NGD X-50 and a shoutout

The X-50 is a 1961, I'm told, the very one being played here by Anton V. (NYWolf on LTG)



Backstory: I met Anton in 2015, bought his Newark St. X175B when I started jazz lessons. Liked him, liked his playing. Late last year I got real curious about X-50 Guilds with Franz p/us. Had seen one in a NY shop and was so tempted. Felt damn good, but it had obvious top sink. Kept listening to Anton's clip above, thinking if only I could find one like that. Kept trying out old ES-125s, couldn't find one that felt right, and/or didn't have significant issues.

So last week Anton's X-50 appeared on CL. Just got back from his house with the guitar. I didn't even plug it in. It has that just right feel. No top sink. A solid instrument with real personality. Still haven't plugged it in, so will comment later on that. But in the meantime, I wanted to thank Anton for selling me this very cool guitar, and for inspiring me with his playing. He is a great guy, excellent musician, and I love his taste in Guilds!
MD

That's a great looking and sounding X-50! I had a '65 blonde X-50 - it played beautifully, and sounded great unplugged, too!

Congratulations!

walrus

Congrats MD....

X-50's can be real gems as you're finding out.
...and '61 seems to be just the right year for me with Hoboken Guilds....love the necks, love the Franz and DeArmond pickups in use at that time...
.....the binding used in '61 doesn't seem to have the problems of the earlier stuff in the 50's.

I had a great '55 X-50 that I let go during one of those "financial crisis" episodes I seem to conjure up. I miss it quite a lot.
My very well played '60 T-50 is the next best thing and is a fine stand in for the time being.

Wonderful guitars! Congratulations.

My '54 X-50 is currently strung with medium PB acoustic strings. I adjusted the pole pieces of the four wound strings all the way up, and the two unwound all the way down. Superb tone plugged in and unplugged!

Thanks for the comments! Zizala ... first time I heard a Franz p/u Guild was trying one out at your place several years ago. Didn't get it, but it sure did make an impression. I've seen pics of yours (beauteous), think I've seen Neal's too.

Anyway, here's what it looks like:



It's a most interesting guitar, not much like any other I've played. Anton described it as:

The guitar is in excellent shape for its age, and sounds absolutely fantastic. All original! It has a sought after single Franz pickup, which was a Guild version of P90, but has its own unique sound. I played tons of gigs with this guitar and I have to say it's built like a tank and has no issues at all. A perfect guitar for jump blues, swing jazz, rockabilly, etc. It has a super nice acoustic tone, and is plenty loud for electric guitar when plugged in!

It's currently strung with 12s pure nickel Daddario roundwounds, but if you want that vintage 50's jazz tone ala Grant Green or early Jim Hall, put on flats and it's there in spades! I played some Gibson ES-125s and I would pick this Guild ahead of any of them, it's just got a serious mojo!

And he's right. It's a very solid guitar, strong physical presence. Feels nothing like the older ES-125s I tried. The neck is substantial, just the right proportion of depth to shoulder, big w/o being too big. Not as deep in the body as the ES-125. It has .12s on now, with wound G. Unplugged, loud, even sound with a crisp edge. Plugged in, an impressive punch from the Franz. A bigger sound than I expected, balanced volume on the strings. That powerful low end presence I could hear in Anton's clips is right there with rhythm comping. Then single notes ride out over the top. This is easily the best sounding single p/u guitar I've tried. Just beautiful!

I'm wondering something ... since it's set up for wound G, if I were to go with unwound, would that screw up the intonation, requiring a different bridge?
MD

Correction: Checked the serial number. 18528, which makes it a '62. Early that year, when the numbers started at 18420. (If my online sources can be believed, that is.)