70's and 90's Bluesbird Question

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Hi, A new forum member here with a question :)
From 1980-86 I had a 70's natural Guild BluesBird. At the time it was cheap for my to buy as traditional guilds weren't that desirable. It seemed that everyone (including me) wanted fenders or those pointy guitars. I loved my Bluesbird though as it was a great instrument but eventually I traded it in against a new strat after I was left some money from a relative. I always regretted it and I grew to dislike the strat and it is long gone. I then stopped playing for about 20 years but I have recently got myself another Bluesbird.
I believe it has seymour Duncans in it and it has a nice maple cap to the body but it feels and sounds very close to the 70's one I had in terms of geometry and neck. It looks like it was made around 1998 by the production number and it just feels like home....
With my eyes shut it feels and sounds like the same guitar but that was a long time ago. What are the differences?
Note: I love it and it gets its birst gig next week
Ed
 

GAD

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Welcome! I love Bluesbirds and have reviewed and compared a few here: http://gadsguilds.com

It really depends on which models and years you have/had, but I think the '70s and '90s Bluesbirds are quite different. The '90s Bluesbird is the closest to a Les Paul IMO, and with its wider neck and killer looks is my favorite of the Bluesbirds. The '70s Bluesbirds I've had all had tiny necks but played and sounded absolutely amazing. The flamed maple top seems to be a '90s-00s thing and the '70s Bluesbirds with maple tops I've seen were all quite plain.

The '74 M75 Bluesbird I had was SUPER light and smaller than the '90s Bluesbirds I own though given their similar shape I can see how it might seem that they were the same.

Here's a pic of a pile of Bluesbirds (technically not all are, but whatever) from an article on my site:

Guild-Bluesbirds-1970-2016-1600.jpg
 

matsickma

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Since I have been playing Guilds for around 50 years one thing I notice is no matter the model from a 50's M65 Freshman, 80's S281, 90's Bluesbird, 00's X170 to '16 Thunderbird....and all the models in between they all feel like a Guild! This is very suprising to me because necks, scales, body size and shapes are all different.

M
 
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Welcome! I love Bluesbirds and have reviewed and compared a few here: http://gadsguilds.com
It really depends on which models and years you have/had, but I think the '70s and '90s Bluesbirds are quite different. The '90s Bluesbird is the closest to a Les Paul IMO, and with its wider neck and killer looks is my favorite of the Bluesbirds. The '70s Bluesbirds I've had all had tiny necks but played and sounded absolutely amazing. The flamed maple top seems to be a '90s-00s thing and the '70s Bluesbirds with maple tops I've seen were all quite plain. ]

Thanks for the pics.and comments. My first one was a mahogany M75. More differences than I remembered between that and the late 90's flamed top one that I have now. Both had a great clean tone though. I have just been playing it at band practice...The band like it. Always a good sign.
 

matsickma

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Nice...looks like one of the earlier guitars with the black pickup bezels and pickguard. Their was a period of time when black SD open bobbin pickups were used. Not sure where in time they were used. One with black open bobbins is listed on GC. I perfer covers on the pickups.

M
 

GAD

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Nice! Love the pic as you seem to be having a good time. :) I'd love to see a closer pic of the guitar.

You cannot post a pic from your desktop here. You need to put it elsewhere like Imgur and then link to it here.
 
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The serial number is CL000279 if that helps
will post a better pic up somtime
 
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