Finally got me a Franz equipped Guild (1960 CE100D)

gusto

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well i've been searching and searching for a 50s-60s Guild hollowbody with Franz pups for about 2 years now. You guys probably seen this on ebay, i was the only bidder and lucky for me. The guitar is in fantastic shape, the neck, pups, binding, frets, inlays and electronics are in fabulous condition for being 50 yrs old. I have some real nice guitars with aftermarket pups, and plenty of P90 type guitars have gone through my hands BUT nothing, nothing sounds as good as this guitar, especially the neck pickup. The pinup girl is hiding the only imperfection on the guitar, there was the guys name stickered on the guitar and it lifted the finish, i didnt want to cover it with a sticker but it was making me crazy. Also the plastic on the headstock was starting to lift, a cheap easy repair was all it took. The best part of this guitar is by far the neck, not thin like i was expecting, its round but super fast. Anyway thanks for looking, im probably done buying guitars for a long long time...............i think.

one question, can these pups be made better by cutting the cap and wax potting. they are way moer quieter than i would have thought.
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Nice, I have a 1960 CE100D too. What's your serial number? Mine also has that vague, cool "greenburst" that comes out in certain light.
 

gusto

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13747. that green tinge only shows up after i take a picture with the flash, if your were to look with the naked eye you wouldnt notice.
 

skinny

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gusto,
Thats a beautiful find!!
The first archtop I ever played was a CE100D that was for sale in a guitar shop (years ago). And when I decided I had to have it, only days later, it was gone :cry:
I did clip the cap on the neck pickup on my x400 and that made a world of difference, but the tone was absolute mush before.

skinny
 

gusto

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so are these caps on the pickups or the pots? Just clip them of with pliers?
 

Walter Broes

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I'd be suprised if this one has the caps - if it does, they're on the pickups, but I'd be very surprised.

Another thing that's worth checking is the tone pots - if they're big, stacked, funny looking things, have them replaced by regular pots - the stacked ones are never at "neutral" and do funny things to the tone even when completely open.

Potting - doesn't make the pickups sound better, I just had to do it to all of mine against microphonic feedback at band volume. If yours don't squeal, I'd leave them alone.

Congratulations on the guitar - glad you finally found one. If the lead pickup doesn't sound as good as the neck pickup, see if you can get it a little closer to the strings (no needs for spacers, you can bend the pickup's baseplate a little).
Love the Franz neck pickups too, but the lead pickups about as much, and these pickups are extremely sensible to height adjustments.

Fairly lame clip as far as the surreal surroundings go, but this is all lead pickup, a tiny bit of echo, a whole lot of reverb from my outboard, and the amp : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYB6uKeB2A0
 

gusto

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Thanks everyone. Walter thats some great playing, your guitar sounds better than mine, im going to try getting that bridge pup raised up tonight.
 
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