Newark St. S200 T-Bird Review

GAD

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I finally finished writing up my S200 T-Bird.

http://www.gad.net/Blog/2018/02/28/guild-newark-street-s200-t-bird/

As always, please PM with corrections. Thanks!

Guild-NS-S200-TBird-TopFull.jpg
 

shihan

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Great job, as always. I am really impressed by your thouroughness when you do a review.
I’m curious to play one of these; they look like a lot of fun.
 

Default

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Glad to know that I am not the only one disappointed in the pup output mismatch. Considering that swapping the coils from one pup to another is child's play in production, it's surprising that CMG doesn't advertise a low output set and a high output set.
 

GAD

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Glad to know that I am not the only one disappointed in the pup output mismatch. Considering that swapping the coils from one pup to another is child's play in production, it's surprising that CMG doesn't advertise a low output set and a high output set.

Seriously.
 

matsickma

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Great article GAD! I really like the point you made about aligning the Hagstrum tremer when installing new strings.

A semi-related comment...just as the Thunderbird/T-bird controls mimic the Fender Jaguar the version of the S100 Polara that was released in '65 with the "Mickey Mouse" pickups and circuit selector switch mimics the controls of the Fender Jazzmaster.

Not many people know that Guild tried to take advantage of these Fender circuit features of the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. However at that time in guitar and rock history the Jaguar and Jazzmaster were much more popular than the Stratocaster. That would soon change as everyone became Experienced!

M
 

GAD

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Great article GAD! I really like the point you made about aligning the Hagstrum tremer when installing new strings.

A semi-related comment...just as the Thunderbird/T-bird controls mimic the Fender Jaguar the version of the S100 Polara that was released in '65 with the "Mickey Mouse" pickups and circuit selector switch mimics the controls of the Fender Jazzmaster.

Not many people know that Guild tried to take advantage of these Fender circuit features of the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. However at that time in guitar and rock history the Jaguar and Jazzmaster were much more popular than the Stratocaster. That would soon change as everyone became Experienced!

M

That's a cool bit of history!
 

Quantum Strummer

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GAD, I apologize for not mentioning the tailpiece alignment thing when doing my early T-bird writeup here. Coulda saved you some blood pressure spikes! When I restrung mine with 11s, a couple days after getting it, I noticed that the tailpiece wiggled a bit. But I centered it during the restringing or shortly afterward…and then totally forgot about it.

Great writeup, as always. I like the pickup arrangement in this particular '60s recreation, but then I like jangly guitar sounds in general. Also: my T-bird is a lot lighter than yours at ~7.5lbs. Also also: I do not like Rotomatics. They're the tuner equivalent of a '70s Cadillac suspension. Super smooth ride with no feel whatsoever for the road. :)

-Dave-
 
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Zelja

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Great review! The pole screw spacing is different on the neck & bridge right? If the rest of the guitar is fairly decent (as it seems to be) then getting that bridge pickup rewound would be the simplest solution (rather than just buying another neck PU to stick in the bridge posn).

Since they had Grots original guitar, why oh why didn't they also do a quick check of the pickups? The situation with the bridge pickup is beyond ludicrous.
 

Westerly Wood

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i like the Tweed soundclip, great raunchy tone. Very technical blog too man. This piece must have taken a while.
 

GAD

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GAD, I apologize for not mentioning the tailpiece alignment thing when doing my early T-bird writeup here. Coulda saved you some blood pressure spikes! When I restrung mine with 11s, a couple days after getting it, I noticed that the tailpiece wiggled a bit. But I centered it during the restringing or shortly afterward…and then totally forgot about it.

Great writeup, as always. I like the pickup arrangement in this particular '60s recreation, but then I like jangly guitar sounds in general. Also: my T-bird is a lot lighter than yours at ~7.5lbs. Also also: I do not like Rotomatics. They're the tuner equivalent of a '70s Cadillac suspension. Super smooth ride with no feel whatsoever for the road. :)
-Dave-

No worries. I probably would have forgotten and gotten all worked up anyway. :)

I haven't really heard of anyone not liking then Grovers. What kind of feel do you want that you're not getting with them? My favorites are Schallers thanks to my S300A-D, but Grovers are my next favorite.

Great review! The pole screw spacing is different on the neck & bridge right? If the rest of the guitar is fairly decent (as it seems to be) then getting that bridge pickup rewound would be the simplest solution (rather than just buying another neck PU to stick in the bridge posn).

Since they had Grots original guitar, why oh why didn't they also do a quick check of the pickups? The situation with the bridge pickup is beyond ludicrous.

I imagine that they considered the pickup problem "done" since they already had them from the Fender days and just used what they had because they had LB1s now.

I agree, though. How do you examine a guitar and not measure the pickups?

i like the Tweed soundclip, great raunchy tone. Very technical blog too man. This piece must have taken a while.

Thanks!

Believe it or not this one wasn't too bad. What takes the most time is researching the vintage guitars and trying to find information like old ads and stuff. I'd do unspeakable things to be able to rifle through Hans' notes for a day. :emmersed:
 

Quantum Strummer

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I haven't really heard of anyone not liking then Grovers. What kind of feel do you want that you're not getting with them? My favorites are Schallers thanks to my S300A-D, but Grovers are my next favorite.

When I need to make a quick tuning tweak (granted, not often these days) I find it hard to judge by feel with Rotos how much I've changed the string's pitch. Because of this I usually overdo the tweak. They're fine otherwise. My fav tuners are the old Klusons. Treat 'em right—flush 'em out if they get stiff, but don't overlube—and they'll outlast you.

Re. the L-B1s, I just got a Gibson LP Recording guitar with a set of stacked humbuckers either designed by Les himself or to his specs. Each coil has ~600 turns of 28 gauge wire. You might think this makes for a weak pickup, but it certainly does *not. It does produce a full-frequency sound, though, and so the guitar has a rotary Decade control to let you introduce response peaks at different frequencies. Very versatile once you figure it out. Anyway, what I think folks are hearing as weaker output from the bridge L-B1 is actually the relative lack of a resonance peak in the 3–4KHz range due to the thicker wire used with correspondingly fewer turns. We expect to hear this peak, and when we don't we miss it. Except for weirdos like me. :)

IMO Guild should get it "right" by winding both p'ups to traditional specs. But I like the "wrong" way too.

-Dave-

*In fact these pickups drive the front end of my old Vox AC15's Normal (EF86) channel harder than anything besides P-90s and the reissue Franzes in my Aristocrat. They sound huge into gain pedals too.
 
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GAD

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I just got a new set of NS pickups from Guild. I plan to test and 'scope them to see what's what.
 
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Own one myself and had issues with the trem too.
Took it to get set up and luthier replaced the screw that holds the arm in place with a black allen key type screw which you can adjust with a allen key. Not pretty but does the job.

He explained the Hagstrom screw does not go deep enough to hold the arm in place as I told him it rattled even if I tightened it as much as I could.
Although it is not the greatest vibrato, the arm does not rattle anymore.

Also, regarding the pickup issues with the neck pickup being hotter than the bridge.
There is a company in England called Radioshop Pickups who will rewind your NS LB-1 pickups to specs based on a 1967 Starfire that they used as a template, 6.7 bridge and 6.5 neck, which gets rid of the mismatched pickup issue.

Cost is £60 each plus shipping(Around $82 US, which is close to what Guild charges on their site). Haven't done it myself and have no connection to the company.

Attached is the website and a great video showing the whole process.

http://www.radioshoppickups.com/pickup-rewindsrepairs/

https://youtu.be/wQL3lKUd718

Hope this helps with the pickup and trem issues reported by LTG forumites,
 

Mr. Lumbergh

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These are such cool guitars. Proof right here:
Muddy%20Waters%209.jpg

If my experience with the Bluesbird I have incoming is as positive as I hope it will be, I'll be saving some dimes to get one of these as well.

EDIT: Not sure why, but I tried posting a pic of Muddy with a TBird, and it isn't showing.
 
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Zelja

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This and the Aristocrat make the most sense to me from the Newark Street line as the originals are so expensive. Have the NS Aristocrat so this one is next once I sell some other stuff. I will then likely get the bridge pickup rewound by Dave from Zhangbucker who did a great job on some NS Franz pickups.
 

adorshki

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EDIT: Not sure why, but I tried posting a pic of Muddy with a TBird, and it isn't showing.

It is now, at least, I can see it. (Great photo, too, worthy of the "Favorite photos of Guilds being played" thread)
Weird stuff like that happens sometimes, "browser issues" seem to be more frequent these days.
 
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