nmiller
Member
I came across a fairly unique Guild yesterday: a 1970 M-65 (full-scale) with an all-maple body and two "Mickey Mouse" pickups. My prior experiences with these pickups left me cold, but this guitar sounded amazing (and pretty different from anything else in my collection). I put down a deposit and agreed to pay it off within 30 days; pics will definitely come once I pick it up. The guitar raised a few questions, as did my conversation with the salesman:
- I was surprised to see that the label did not have any "DP" or "Spec." designation. I assume this means that the guitar was sent back to the factory to have the bridge pickup installed and they never updated the label. Anyone concur or disagree?
- I was unaware that the M-65 ever came with a maple back. This guitar's back has a beautiful flame as well. A bit of online searching came up with only one other all-maple M-65, with similarly flamed wood. The salesman told me that it became an option once the model became part of the Studio series. My questions are: 1) when did this happen, 2) was it ever cataloged (I can't find it anywhere), and 3) what exactly did it mean to become part of the Studio series (aside from the ST-XXX models)?
- The guitar's neck profile was quite different from any late '60s or '70s Guild I've played. It felt wider and thinner, somewhere in between a Guild and a Mosrite neck. Did the M-65 normally have a different profile than, say, my '69 ST-402 or my '72 M-75?
- The bridge pickup is wound in reverse, so that when the two are combined they cancel out hum. Is this normal for guitars with two Mickey Mouse units? I know it wasn't normal for Franz-equipped guitars.
- The salesman also told me that late '60s Hoboken guitars have 3-ply maple tops while Westerly guitars have 4-ply maple tops. This is because the metal molds at Hoboken were old and thin, and Westerly used new, stiffer ones. Hoboken still used 4-ply spruce because the wood was easier to bend. Does all of this sound correct or at least reasonable?
- He also said that the Westerly factory bought much of its neck-shaping machinery from Magnatone. The timing works, as Magnatone stopped building guitars around 1967. I'm a big Magnatone fan, and am curious if anyone can verify this.
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