BradHK
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- Joined
- Jul 1, 2014
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Sometimes I question my sanity. I can’t seem to control myself when I find a vintage Guild in need of rescuing in which somebody has either neglected, made modifications or installed non-guild components. I also have a soft spot for rare Guilds such as my 1954 Aristocrat, Emerald Star, etc. that I have rescued. I just purchased the guitar in this discussion from a few years ago to rescue:
To summarize for those who do not want to go through the details of that prior post, it is a 1965 Guild that is a mix of a Thunderbird body with a Polara neck. The neck has dot inlays, no binding, and a chesterfield rather than a Bird inlay. However, it has the early pointy headstock shape of the Thunderbirds and Polaras. I received the guitar yesterday and have the advantage of comparing it directly side by side to my 1963 Thunderbird and 1964 Polara. There is no evidence that the neck was replaced and all body routing under the pickguard looks original and matches my Thunderbird. The pickguard looks like an original Thunderbird part with the correct material and recessed step for the selector switch plates. The neck is that nice chunky early Thunderbird and Polara neck and has a 1 11/16” nut. I love these necks. It also has a great neck angle and plenty of room to lower the bridge. I have no idea how this guitar actually left the Guild factory in 1965 but it is kinda cool and interesting.
The bad news is that it has been refinished (pretty good nitro job but needs a cut and polish), the pickguard has been hacked to add (on top!) a pickguard ”ring“ for aftermarket pickups and the same happened at the rhythm selector switch. Needless to say, unfortunately this pickguard is not useable. Tuners have also been swapped but with no new holes so I can easily put back in original tuners. There was also a TOM bridge installed but they just put it on top of the original Hagstrom post so that’s an easy fix. The metal stand has also been lost unfortunately. Other than the pickguard and metal kickstand I have all parts in my “spare parts” box to include anti-hum pickups and the hinge for the stand.
I plan to rescue with vintage anti-hum pickups, new pickguard, Guild knobs, etc as this is too unique to leave it the way it was. I will post finished pics but here is a before picture (the bridge has already been swapped out with a correct Hagstrom in this photo):
Guild S200 No Bird?
Hey all, huge guild fan hoping to get some info on this S200. It seems to be a real one and the serial number indicates its from '64 but it essentially has an S100 Polara neck, no block inlays and the chesterfield logo instead of the bird. The only other one I found like this is this one on...
letstalkguild.com
To summarize for those who do not want to go through the details of that prior post, it is a 1965 Guild that is a mix of a Thunderbird body with a Polara neck. The neck has dot inlays, no binding, and a chesterfield rather than a Bird inlay. However, it has the early pointy headstock shape of the Thunderbirds and Polaras. I received the guitar yesterday and have the advantage of comparing it directly side by side to my 1963 Thunderbird and 1964 Polara. There is no evidence that the neck was replaced and all body routing under the pickguard looks original and matches my Thunderbird. The pickguard looks like an original Thunderbird part with the correct material and recessed step for the selector switch plates. The neck is that nice chunky early Thunderbird and Polara neck and has a 1 11/16” nut. I love these necks. It also has a great neck angle and plenty of room to lower the bridge. I have no idea how this guitar actually left the Guild factory in 1965 but it is kinda cool and interesting.
The bad news is that it has been refinished (pretty good nitro job but needs a cut and polish), the pickguard has been hacked to add (on top!) a pickguard ”ring“ for aftermarket pickups and the same happened at the rhythm selector switch. Needless to say, unfortunately this pickguard is not useable. Tuners have also been swapped but with no new holes so I can easily put back in original tuners. There was also a TOM bridge installed but they just put it on top of the original Hagstrom post so that’s an easy fix. The metal stand has also been lost unfortunately. Other than the pickguard and metal kickstand I have all parts in my “spare parts” box to include anti-hum pickups and the hinge for the stand.
I plan to rescue with vintage anti-hum pickups, new pickguard, Guild knobs, etc as this is too unique to leave it the way it was. I will post finished pics but here is a before picture (the bridge has already been swapped out with a correct Hagstrom in this photo):