Brynot
Junior Member
We have a local FB yard sale page and a fellow posted "1959 Guild Electric Guitar". I looked at it and recognized it as an S-100, though I had no experience with one (I have a few SGs and always loved the s-100s I'd see friends playing). So I asked the guy for the serial, researched it and figured the number to match a 64 Polara. However, this things did not match up to the Polara shape. I figured it was from the 1970's and the guy was either trying to rip someone off or had no idea what he was talking about. After talking to Guild they said "buy it, what do you have to lose besides $300?" That was the same response I got from a few guitar collecting friends. So I did.
I met the guy in parking lot at a bar. He was an older country gentleman. Looked completely untrustworthy but I didn't care, because by then, I was so curious to see just what this thing was that I was willing to pay him the $300. As long as there were no cracks and the neck seemed straight enough I was in. After getting it home and plugging it in, it sounded like garbage. I cleaned it up, restrung it and pulled the pickups while doing so. That's when I noticed the science project I had bought. I literally could not figure out if someone made this thing in a shop class in 1975, having a Guild neck glued on to a shop body. After the clean-up it sounded a lot better. The dual phased switches were really neat, but everything still sounded a bit tinny and the action was really high. After adjusting the neck a bit, I got buzzing and the action was still high. I got a bit frustrated and decided I should pull the Hb1 pickup (the other was some sort of 80's Dimarzio Super D) and pull off the Pat Pend Grover tuners and try and make a few bucks back.
So I pull the HB1 again and after doing a bit of Google research, I'm not even sure what kind of crazy Frankenstein pickup I have. It says Guild USA, but it sure isn't wired like one.
I bet the Grovers are fake also. I don't know. Starting to wish curiosity hadn't gotten the cat!
I met the guy in parking lot at a bar. He was an older country gentleman. Looked completely untrustworthy but I didn't care, because by then, I was so curious to see just what this thing was that I was willing to pay him the $300. As long as there were no cracks and the neck seemed straight enough I was in. After getting it home and plugging it in, it sounded like garbage. I cleaned it up, restrung it and pulled the pickups while doing so. That's when I noticed the science project I had bought. I literally could not figure out if someone made this thing in a shop class in 1975, having a Guild neck glued on to a shop body. After the clean-up it sounded a lot better. The dual phased switches were really neat, but everything still sounded a bit tinny and the action was really high. After adjusting the neck a bit, I got buzzing and the action was still high. I got a bit frustrated and decided I should pull the Hb1 pickup (the other was some sort of 80's Dimarzio Super D) and pull off the Pat Pend Grover tuners and try and make a few bucks back.
So I pull the HB1 again and after doing a bit of Google research, I'm not even sure what kind of crazy Frankenstein pickup I have. It says Guild USA, but it sure isn't wired like one.
I bet the Grovers are fake also. I don't know. Starting to wish curiosity hadn't gotten the cat!
Last edited by a moderator: