S100 stereo?

wright1

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Hi guys, A guitar shop here in the UK is advertising what looks like a S100 as a X100 stereo. Have looked in the usual books but can't find any mention of a X100 stereo or a S100 stereo. It is not a bladerunner or a polara.
Did Guild produce a stereo S100? Any info appreciated.
 

fronobulax

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wright1 said:
Hi guys, A guitar shop here in the UK is advertising what looks like a S100 as a X100 stereo. Have looked in the usual books but can't find any mention of a X100 stereo or a S100 stereo. It is not a bladerunner or a polara.
Did Guild produce a stereo S100? Any info appreciated.

I know the JS bass had stereo options for a period of time in the mid-70's. This ad suggests that a stereo S-100 was available, circa 1974 although there is always the possibility that what was advertise was never produced. But I seem to recall discussion of stereo S-100s so they are probably out there. Did the "usual books" include Hans'?
 

hansmoust

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fronobulax said:
Did the "usual books" include Hans'?

Hello Frono,

The information is in The Guild Guitar Book, though I must admit that it is 'hidden' somewhat among other info, so you're probably not going to catch it very easily.

It's on the Prices pages, in the Electric Archtops section (page 177, top of the page, very small letters): [4] Stereo wiring available on all double pickup guitars at $ 25.00 additional
That option was officially introduced on the 11- '67 price list and obviously that included the solid body guitars.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

fronobulax

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hansmoust said:
[4] Stereo wiring available on all double pickup guitars at $ 25.00 additional
That option was officially introduced on the 11- '67 price list and obviously that included the solid body guitars.
Thanks. That actually solves a minor mystery. I saw a pre-'71 Starfire II bass that was suggested to be stereo but I wasn't sure if that was a factory or after-market modification. Now I know. I'd bet that was a pretty rare bass, however.
 

chazmo

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Hey guys, enlighten me... What does it mean to have stereo output from a device like an electic guitar? Are we talking about some sort of effects, or is this something like one pickup out one channel and a different one (or different mix) out the other channel? Forgive the enormous ignorance, I just don't understand it.
 

wright1

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Yes Hans,I did look in your book but missed the small print! It is claimed to be a '74 which seems to link with the ad Frono found and a general outpouring of all things stereo.
Chaz, 'stereo' as far as guitars is concerned is not true stereo as in hi-fi. With both pickups selected and connected to two amps you get one pickup in one amp and the other in the other. Select one pickup and the signal is sent to both amps. Rickenbackers and the Gibson 345 (and others) operate in this 'stereo' way with a 'Y' lead. I'm not sure how Guild did it but there seems to be an extra switch/socket on the front of the guitar.
Hans, I now know it was an option but have you seen any S100's with this fitted?

To Coastie, I am still here in London but things have been 'interesting' and I havn't had a lot of time to check the board as often as I would like. I only look in every now and then. PM's will still get to me though.

Frono, even though I have a 345 and have owned a 360 Rick I have never owned a 'Y' lead and two amps at the same time!!!
 

fronobulax

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I stand ready to be corrected but the most common situation is one pickup per channel. You need some kind of on-board pre-amp or other signal processing to get effects or anything fancy. Of course, there have been quad basses with one string per channel. Personally I think stereo approaches overkill but then I'm quite happy with one pickup.
 

adorshki

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fronobulax said:
hansmoust said:
[4] Stereo wiring available on all double pickup guitars at $ 25.00 additional
That option was officially introduced on the 11- '67 price list and obviously that included the solid body guitars.
Thanks. That actually solves a minor mystery. I saw a pre-'71 Starfire II bass that was suggested to be stereo but I wasn't sure if that was a factory or after-market modification. Now I know. I'd bet that was a pretty rare bass, however.
Yeah, if for no other reason than the fact that $25.00 in '67 was getting into "not cheap" territory..gas was like what, 33 cents a gallon?
 

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I once played a BB King model Gibson. It was a pretty cool guitar. I can remember if it was a thin semihollow or hollow but it was wired up in stereo. It was pretty cool playing thru a pair of amps that switched or blended depending on the pickup selector switch. It offers a nice touch in a small venue and is fun for your own jamming. It was wired up in a interesting way. It had two jack inputs on the bottom of the guitar. If you used the two jacks you got stereo. If you used the single jack it was mono. I think the way it worked is the other jack was the type that are often used on the input of tube amps where if a jack is not used it is automatically shorted out to keep the noise level down. In the case of the "stereo" wiring if the other jack is not used the wiring is equivalent to a standard guitar. I have been wanting to try it but haven't got around to it yet. What do you do if a guitar has 3 pickups?

M
 

hansmoust

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wright1 said:
Hans, I now know it was an option but have you seen any S100's with this fitted?

Hello Wright,

Actually, I have one lying on my workbench right now! It's a DeLuxe from 1973.
Here's a photo of the headstock, which has 'Stereo' on the truss rod cover:

DeluxeHead.jpg


As with most examples that I've seen so far, the whole 'Stereo' thing has been removed already.
It might be something that could be used in a studio situation, but for live playing it's not very practical.

If the S-100 from 1974 you're looking at does not have the 'Stereo' truss rod cover and you want to know if it was originally set up as a stereo guitar, take a look at the label that should be glued to the inside of the cover on the back. It usually will say S-100 Stereo or S-100S.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

dapmdave

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I recall, back in the 70s, playing an Ovation 12-string that was stereo. As with all the Ovations, it used a UST pickup. But, the strings were separated into left and right channels, somehow. Really sounded cool coming from a stereo amp or from two amps.

Dave :D
 

chazmo

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Thanks for clarifying this for me, guys. Seems like with built-in effects (likely not in the '70s) stereo could be useful. Something like today's VG strat where maybe you could vary the mix onboard of synth sound vs. pickup... Anyway, very cool. I wonder if I should commission a double-belled trumpet so I can play in stereo. ;)
 
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Can anyone identify the tailpiece?

I actually own a Guild S100 Stereo 1974 model. I've never been sure what the stereo function does to be honest and I've never used it. I digress however.....I bought the guitar in 1979 here in the UK and I've tried to include a pic of me playing it in 1980 (being my first ever post I can only see a URL but no pic). If any of you can see the pic can anyone here identify what that tailpiece might actually be? It came with the guitar and was obviously added sometime between when the guitar was manufactured in 1974 and 1979 when I first bought it. From memory, it had Bigsby written on it. I then sold the guitar in 1982. I haven't seen it since then and when I did actually get my hands on it recently, I just knew that the tailpiece had been changed.....it did not look like I remembered it. In trying to identify what might've been on it all those years ago, I took to internet searches. But all the tailpieces I've seen online do not look 'solid' from front to back (like the 1979 pic shows) and you can still see the guitar body through most Bigsby's I've searched. Could it be a Bigsby whammy with some kind of vibrate plate underneath? I've also had someone guess it was a Bigsby Palm pedal with parts missing. I haven't a clue what it is

/Users/rube/Desktop/IMG_9270.JPG
 

GuildFS4612CE

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Welcome to the forum. Pictures need to first be hosted on an online hosting site, such as photobucket, for example.

You might also be able to contact Hans Moust at his website via email...you would be able to attach the pic from your computer to that email.

He is our resident expert...wrote the book on Guild...really.
 

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Bizarre that the Guild 100S stereo amplifier actually predated the any of Guild stereo guitars.
 

matsickma

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It would seem to me that the concept of Stereo for guitar was likely a way of providing alternate sounds or effects in an era where multi channel amps and amp switchable effects didn't exist. One possibility is it was a concept that offered a guitarist the ability to PAN the guitar left, center and right to mimmic some of the PANametric studio effects on albums in the late 60's thru 70's.

For those of us lucky enough to have played through a Guild Thunder 1 RVT or an original Thunderbird amp with speaker driven reverb "stereo" effect of the "dry" 12" speaker without reverb against the "wet" 8" speaker with reverb is an excellent sonic experiance.

I keep a separate amp pair rig setup this way when I want different tone than the Guild Thunder amps.

Since I have in my misc Guild box of stuff a stereo TRC I often ponder making a stereo setup out of a 3 pickup setup where the middle pickup would be the stereo channel.

M
 

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Necrothread!

You guys gotta remember that in the '70s, Stereo was still a newish super-cool feature and if breakfast cereal could have been sold as "Now in Stereo!" it would have been.

I had a Stereo Startfire !V and it was a PITA. The master volume was a double-stack pot and I could not get it out of the guitar because it didn't fit through the F-Hole and I'd have to pull the entire harness to even try and get it through the pickup route. I swear they mounted the pot on the guitar top then built the rest of the guitar around it.

Though the idea was cool because it was different and allowed different things to be done, guitarists aren't known for embracing new things. As a result I've seen more than one stereo-equipped guitar converted to mono.

Also, "stereo" is generally used for spacial separation and that's not what you got with this solution. With a stereo guitar (at least the ways I've seen them wired) you get tonal separation which means the neck pickup in one amp and the bridge pickup in the other. While you could do some interesting things with this setup, back in the day there weren't many (if any) stereo pedals so that meant you'd need dups of everything in your chain.

I'd much rather have a mono guitar split into two paths so I can do things like spacial separation with chorus and phaser, etc., while giving me the flexibility of using two amps. Stereo chorus and other similar effects is absolutely intoxicating. Stereo the way my Guild was wired was not.

YYMV, etc.
 
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