Newark Street T-Bird ST review

GAD

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I just realized that it's been over eight months since I published a review. Unacceptable! I did manage to write a book in that time, but no excuses!

Here's my review of the Newark Street T-Bird ST: http://www.gad.net/Blog/2019/02/28/guild-newark-street-t-bird-st/

Guild-NewarkStreet-TBird-ST-TopFull2.jpg
 

GAD

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Nitpick alert. Vintage hardware was nickel, modern is chrome.

I don't think that's accurate. Here's an LB1 (left) next to a vintage AntiHum (right). I'm happy to be proven wrong as I'm no metallurgist.

Guild-Antihum-LB1-Fronts.jpg
 

AcornHouse

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I don't think that's accurate. Here's an LB1 (left) next to a vintage AntiHum (right). I'm happy to be proven wrong as I'm no metallurgist.

Guild-Antihum-LB1-Fronts.jpg
I'm away from the bible, but I believe you may both be right. Nickel was commonly used into the mid-60s, with chrome then taking over. So a vintage cover might be either, depending on the vintage year.
 

adorshki

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I don't think that's accurate. Here's an LB1 (left) next to a vintage AntiHum (right). I'm happy to be proven wrong as I'm no metallurgist.

Guild-Antihum-LB1-Fronts.jpg

AS much as I want to trust Steve's input, this statement tends to support your original explanation about the color difference chrome and nickel:
"The appearance of decorative chrome primarily comes from the nickel plating. The thin layer of chrome that is applied on top of it will give a slight blue hue while the nickel underneath is more yellow. The chrome layer helps to protect against scratches and tarnish and adds to the corrosion resistance. Without the nickel layer, the finish would not be decorative, reflective and rust-resistant".
Having found that, I should point out I also found references to color additives being used in both plating processes.
 

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Your article states that the NS hsrdware is nickle, or dI'd I read that wrong?

The hardware is almost entirely nickel coated which differs from vintage Guilds that were almost all chrome.*
 
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GAD

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DThomasC

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Good review! I honestly enjoyed reading it, but I'm anxious to read your review of the blue one. You're generally not shy about your opinions, but you've been conspicuously silent about Franz pickups....
 

shihan

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I always learn something from your well written, witty reviews. Today I learned that I need a T-Bird!
 

GAD

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You want it? PM me. Will probably be for sale soon. I really dig it but I have no room.
 

EatTheBeat

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I’m not gonna pick apart your review, it was well done! I have the same model & same color so it was an interesting read for comparisons.

I was in the market for a humbucker (or close) guitar back in October when Sweetwater was blowing them out. Being a fan of offsets it was a no brainer to make the leap, so I grabbed mine for $359.

The build quality is excellent & I agree with what you say about how great the neck is. The frets and fret ends are all perfect on mine. Despite the neck being poly, I don’t find it sticky like I do on a couple other of my guitars. Being that I primarily play Jazzmaster’s, I was quite surprised how light the T-Bird is in comparison. I don’t weigh my guitars, but the weight difference is quite noticeable. No complaints. The pots are very smooth & a joy to use, & are actually useful. No issues with the toggle switch so far.

My issues with the guitar is the grommets around the tuners are loose & need to be glued in place. I plan on doing this the next string change, so no big whoop.

The other issue is with the pickups. I found the E A D strings on the neck position to be muddy. I spent a couple months messing with the pickup height, rotating the orientation, putting the neck in the bridge & vise versa, rotating that orientation, adjusting the pole pieces, removing the E A D pole screws, making amp adjustments, and more. At one point I had it up for trade on CL.

After reading a tip from a Seymour Duncan employee, I put the pickups back to the original configuration & soldered a .047uf cap between the neck lead wire & pot. Putting everything back together I reset the pole screws back to flush with the pickup cover, tuned the guitar up, and started playing. The mud was gone! Not only was it gone, but I was able to bring the neck pickup closer up to the strings. Going by memory the measurement height for the neck pickup is 4/64” on the low E & 3/64” for the high E, 4/64” for both sides for the bridge pickup. This is of course with the strings depressed at the last fret. I find the volume switching between the 2 pickups to be perfect. This height is also to my liking so YMMV. The bridge pickup is a bit thin sounding, however it does not bother me at all, I actually enjoy it.

Needless to say with this mod I’m really digging the guitar & will be keeping it. It’s been set up like this for a month now & I can now actually just pick it up & play without messing with it. This morning I just ordered a Duesenberg Les Trem II for it. I do miss a trem for clean playing & this seems like a far better alternative to the problematic Bigsby. The subtle pitch bends it does seems right up my alley being I love the JM trem. I’ll also be replacing the bridge saddles with roller saddles for tuning stability.

I really hope the pelham blue T-Birds with P90’s get blown out in the near future!
 

Quantum Strummer

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After reading a tip from a Seymour Duncan employee, I put the pickups back to the original configuration & soldered a .047uf cap between the neck lead wire & pot. Putting everything back together I reset the pole screws back to flush with the pickup cover, tuned the guitar up, and started playing. The mud was gone! Not only was it gone, but I was able to bring the neck pickup closer up to the strings.

Now this is an interesting approach: you made the neck pickup behave more like the bridge. Most folks with LB-1 issues want to go the other way. ;) Having an old Guild (Bluesbird) with two 5K-ish anti-hums, I like it!

The Les Trem is a great vibrato unit…I've got one in a custom Jazzmaster-ish build and use it a lot with minimal effect on in-tuneness.

-Dave-
 

EatTheBeat

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The neck still sounds very much like a neck pickup. With the cap it rolls off some of the low end the way a cross over can filtet frequencies. From what I’ve read elsewhere this seems like a common mod for hb neck pickups, with varying cap sizes to accomplish this.

Looking forward to this trem!
 
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Quantum Strummer

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At times from the late '50s–60s Rickenbacker used a cap inline with the bridge pickup to make it sound more wiry. My Model 450 is configured this way, though this guitar also locates the bridge pickup further away from the bridge than typical…probably to give it a bit more volume. Ric experimented quite a bit during the late '50s. Even with the cap the pickup volumes are fairly well balanced, not the case (cap or no cap) with the bridge p'up in the normal location.

Have fun with the Les Trem!

-Dave-
 
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