Fake S-100 keeps getting faker?

beecee

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Fun story, and what a ton of good info.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but as far as Guild-"ness" this really is not a Guild. If the body and guts were correct (but with the wrong neck), I'd consider that more "original" than this example. I've seen more guitars need broken necks replaced than broken bodies.

While I am a fan of restoration even if it exceeds the true market value of a particular model and I love the work done on the assorted snotless examples here I would just like to say that if it were me I would part out the authentic stuff to someone who may need it for a true restoration of a "real" Guild, in the process get some if not all of my money back.

I supposed that yes, it may be fun to rescue the mutt from the side of the road and give it a good home, but you've merely picked up one of it's limbs. I guess you could say the tail is wagging the dog.
 

GAD

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Aww... now I feel like I wasted everyone's time. Bummer. I haven't even read that whole thread yet. Too sad. It's a shame someone would go through such lengths to be dishonest. Such is life. Luckily, I love guitars and I at least got some entertainment out of this. Hindsight is 20/20.

Okay, read the rest. The dishonest seller seems to be the exact same guy since he told me, upon parking lot sale, that he had taken it up the guitar shop here in my town a few years back and they were amazed by it! Ha! Certainly the same guy since he lives in the next town over. Also, the guys at the music store here know very little about guitars - I should know since I've been going there for the last 8 years and they usually answer any questions with "I have no idea, I play mandolin" or "I just clean everyone's guitars with orange Pledge furniture polish".

This Lucky guy was obviously trying to unload the guitar and rip someone off. Mission accomplished. Lemons out of lemonade is it taught me a lot about the history of Guilds, Guild pickups, solid bodies, and taught me an unnecessary lesson in buyer beware. The truth is, how the hell could I have known? He made sure the price was reasonable for someone to buy it without being sure. Pretty lame, but hey, I've been entertained for the last month and I've got a good project.

Btw - it's a 5 not an 8.

Peas


You've got the right attitude about the guitar and please don't think you've wasted anyone's time. If anything you've outed a scammer and learned some things.

Trust me when I say that it could be worse. Allow me a story, if you will.

Back in 2008 I had just gotten back into guitars after a hiatus of probably 15 years. We got married in 1995 and bought a house right after, had kids, and life got in the way so I mistakenly sold my Guild S300A-D (my idea) and didn't look back. In 2008 I got the bug again When I saw a seafoam green Ibanez Artcore hanging in the window of a local shop. I bought it for $350, got a Peavy Valveking, and a little later a Zoom effects pedal:

IbanezArtcoreAS75Seafoam.jpg


I knew nothing about hollow-body guitars at the time and thought that the bridge falling off when I changed the strings was a sign of it being cheaply made. :culpability:

That was my only guitar for three years until I started to go nuts in 2008. I bought a Jackson, then I bought a Taylor, and as my lust for gear grew, I bought a "custom" semi-hollow guitar from a guitar forum for $1500. This is the line I was fed:

This guitar was custom built by a former luthier at Gibson before they moved to Memphis. He was in charge of the 335 line, and since retiring, makes these on a custom order basis and calls them "Barbara Guitars. The specs are exactly like a 335. The body is solid flamed maple, no laminates. The neck is mahogany. The hardware is all gold, grover tuners, and the pickguard, truss rod cover, and pickup rings are all ebony and oiled with a special formula tung oil instead of being covered with polyurethane. Triple bound, and the F-holes are also bound. The pickups are a gold copy of a Gibson PAF that he has 'fine tuned' and custom wound to bring out all the warmth of the semi hollow body. They are really a great sounding pickup. I plugged it in to my Mesa Lonestar and the clean, woody, jazzy sound out of it is just beautiful. Hits that mellow harp sound on the neck, and a strong bite when fliped to the bridge." Also: "The luthier's name is Alan Kenyon from Gallatin, Tennessee. I would say that it's probably much better sounding and better built than the majority(if not all) of Gibson 335's that are stocked in stores(except for vintage). Sad, that many would overlook and pass these custom made by private luthiers because they are too focused on the headstock branding.

I bought it hook, line, and sinker. This is that guitar:

_B0Z2623-CropAlt_800.jpg


It played nicely, sounded nice, and to my ignorant mind was worth every penny except that (no surprise to anyone here) the neck was too small for me. It was worth every penny, that is, until I decided to sell it in order to fund another purchase. That's when someone on TGP said, "That kind of looks like a Washburn HB35 with an altered headstock. I did some research, and well... This is a Washburn HB-35:

hb35n.jpg


I had been swindled by having been talked into buying a $350 guitar used (if it didn't have the headstock veneer sanded off) for $1500 and the seller was suddenly nowhere to be found.

Links to a thread from when it happened: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/did-i-buy-a-stolen-guitar.426695/

After stewing over how I'd been swindled, I decided to try and sell it anyway and the best offer I got was $200. Crap. I decided to make the best of it and used the guitar to learn all about semi-hollow guitars, how to fix them, how to upgrade them, and how to "make it my own". I called it my "Guitar from Hell" project and replaced all the electronics with an RS kit, replaced the pickups with Classic '57s, fixed some of the frets, and replaced all the hardware including the tuners. I kept the knobs. Though it doesn't look a whole lot different, this is the end result:

_B0Z3846-AltCrop_800.jpg



The entire project is documented here: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/the-guitar-from-hell.473956/

In the end, I sold it to a kid without a lot of money for something like $300 with all the upgraded parts and he was absolutely thrilled with it. In the end I bought it for $1500, probably spent $500 more on parts, spent countless hours working on it and finally sold it for $300. I learned a lot, though. Having a guitar like this to learn on is a very valuable thing IMO. As a result of what I learned on this guitar the only guitar work I rely on others to do is refrets and neck resets.

Experience is often expensive. You're right to try and make the best of it.
 

Brynot

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"Experience is often expensive", man, have I been taught that lesson a few times (divorce, kids, etc...). I truly have learned a lot. I've been fighting the urge to go out and buy a real Guild just to make up for this blunder. I'm sure I probably will, I mean, how can I sit here "talking Guild" when I don't actually own one? 😁
 

fronobulax

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"Experience is often expensive", man, have I been taught that lesson a few times (divorce, kids, etc...). I truly have learned a lot. I've been fighting the urge to go out and buy a real Guild just to make up for this blunder. I'm sure I probably will, I mean, how can I sit here "talking Guild" when I don't actually own one? 

A Guild neck is a start. Many people have come here looking for information about one specific guitar/model, stayed and now own several Guilds. Interest is more important than ownership :)
 

mavuser

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somewhere, now or in the future, there is an owner of a headless early 70s S-100, that needs that 3-line Chesterfield neck more than you do. id take it all apart and sell off everything. the tuners, bridge and tailpiece are standard parts that someone will buy. is that one switch a vintage switchcraft? the HB-1 (may need rewiring?) but you have the surround and screws, so someone will buy that. If it were me id part it out and just see where im at when all thats left is the neck/body. because to be honest whatever it is worth at that point, it is not worth a whole lot more than that right now. i would definitely consider parting it out.
 

GAD

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somewhere, now or in the future, there is an owner of a headless early 70s S-100, that needs that 3-line Chesterfield neck more than you do. id take it all apart and sell off everything. the tuners, bridge and tailpiece are standard parts that someone will buy. is that one switch a vintage switchcraft? the HB-1 (may need rewiring?) but you have the surround and screws, so someone will buy that. If it were me id part it out and just see where im at when all thats left is the neck/body. because to be honest whatever it is worth at that point, it is not worth a whole lot more than that right now. i would definitely consider parting it out.

This is one of the few guitars I've seen where I'm inclined to agree.
 
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