Hello from New member and T-100 question

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Hello All
I just joined the forum and wanted to wish you al a Happy New Year. I'm a long time Gretsch player but after hearing Walter Broes, I'll be purchasing a Guild.
I plan to try out a 1960 ghost label T-100D a seller has this week. Is that anything that I should be aware of in looking over a vintage Guild? I'd love to get into a CE-100D but I don't see any on the market currently.
Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Travis
 

Jeff Haddad

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Welcome, great choice of inspiration!

Vintage Guilds are pretty solidly built, the only usual problem areas are binding shrinkage and the headstock overlay starting to lift. Good luck, and follow up with pics!
 

krysh

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welcome travis!

not to forget a possible neck reset if the action is too high...
 

gilded

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Welcome to LTG, Travis.

One thought- If you want a sound that is close to Walter's, you're gonna find it is easier to produce with a late 50's (early '60's?) X-175 than a T100D or a Starfire.

Walter could explain it better, but from what I've read of his posts and threads, the deeper body of the X-175 models, along with the Franz pickups of course, is a big part of his sound.
 

Neal

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Welcome to LTG, Travis.

One thought- If you want a sound that is close to Walter's, you're gonna find it is easier to produce with a late 50's (early '60's?) X-175 than a T100D or a Starfire.

Walter could explain it better, but from what I've read of his posts and threads, the deeper body of the X-175 models, along with the Franz pickups of course, is a big part of his sound.

Wouldn't a '60 T-100 come equipped with Franz pickups?

I have a '64 T-50 (the single pickup version) and it has a totally different tone than my two older, deeper jazz boxes. It is brighter, more "focused". Of course, it also has the metal-covered transitional pickup (after the Franz but before the Mickey Mouse).

The two things that I had to address with it were that the headstock overlay was de-laminating (easy fix, glued and clamped) and the tuners were dodgy (still putting up with them but not for much longer). The T-50 also had an atrocious, cheap case.
 

txbumper57

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Wouldn't a '60 T-100 come equipped with Franz pickups?

I have a '64 T-50 (the single pickup version) and it has a totally different tone than my two older, deeper jazz boxes. It is brighter, more "focused". Of course, it also has the metal-covered transitional pickup (after the Franz but before the Mickey Mouse).

I agree with you Neal 100% that the thin bodied guitars like the T100 don't have the same tone as the deeper x175's. My 1960 X175 sounds completely different from my friends 1960 T-100D. The Big difference in the two is not only the Depth of the body but the X175 has a Spruce top while the T100 is all Maple. Makes for a much different tone even with the same Franz pickups on both.

Some 1960 T-100D's came with the early Beveled Dearmond pickups instead of the Franz pickups and were ultimately the beginning of the "Starfire" Line. Here is a photo of one that was for sale recently.

a3bssmj6cqpuxdy0u4hm.jpg


TX
 
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Walter Broes

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Oh wow, thanks Travis, that's extremely flattering!

T-100D's are nice guitars, and if you get an early one it will have Franz pickups indeed. Those things do have so much character that'll you'll get some of "that sound". What Gilded says IS true to an extent, in my own experience it's "bigger guitar, bigger tone" : my X175's sound bigger, have more low mids and bass and fill out a band more, the CE100D I have is similar but still lighter in the bass, and my starfire sounds killer, but "smaller" frequency wise. not as much low end. Which càn be great : in a band with a second guitar or keys or more, I'll be more inclined to bring a smaller guitar, because it will sit in the mix better. IMO and YMMV!

Things to watch with old Guilds :

-shrinking or crumbling binding. It's expensive to have redone, and not a fun job, so not a lot of guys even want to take on the work.

-neck angle : only applies if you want a Bigsby on the guitar. At least half of the old Guilds don't really have enough neck angle to make a Bigsby work really well or at all. Not a problem at all if you're not into Bigsbies, but for a Bigsby to work on a guitar you need a minimum bridge height/string break angle at the bridge, or the guitar will play funny, string tension will be weird, and you'll play the strings out the bridge.

Otherwise, I've been around quite a few Hoboken-built electric archtops (in fact a friend of mine got a very nice T100D a couple of weeks ago), and in my own experience they're pretty consistent, well built guitars. They seem to withstand the effects of time pretty well, apart from the binding in some cases.
 
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Oh wow, thanks Travis, that's extremely flattering!

T-100D's are nice guitars, and if you get an early one it will have Franz pickups indeed. Those things do have so much character that'll you'll get some of "that sound". What Gilded says IS true to an extent, in my own experience it's "bigger guitar, bigger tone" : my X175's sound bigger, have more low mids and bass and fill out a band more, the CE100D I have is similar but still lighter in the bass, and my starfire sounds killer, but "smaller" frequency wise. not as much low end. Which càn be great : in a band with a second guitar or keys or more, I'll be more inclined to bring a smaller guitar, because it will sit in the mix better. IMO and YMMV!

Things to watch with old Guilds :

-shrinking or crumbling binding. It's expensive to have redone, and not a fun job, so not a lot of guys even want to take on the work.

-neck angle : only applies if you want a Bigsby on the guitar. At least half of the old Guilds don't really have enough neck angle to make a Bigsby work really well or at all. Not a problem at all if you're not into Bigsbies, but for a Bigsby to work on a guitar you need a minimum bridge height/string break angle at the bridge, or the guitar will play funny, string tension will be weird, and you'll play the strings out the bridge.

Otherwise, I've been around quite a few Hoboken-built electric archtops (in fact a friend of mine got a very nice T100D a couple of weeks ago), and in my own experience they're pretty consistent, well built guitars. They seem to withstand the effects of time pretty well, apart from the binding in some cases.

Regarding neck angle/Bigsby:
Isn't that one of the reasons Bigsby has the "tension bar" models? Like the B-70 or even the "licensed" B-700 (like on my Peerless/Robelli) ?
 

Walter Broes

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Regarding neck angle/Bigsby:
Isn't that one of the reasons Bigsby has the "tension bar" models? Like the B-70 or even the "licensed" B-700 (like on my Peerless/Robelli) ?
Well..yes and no. The tenson bar B7 was really designed for Les Pauls initially, and good for similar guitars where the bridge is post-mounted directly to the body. On a typical archtop where the bridge sits on a base, you'd ideally want a B6 or B3 Bigsby without the tension bar. Not only do those have more travel and action, they tend to "feel" and work better and stay in tune better because you're not stretching out the string between two tension rollers.
 

Walter Broes

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Travis, is this the pic you were trying to post?
IMG_0820_zps6qjiatmy.jpg


That's a beaut! It's impossible to tell from one frontal pic, but that said, it does look like that guitar has a fairly healthy bridge height/neck angle. Sweet looking guitar!
 
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Hi Walter
Thanks so much for your response and posting the pic for me. That's the one! I'll attempt to post a pic of the side.
Thanks again to everyone for their welcome and thoughtful responses!
 
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