Confessions of a GAS addict - Part 1 - X700

Saw a near-mint '94 X700 SB newly listed on Craiglist in Kentucky, phoned owner Mark and bought it, he shipped it to archtop.com where I picked it up on Friday.

Now I'm upcountry in Ashcroft, and finally have a chance to play it, on the deck looking up the Bonaparte River valley as the sun goes down and the stars come out. Oh my oh my.

This is a wonderful guitar. Played through my plain little Thunder 1, it's crystal clear and resonant, each note is cleanly articulated with long sustain, and it just sounds great. Love the master volume.

And it's beautiful - it's really lovely wood, the finish is deep and lustrous, the binding is superb, and the decorations are gorgeous (if a bit over the top - makes the DV73 look sort of plain).

I'll try to get pics up tomorrow. Now I'm going to play it some more.

Great SCORE......and story!!! Id say "ENJOY " John..............But ofcourse, you already ARE!!!! Looking foreward to photos!

Yup, no pics, no happened. :wink: :lol:

john_kidder said:

makes the DV73 look sort of plain.

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I'll give that plain DV73 a good home. :lol: :lol: :lol:

john_kidder said:

This is a wonderful guitar. Played through my plain little Thunder 1, it's crystal clear and resonant, each note is cleanly articulated with long sustain, and it just sounds great. Love the master volume.
I'll try to get pics up tomorrow. Now I'm going to play it some more.

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Definitely sounds like a keeper. Nice score!

Neat, another 1st year. I am very much looking forward to seeing it and am curious to know the S/N. Mine's #16:










It is w/o question the best guitar I own, period.

[EDIT] I'm also curious to know what sort of spruce yours is sporting. Mine is about as tight & straight a grain as you can get (for whatever that's worth). I remember seeing these in my Guitar Center periodically back in the 90s and recall seeing some very wide-grained tops starting to show up all the sudden in the late 90s, but then again, it was a pretty small sample size. The ones they got in were weird-looking though, almost like pine or something...

Oh MAMA!

kakerlak said:

Neat, another 1st year. I am very much looking forward to seeing it and am curious to know the S/N. Mine's #16:

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#28, last one shown for the first year.

kakerlak said:

It is w/o question the best guitar I own, period.

[EDIT] I'm also curious to know what sort of spruce yours is sporting. Mine is about as tight & straight a grain as you can get (for whatever that's worth). I remember seeing these in my Guitar Center periodically back in the 90s and recall seeing some very wide-grained tops starting to show up all the sudden in the late 90s, but then again, it was a pretty small sample size. The ones they got in were weird-looking though, almost like pine or something...

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Well, your guitar is far prettier than mine. What a glory it is!

Here's mine (cellphone photos, sorry):





It is great big fun to play this guitar, and especially out here in the country. No other noise, and no one cares about my noise. I get to sit on my back deck and play guitar as and when I like. It's very quiet here - just the constant sound of the river, bird song changing with the hour. Frequent trains in the near distance, but somehow their noise just disappears.

I play for a while, then sit on the bench and look at this:

If you're traveling on the Trans-Canada, you go past Ashcroft. Let me know if you're traveling this way.



Now that I'm alone at home, I can play out loud up here. i'm just discovering joy of being abl to plkay an amplfied guitar outsidemy neighbour is the desert,
I would like nothing more than to host a gathering of the Guilds for the US northwest hereve seldombeen here on my ownm here alone for thHere's one perch.

Beautiful guitar and beautiful scenery, John. Carpe diem.

guildzilla said:

Beautiful scenery, John. Carpe diem.

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Just after I wrote that, I started in to getting my irrigation system up and running. Now I'm sweaty, have about a third of the water on and adjusted, and I remember that there are not all that many relaxed guitar-playing diems to carpe here.

It takes a lot of work to maintain 10 acres in the desert. Then again, my mother did it for years, so you'd think I'd be able to step up.

:shock: BEAUTIFUL!!! John.................ALL I see there is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
That Guitar..........WOW!!! I LOVE the look of her!!!
...and your sentiments there..........VERY NICE TOO, Thanks!

Envy envy covet covet!

I love desert environs, and that's a beautiful guitar!

A few weeks ago I sat in with a little jazz band at a local bistro and used the guitar player's Stuart X 700 to play "Take Five." His was blonde, and they are fabulous guitars.

I once had an L-5, and it wasn't any better'n that! In fact, it felt like an Artist Award (which of course they are, but with built-in pickups).

I'm a little partial to the way the sunburst finish accents the bound f-holes myself, but they're all beautiful. That's a stunning instrument.

That guitar sure is sweet, John. I'd add that to my stable in a minute. Love the burst!

kakerlak said:

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GOOD LORD HAVE MERCY!

Gotta be the best looking flamed back and neck I have seen. Beautiful

john_kidder said:

#28, last one shown for the first year.

...

Well, your guitar is far prettier than mine. What a glory it is!


It is great big fun to play this guitar, and especially out here in the country. No other noise, and no one cares about my noise. I get to sit on my back deck and play guitar as and when I like. It's very quiet here - just the constant sound of the river, bird song changing with the hour. Frequent trains in the near distance, but somehow their noise just disappears.

I play for a while, then sit on the bench and look at this:

If you're traveling on the Trans-Canada, you go past Ashcroft. Let me know if you're traveling this way.



Now that I'm alone at home, I can play out loud up here. i'm just discovering joy of being abl to plkay an amplfied guitar outsidemy neighbour is the desert,
I would like nothing more than to host a gathering of the Guilds for the US northwest hereve seldombeen here on my ownm here alone for thHere's one perch.

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Thanks for the compliment, but yours is awfully pretty itself! It's kind of cool that yours is the last one they made that year, too. I wonder how many X-700s exist in total...

Anyway, I notice your neck pickup is mounted backwards and I wonder what it sounds like. Mine is definitely out of phase in the middle position; It sounds a lot like my S-100 w/ the phase switch on. I am wondering if yours was the same way and somebody tried to cancel that out by flipping the pickup around.

Pretty guitar and it looks very very clean for what's (and it's hard to believe) a 15-16 year old guitar now. What a porch view, too!

Random pic!

John:

I've walked through country like that. And played a friend's X700 which looked just like yours. But not both at the same time. Beautiful guitar, beautiful view.
MD

kakerlak said:

I notice your neck pickup is mounted backwards and I wonder what it sounds like. Mine is definitely out of phase in the middle position; It sounds a lot like my S-100 w/ the phase switch on. I am wondering if yours was the same way and somebody tried to cancel that out by flipping the pickup around.

Pretty guitar and it looks very very clean for what's (and it's hard to believe) a 15-16 year old guitar now. What a porch view, too!

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I noticed the upside-down pickup in the seller's Craigslist pictures - he thought it had been done for exactly the reason you suggest. And I don't notice out-of-phase sounds in any position.

It also has the effect of putting the pole pieces almost exactly under the 2nd harmonic, midway between the 12th fret and the bridge. I think Aloha Joe has commented on this somewhere else on the board.

And yes, I do get pretty enamoured of that view. I can find myself sitting there sometimes a half-hour after I've sat down, with not much recollection of what happened as the time passed. Good for the soul and the heart, it is.

john_kidder said:

kakerlak said:

I notice your neck pickup is mounted backwards and I wonder what it sounds like. Mine is definitely out of phase in the middle position; It sounds a lot like my S-100 w/ the phase switch on. I am wondering if yours was the same way and somebody tried to cancel that out by flipping the pickup around.

Pretty guitar and it looks very very clean for what's (and it's hard to believe) a 15-16 year old guitar now. What a porch view, too!

Click to expand...

I noticed the upside-down pickup in the seller's Craigslist pictures - he thought it had been done for exactly the reason you suggest. And I don't notice out-of-phase sounds in any position.

It also has the effect of putting the pole pieces almost exactly under the 2nd harmonic, midway between the 12th fret and the bridge. I think Aloha Joe has commented on this somewhere else on the board.

And yes, I do get pretty enamoured of that view. I can find myself sitting there sometimes a half-hour after I've sat down, with not much recollection of what happened as the time passed. Good for the soul and the heart, it is.

Click to expand...

I like the out of phase sound mine makes. With the big resonant hollow body, it's a neat, hollow sound!

Vancouver always seemed like a neat place, to me. I am sorry about your Canucks, even though I hate them very much...

"Thanks for the compliment, but yours is awfully pretty itself! It's kind of cool that yours is the last one they made that year, too. I wonder how many X-700s exist in total..."

Only about 300 X-700s exist, made from 1994-2000. The club of X-700 owners is a pretty exclusive one...