NGD...the X160 Rockabilly has finally arrived!

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It finally arrived!!! And well worth the wait I might add!

She's gorgeous! The pictures do not do it justice. It's more red-orange than orange! (G/F says it's "burnt orange"!)
Beautiful flame beneath the finish. Original Guild case is perfect!

Had old flat-wounds on it. Slinky and smooth, but the bottom string kinda thud-y.
Might try new ones at some point, but I put DR Pure Blues 11-50 round wounds on it! (Same as my Robelli, but I used the plain G instead of the wound G). SWEET!

Had to play with the bridge a bit...slide it to the right, move a couple of strings. Good news is the flatwounds barely grooved the saddle so fine-tuning and alignment was a cinch!

Took it all apart and spent two hours detailing it. Hand polished the frets, de-gunked and lemon oiled the rosewood fingerboard and bridge. It was mostly just dust! Polished the metal bridge saddle too.
The pots were a little scratchy...but after spinning the pots for awhile, they work just fine.

Here's something weird...after putting it all back together I just kinda "eye-balled" where the bridge should go, Strung it up and I was almost dead-on as far as intonation goes! I never had a solid bridge saddle on an electric before, always floating bridge with ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic. Anyway, after messing with it for like 5 minutes, the strings are aligned where they should be over the pole-pieces....and the intonation is as perfect as my old Boss TU-12H will indicate! Amazing...well, to ME anyway!

The pickups...wow! After reading so many reviews about the DeArmonds lacking punch, I didn't expect them to sound so good! Such clarity and tone...and warm without being woof-y! And, like yours TX, in the mid position it is dead quiet! The Guildsby is smooth and works fine!

All-in-all...I couldn't be happier!!!

Pics tomorrow!
 

txbumper57

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Congrats Retro! I'm glad you are happy with it! They are great guitars, So glad you finally got it after the UPS Fiasco. Can't wait for the pics and have a great night.

TX
 

Jeff Haddad

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Congrats! Sounds like a great one!

The neck pickup on these has a "woodiness" (for lack of a better term) that I haven't heard in other guitars.

I'm looking forward to pictures...
 
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As I was detailing I snapped this pic:



And after I was done, the G/F took a few more:

[URL=http://s224.photobucket.com/user/MrMajstyk/media/rockabilly1.jpg.html]
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rockabilly3.jpg
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I haven't really slotted the saddle yet. Will do that a little later.
Still need to adjust the pole pieces to get a little bit better string-to-string volume balance.
And I'll play with the action a little more too. But its nice and low, and the neck is almost razor-straight! Just some fine-tuning.

But overall I am just stoked!! I think I lucked out! :)
 

Guildadelphia

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Congrats...that's a real killer. Glad to hear your bridge worries "fell into place". The D'Armonds are great sounding pu's. My experience with D'Armonds is they sound best with the pole slugs flush to the top of the pu and then just raised enough to get volume balance string to string. When the poles are raised too much, the tone starts to thin out and loses "punch". If you need more pu height, raise the pu bodies themselves with extra or thicker spacers. TV Jones has hard foam spacers available that work great and are easily stacked w/ the stock spacers. Congrats again....that just so nice.
 

dhdfoster

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Nice score!

I have a real soft-spot for the X160. I bought one just like this after struggling with a couple pre-FMIC Gretsches, a vintage Gretsch, and an FMIC DeArmond guitar. It was almost everything I had been looking for in the way that it was built and the way it sounded. I only sold it after buying a vintage a Guild and a house that needed lots of repairs. I'd love to find a black one for a decent price.
 
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Thanks Guildadelphia...I'm experimenting with pole height even as we speak! Good to know!

And, dhdfoster, there was a terrific looking Cantina Blue one in the ebay/gbase section.

Here's my two hollow body guitars side by side. In the pic, they look close to the same size, but looking at them together, the Robelli/Peerless is HUGE! LOL. The Robelli is Falcon-size and the X160 is 6120 size. (17" vs 16").
Played them side-by-side too...what a difference. Admittedly I was doing a BUNCH of amp tweaks to get the Gretschbuckers to sound decent, but these DeArmonds just...well...ROCK! LOL! I didn't fully realize just how muddy the Gretschbuckers were until I played the DeArmonds. Now I know I have to replace the pickups and wiring in the Robelli if I'm going to keep it. Maybe some HS Filtertrons or TV Jones. We'll see...

rockabilly8.jpg
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One thing I DO like is the clear pickguard on the Robelli. I'd like to find a clear one for the Guild! Anyone know anyone who makes 'em?
 

Walter Broes

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It's pretty! Looks more red than orange in your pictures indeed, I like it.

I'm one of the naysayers on those "modern" DeArmond 2000's. (love the old ones though) They sound great, you do get that classic twangy sound of them. Only when you get on stage next to a medium loud drummer, you realize they're a little lacking in the "oomph" department somehow. I've talked to other people with the same experience.
 
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Yeah Walter, I had read the same thing...that they just seem to lack "oomph".
But for ME...compared to what I've been using...they have PLENTY of "oomph"! LOL

We'll see starting the first week of January when I'm gigging consistently again.

(I'm primarily a rhythm guitarist, but I do a few intros and some rhythmic lead things, but I'm not really a lead guitarist, so my needs are a bit different.)
 

dbirchett

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Thanks Guildadelphia...I'm experimenting with pole height even as we speak! Good to know!

And, dhdfoster, there was a terrific looking Cantina Blue one in the ebay/gbase section.

Here's my two hollow body guitars side by side. In the pic, they look close to the same size, but looking at them together, the Robelli/Peerless is HUGE! LOL. The Robelli is Falcon-size and the X160 is 6120 size. (17" vs 16").
Played them side-by-side too...what a difference. Admittedly I was doing a BUNCH of amp tweaks to get the Gretschbuckers to sound decent, but these DeArmonds just...well...ROCK! LOL! I didn't fully realize just how muddy the Gretschbuckers were until I played the DeArmonds. Now I know I have to replace the pickups and wiring in the Robelli if I'm going to keep it. Maybe some HS Filtertrons or TV Jones. We'll see...

rockabilly8.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

One thing I DO like is the clear pickguard on the Robelli. I'd like to find a clear one for the Guild! Anyone know anyone who makes 'em?

Go to the Gretschpages.com forum and contact Paul Setzer (handle: Setzer). He's the go to guy.
 

dhdfoster

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Yours is definitely a deeper orange than mine was. Mine was made in Westerly, but I think they continued to make them in Corona after they moved. Maybe they changed the orange a bit, if your was made there.

Although I like those pickups, I’m also of the opinion that they are tad anemic. However, I think they sound great for recording. Having owned guitars with those 2000s, the DeArmond 2Ks, original DeArmonds, and Gretsch’s reissue DeArmonds, the originals are my favorite by far. I have no experience with Duncans or TV Jones.

I found the blue one you mentioned on Reverb. I didn’t like the blue at the time, but seeing it now gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. It’s probably a little nostalgia from the Guitar Player review that came out in the early 2000s. I must have read that review 100 times. Somehow I just knew that a Guild with single-coils was where I wanted to go.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Yeah Walter, I had read the same thing...that they just seem to lack "oomph".
But for ME...compared to what I've been using...they have PLENTY of "oomph"! LOL

We'll see starting the first week of January when I'm gigging consistently again.

Lack of oomph is what initially drove the popularity of the Klon Centaur. It (along with the best of its many clones) provides a healthy mid kick without muting attack or cutting bass. Very handy for mid-scoopy guitars & pickups that otherwise sound fine.

-Dave-
 
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