NGD: '61 T100 DPB Spc.

Jeff Haddad

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This is my 3rd try at a vintage Guild with DeArmond pickups. I had a 1970 SFIII Special with DeArmonds, block markers, and best of all green but the neck was too wide and thin. I eventually sold it.

Then last September I bought another SFIII, a '61 with DeArmonds that I thought was green but I think was a black one that had faded to green-ish. I sent that back because it smelled so badly of mold/mildew/something. It would get on my clothes and hands. There appeared to be mold growing on the inside also. I sent that back to the seller for a refund.

When the recent '61 T100 DPB Spc. was mentioned in another thread, http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?195111-A-Sexy-Hoboken-Blonde-on-ebay!, I bookmarked it. When the price was reduced I hit buy it now and waited five (5!) days for it to be shipped. It was very poorly packed, but survived a drop which broke the case but did nothing to the guitar (modern TKL case).

Here it is, DeArmonds, blocks, Melita bridge, Guild Bigsby all present:

XwYmK8.jpg


The neck feels just like my other late '50's/early '60's Guilds and it plays well. It might still need a little setting up, I replaced the strings and had to put the (floating) bridge into place. It had moved pretty far due to the apparent drop.

Also, when I picked the guitar out of the case the first time I noticed a piece of metal with a spring on it in the bottom of the case. I think the drop it suffered broke one of the brass adjusters on the bridge pickup and the piece in the case was the polepiece and spring from the low e string on the bridge pickup. You can see the broken ring in this photo taken after I re-installed the magnet:

gRzKgs.jpg


Thanks (I think) to the enablers here for finding this one!
 

txbumper57

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Awesome Grab Jeff! That is a really cool Guild, I hope you enjoy it for a long time to come.:encouragement:

TX
 

drlucky

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Suhweet!!!! I need a Guild w/ DeArmonds one of these days...
 

jp

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Congratulations, Jeff! That really is a beautiful guitar :C)

That bums me out that the seller treated such a rare guitar so flippantly when packing it. It's always a reminder that no matter what a dealer says to sell it, they're just dealing in widgets with a price tag rather than nice guitars. Uggh! I'm glad the damage was minimal.

I'm glad that after three tries, you've finally found a Dearmond-equipped Guild that works for you. Looking forward to hearing what you think about how it sounds. I've been thinking lately about swapping the Franz PUs on my T-100DP with Dynasonic reissues and installing the Franzes on my CE-100 to replace the minihums.

Is the fretboard ebony? It sure looks like it in your picture. Super cool!
 
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Walter Broes

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Cool guitar!! Get some flat intonation screws from the Embiematic guys to replace those Melita thumbscrews - it's a night and day playability difference!
 

matsickma

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Yes...those bridges are near impossible to mute the strings with the stick hardware. Had a SF3 Special that I bought from Billy-D-Lite years back. Had block fret inlays, DeArmonds and a Melita bridge. Cool guitar but I had a tough time with that bridge and my playing style.
M
 

gilded

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With these, they become very playable all of a sudden - and while it's a bit of an acquired taste, they have "a sound" to them, those bridges, and I kinda like it for some things. https://embieconcepts.com/products/embie-concepts-stainless-steel-flat-pan-head-melita-clip-screws

Walter, did you ever try Embie's replacement Mellita saddles?

The thing that I remember most about Melita bridges is that the saddles will wear down on a guitar with a Bigsby on it and one or more of the strings would be too low, causing the player to have to jack up the action to accommodate the string with the lowest saddle slot.

What do you think, Mr. Broes?
 

mavuser

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congrats and enjoy, what a beauty!

lucky on the shipping!!! what are these people thinking??? u should see the way i pack and ship a $500 guitar. it probably costs me $100 and i charge $60
 

shihan

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That’s one sweet guitar. Thanks to the higher powers that it wasn’t damaged agd in shipping! Hope it sounds as good as it looks. Enjoy!
 

matsickma

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The Embie parts will be great. I like that you can buy a whole bridge or just parts. I am especially interested in the little cup feet for the bridge. They look similar to the cup feet used on Guild Aristocrats but have little rubber pieces in the bottom that should be good at protecting the guitar finish. I notice that the cup feet on the NS Aristocrats don't have thumb screw threads all the way to the bottom which limits low action adjustment. I can't tell from the photos how far down these are threaded but for the money it will be worth a try.
M
 

Walter Broes

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Walter, did you ever try Embie's replacement Mellita saddles?

The thing that I remember most about Melita bridges is that the saddles will wear down on a guitar with a Bigsby on it and one or more of the strings would be too low, causing the player to have to jack up the action to accommodate the string with the lowest saddle slot.

What do you think, Mr. Broes?
As a matter of fact, I have!

I have two of their bridges, one with their regular (delrin?) saddles, one with cowbone or buffalo horn or something like that. So far so good.

They have metal saddles as well, and you might want to take a look at the "stovebolt" bridge, it seems to be made with vibrato-equipped guitars in mind. Matt, who "is" Embiematic in practice, is a super nice guy who stands behind his product 100%. I have one experience with him in particular where he went above and beyond when a stupid shipping mishap happened.
 

Jeff Haddad

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The board is nice and dark, but it's rosewood.

Those flat-head screws for the Melita look good, but the post still sticks up pretty far. I don't know if the Embie posts are any shorter. Good to know about the Embie aftermarket parts though.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to play it yet, but the DeArmonds sound really clear and articulate with nice twang from the middle and bridge positions.

I'm really pleased with this one!
 

Jeff Haddad

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Here's what I found when I went to get the guitar out of the shipping box - from the outside it didn't look like much but it must have fallen several feet straight onto the bottom of the box. Note the impression in the box and the corresponding piece broken off of the case. Thankfully there was no damage to the guitar body! I guess this is a testament to the build quality of the guitar.

Who doesn't put any padding inside the box?! There were only two crumbled up pieces of craft paper in the top of the carton but the case would move whenever the box was moved. I'm getting my shipping cost refunded ($42.75). Nothing about the case or the excessive (5 days to ship) wait.

ZhkOue.jpg
 

Quantum Strummer

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I have an Embie Stovebolt on a Teisco guitar. Metal saddles, works great. Matt custom-radiused it for me too…or, more accurately, un-radiused it since the fretboard is so flat. :)

-Dave-
 
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