was SO cheap I couldn't resist. I'm putting DeArmond pickups on it.

 

[Stefan Eff]

The neck angle on vintage aristocrats is the same as on the reissues, but I think the pickup covers are a little shorter. Except for the tuneamatic bridge and the bigger frets, I think the aristocrats are the model in the Newark St line that's closest to the originals.

I actually like the jumbo frets on the Newark street guitars a lot, but that's entirely a matter of taste of course.

I'm in the process of tinkering with another Korean Guild too - bumped into a 2015 X175 with the plastic still on the pickguard that was SO cheap I couldn't resist. I'm putting DeArmond pickups on it.

I hope I‘ll find a cheap X175 myself too…miss my old one.

 

[GGJaguar]

I lowered the bridge pickup on my M-75, too. It was an improvement, but unfortunately, I still could not bond with the guitar so it's gone.

 

[chazmo]

Good for you Steffan! Thanks for sharing your mods. I like seeing Newark St. models made into ideal tools for their owners. It's get a little dicey when you start doing stuff like this to the original (older) models on which the NS stuff is based.

Anyway, thumbs up. Your refinished headstock looks really yummy!

 

[jp]

Beautiful work, Stefan! I love the spartan look with the clear knobs and no pickguard. I'm still just playing the heck out of mine and getting to know it better before I decide what to do. I was considering mounting a Guild B7 with the Briggs Biggs Fix and and maybe a Tru Arc or roller bridge, but I like what you've done much more.

I noticed you changed the switch tip, too. This is my first NS Guild, and I was wondering what the size the thread of the switch tip is. Is it an M3.5?

 

[Stefan Eff]

Beautiful work, Stefan! I love the spartan look with the clear knobs and no pickguard. I'm still just playing the heck out of mine and getting to know it better before I decide what to do. I was considering mounting a Guild B7 with the Briggs Biggs Fix and and maybe a Tru Arc or roller bridge, but I like what you've done much more.

I noticed you changed the switch tip, too. This is my first NS Guild, and I was wondering what the size the thread of the switch tip is. Is it an M3.5?

Thanks. I‘ve tried three different switch tips. This is a cheap Harley Benton, fits the irregular thread perfect and matches the pkup covers well.
I personally wouldn’t put a Bigs*Guildsby on it. You‘ve got no massive wood to screw a tension bar Bigsby on and hey, who really wants a B7-Bigs?
The Aristocrat is a very unique guitar with her fully hollow construction. Let the top freely resonate, it sounds so fantastic!

Most important is a professional slotted nut and a good bridge. A Truarc sounds very good even w/o a Bigsby.
I‘m still thinking of a wooden bridge base which isn‘t authentic but (call it voodoo) I guess it may add more goodness to the tone.

 

[chazmo]

Steffan, if that were mine, I'd get the harp tailpiece gold-plated.

Just food for thought.

 

[matsickma]

The Aristocrat's are great guitars and worth some customizing to make them a player. I am considering adding a sound post to the NS models and a pickup swap to one NS.

The rain stopped and sun came out.
A Threesome!

One professionally refinshed, one altered with spare parts and one stock!

 

[Walter Broes]

I personally wouldn’t put a Bigs*Guildsby on it. You‘ve got no massive wood to screw a tension bar Bigsby on and hey, who really wants a B7-Bigs?
The Aristocrat is a very unique guitar with her fully hollow construction. Let the top freely resonate, it sounds so fantastic!

Bigsby really isn't thát big of a deal. I've played one vintage one with a factory Bigsby, two vintage ones with aftermarket Bigsbies, and a Newark street one with a current licensed Guildsby B7 type. They were all fine and stable.
The one "problem" is the sharp string angle towards the bridge, but that's fixable if you shim the front of the Bigsby some.

If the wood screws that go into the guitar's top don't match the bracing (there's a good chance they will though) a good tech might curse a little, but should be able to glue an extra little reinforcement block under the top where the screw sits if that makes you feel better.

* by "massive wood" , I think you mean "solid wood"?

 

[jp]

Thanks. I‘ve tried three different switch tips. This is a cheap Harley Benton, fits the irregular thread perfect and matches the pkup covers well.
I personally wouldn’t put a Bigs*Guildsby on it. You‘ve got no massive wood to screw a tension bar Bigsby on and hey, who really wants a B7-Bigs?
The Aristocrat is a very unique guitar with her fully hollow construction. Let the top freely resonate, it sounds so fantastic!

Most important is a professional slotted nut and a good bridge. A Truarc sounds very good even w/o a Bigsby.
I‘m still thinking of a wooden bridge base which isn‘t authentic but (call it voodoo) I guess it may add more goodness to the tone.

Hmmm. . . I don't think we have Harley Benton parts stateside, but I'll just keep trying others until I find one. I'm not a big fan of the fake relic'd amber tip.

As far as the B7 goes, I'll have to see what I think after more playing hours. I may just leave it as is. Now I just want an original like matsickma's above. Wowzers, that's a gorgeous example!

 

[mushroom]

T

The Aristocrat's are great guitars and worth some customizing to make them a player. I am considering adding a sound post to the NS models and a pickup swap to one NS.

The rain stopped and sun came out.
A Threesome!

One professionally refinshed, one altered with spare parts and one stock!

That gold one with the black pickups looks really cool.

 

[Stefan Eff]

* by "massive wood" , I think you mean "solid wood"?

yep

 

[Stefan Eff]

Too bad the black models don‘t have the mahogany sides and back

 

[ruedi]

Interesting write-up, well documented with photos! Thank you for sharing this. You sure made this guitar your own.

 

[guitarlover]

Bigsby really isn't thát big of a deal. I've played one vintage one with a factory Bigsby, two vintage ones with aftermarket Bigsbies, and a Newark street one with a current licensed Guildsby B7 type. They were all fine and stable.
The one "problem" is the sharp string angle towards the bridge, but that's fixable if you shim the front of the Bigsby some.

This may seem a very stupid question but what do you have to use to shim a GuIldsby B7 ? Can you put some washers between the top of the guitar and the screw that attaches the Guildsby to the top ?

 

[Default]

Correct. You have to do that on the DeArmond M series too.

 

[Walter Broes]

This may seem a very stupid question but what do you have to use to shim a GuIldsby B7 ? Can you put some washers between the top of the guitar and the screw that attaches the Guildsby to the top ?

I've seen people use wood, washers or even hard rubber