Newbie with X700 Stuart

mford

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Hi folks
Great to stumble upon this forum having just this week purchased a X700 Stuart. I normally play fingerstyle nylon guitar (a Taylor) but when I was asked to try the Guild I was bowled over. I had the loan of the guitar for two weeks and did a number of gigs with it and just loved it. The serial number is AK700276 I am assuming it is a 1998 looking at other posts on this forum.

I have found it hard to place a value on this guitar as most past sales have been in the USA at around 2.5k dollars. If you convert that into pounds Stirling it would be £1500!! That would not buy you much in the carved archtop market in the UK. So not really sure how this all works. I probably paid too much for mine at £2700. I have not found anything else cheaper which I like but love the guitar so maybe that is all that matters!!

I am fortunate enough to live near Martin Taylor in Scotland who is many of you will know is one the finest solo fingerstyle jazz guitarists in the world. I went over to his house and he put some nice strings on it for me and set it up for me and it plays like a dream now. I put a clip on YouTube of me playing "With A Song In My Heart" it is only one of two clips of x700 on YouTube so should be easy to find if fancy a listen.

I will be using the guitar on gigs so thinking about how I might protect the back from buckle\button and scratch plate or do I just go with the flow and accept it will get marked eventually as a working instrument :(

Anyway looking forward to reading all your posts over the coming months

Cheers

Marcus
 

Chris Metcalfe

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Hi Marcus and welcome

Nice youtube clip - it reminds me of sunday lunchtimes when I was a kid ( only UK members will get this reference..)
I'm a guild player and have a couple of X500s ( one NY built, one Westerly) - the laminated-top equivalent of your guitar; less acoustic sounding but maybe more of an electric archtop sound.

I'm really responding to your point about value for money; the rule of thumb is that UK prices are usually the ££ equivalent of dollar prices after duty etc. More to the point, for jazz/archtop players, and our other styles of players too, the guild X series archtops represent the maximum obtainable value in a commercially-built guitar, in my opinion. They are simply great guitars, and the lam top versions ( eg X500, X175 ) sound much sweeter than the equivalent Gibson guitars due to their 2 piece laminated spruce tops. So, did you pay too much? I don't think you did, in value terms.

Some of us also think that the guild HBI pickups ( I'm not sure if your guitar will have those, or the benedetto ones..) sound much clearer than the usual gibson-based humbucking pickup design. I won't bore you here with why that is, but having disassembled both kinds of pickups, I'm fairly sure that guild designed them that way, maybe to appeal to jazzers?

You'll find this to be an enjoyable and very informative forum. Some of us can get a bit obsessive ( as I may have demonstrated already) at times, but that's half the fun...
Chris
 

capnjuan

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Hi Marcus and welcome to LTG; I don't know anything about the X-series but the good news is that others do. Welcome. CJ
 

fronobulax

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Welcome.

I have used three techniques to avoid or reduce "buckle rash". One is to play seated and hold my bass so that nothing is in contact with the back except perhaps, my ample belly. This works for a short time but is not practical for more than a song or two. The second technique is to modify my clothing. I wear pants that don't require a belt or wear suspenders or braces if my pants won't stay up on their own accord. Lastly, since I usually have a cloth around that I use to wipe down my instruments, I wrap the cloth around my belt buckle. It looks strange but means the back of the bass comes in contact with cloth and not metal. I'm sure there are other, more useful, answers that will be posted soon.
 

eleventeen

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Another approach is to move your belt buckle around to your hip.
 

tmoll

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Congratulations! Great guitar. You could try playing the guitar behind your neck or with your teeth to avoid the buckle rash problem. Just don't set it on fire - generally not good for the finish either. :)
Tom
 

southernGuild

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:D Marcus, THAT was beautiful! My wife and i enjoyed that with our morning coffee ( i HAD TO call her in to hear that one!) .......a very hypnotic tone.and relaxing too. GREAT looking guitar too! a real beauty. THANK YOU for that little bit of heaven, and of course , WELCOME to LTG!!! :wink: Southern
 

mford

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Chris Metcalfe said:
I'm really responding to your point about value for money; the rule of thumb is that UK prices are usually the ££ equivalent of dollar prices after duty etc. More to the point, for jazz/archtop players, and our other styles of players too, the guild X series archtops represent the maximum obtainable value in a commercially-built guitar, in my opinion. They are simply great guitars, and the lam top versions ( eg X500, X175 ) sound much sweeter than the equivalent Gibson guitars due to their 2 piece laminated spruce tops. So, did you pay too much? I don't think you did, in value terms.
Chris

Chris, Thank you for the kind welcome to the group. I found your comments are very helpful especially those relating to the value of guitars. Judging by some of the responses it looks like you guys have fun, some of the anti scratch methods being suggested made me smile :D I might even try some out on the gig tonight!! Cheers Marcus
 

mford

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southernGuild said:
:D Marcus, THAT was beautiful! My wife and i enjoyed that with our morning coffee ( i HAD TO call her in to hear that one!) .......a very hypnotic tone.and relaxing too. GREAT looking guitar too! a real beauty. THANK YOU for that little bit of heaven, and of course , WELCOME to LTG!!! :wink: Southern

Thanks for the kind comments about my playing I am glad you enjoyed the clip. Maybe I should do a wives morning coffee type of CD! The transition from nylon string to steel will take a while though and I am still feeling a little tentative, especially my right hand. The most exciting thing is the ease at which the Guild plays up at the dusty end, lovely tone and sustain which I am not used to from my nylon.

Thanks everyone for all your welcomes and suggestions.

Marcus
 

Danny F

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Just another welcome and thanks for the clip. VERY nice playing - some inspiration to keep me practicing! cheers, Danny
 

walrus

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Very nice playing and a very nice guitar! Welcome!

walrus
 

AlohaJoe

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mford said:
The transition from nylon string to steel will take a while though and I am still feeling a little tentative, especially my right hand. The most exciting thing is the ease at which the Guild plays up at the dusty end, lovely tone and sustain which I am not used to from my nylon. Marcus
Electric guitar is such an entirely different instrument! I think you'll find that the additional sustain will change the way you play, but in a good way. It took me a while to get comfortable with it, and sustain is the best reason to go electric other than just volume. Once I was able to let a single note or chord ring out I found myself being less busy and more expressive. Being able to let bass notes ring under movement above or vice versa is really fun too.

You're gonna love that guitar!
 

Guilderagain

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Hi Marcus,

Welcome to LTG. Great pick on guitars. Great minds think alike! :lol: I enjoyed your chord solo piece - a bang up job! I'm working on chord solos as well using Robert Conti's chord solo DVD series -though your technique is more advanced. I started comping a couple of years back using Mickey Bakers Jazz books, but swictched to finger technique after studying Conti's chord solo approach.
What strings did Mr. Taylor put on? I was struggling for a proper sound with my X-700 using Thomastic Infelds Jazz Swing (.12). I switched to D'Addario Jazz Chromes (11) and it sounds like a dream now. Hope to hear more of you on You Tube.
 

mford

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Guilderagain said:
Hi Marcus,

Welcome to LTG. Great pick on guitars. Great minds think alike! :lol: I enjoyed your chord solo piece - a bang up job! I'm working on chord solos as well using Robert Conti's chord solo DVD series -though your technique is more advanced. I started comping a couple of years back using Mickey Bakers Jazz books, but swictched to finger technique after studying Conti's chord solo approach.
What strings did Mr. Taylor put on? I was struggling for a proper sound with my X-700 using Thomastic Infelds Jazz Swing (.12). I switched to D'Addario Jazz Chromes (11) and it sounds like a dream now. Hope to hear more of you on You Tube.

Hi, Martin Taylor put on a set of Elixir Nanoweb .012 for me. I think they great and from what he says they also last for a long time. As these are my first set on this new guitar I will let you know how I get on. Cheers
 

marcellis

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That is a beautiful guitar Marcus. Beautiful playing too.

I like your name too. I think my Mom named me after you.
Or maybe vice-versa.
 
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