Hello Tracy,
Ok, I looked at the photos and this is what I can tell you.
The guitar you have started life as a T-500, which was a short lived model from the very early ‘60s. The T-500 was the basis on which the Duane Eddy Deluxe model was developed and most of the early Duane Eddy models were actually T-500 superstructures that were already built before the introduction of the Duane Eddy model and that were eventually completed as Duane Eddy models.
I believe that your guitar was also completed as a Duane Eddy, but for some reason never left the factory, or maybe it did leave the factory, but was returned as the result of a quality issue.
The reason I think it was completed is because I can see the remnants of an older label sticking out under the label that was glued into the guitar at a later date.
During the period that Guild was moving from Hoboken, NJ to Westerly, RI, a lot of old inventory and parts were turned into guitars that could be sold, instead of moving the parts to the new location.
For that reason you can come across guitars that do not entirely conform to the official specifications of the model and this guitar is one of them.
According to the ‘new’ serial number, which is #EH-284, we can date this guitar to 1968. The most obvious part that does not conform to the specs of an instrument from 1968 is the old style ‘open book’ headstock , which I already mentioned in my earlier posting. Another significant feature is the fingerboard with the square ‘mother-of-pearl’ blocks, which on the Duane Eddy model should have been the two-tone mother-of-pearl/ abalone inlays.
I’ve seen a couple of Duane Eddy / DE-500 models from this period and they all had different specs because of the aformentioned reason. Some of them also had the regular stairstep pickguard, just like this guitar, without the gold border and Duane Eddy signature.
Actually, the EH-serial number prefix was for the DE-400, which was the slightly less Deluxe version of the DE-500. I'm not sure why they decided to give these instruments a serial number that was originally intended for the DE-400, other than a mistake. The official Guild records do not show any DE-500s with the regular EI-serial number prefix made during the year 1968, but some DE-500s were made and the ones I’ve seen all had the EH-prefix, just like your guitar.
When the instrument was completed during 1968, it was probably set up with the small mini humbuckers, which would have been standard during that time. Right now the guitar is set up with Guild HB-1 pickups, which were not introduced to the Guild line until the end of 1970. From what I can see in the photos it looks like the instrument was refinished at a later date, but I can’t be 100% sure without holding the instrument in my hands. Anyway, if the instrument was refinished, it is possible that the pickups were changed at that same time.
Since you’re not the original owner, we can only guess about what may have happened to the guitar and at what time, but it is very clear to me what the origin is of the original superstructure and a thorough look at the EIA-codes on the pots might learn us a bit more.
The Gibson style tune-o-matic bridge was obviously added at a later date as well!
That’s pretty much what I can tell you from the photos.
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl