stellerscrub
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2018
- Messages
- 19
- Reaction score
- 1
First post here; sorry, I haven't figured out how to add photos yet.
For years, my main electric was a blonde CE100d a friend calls my "Guildson." Sometime between its manufacture in Hoboken in 1965 and when I bought it in 1978 from Guitars Unlimited in Menlo Park, someone decided to make it even more like the Gibson ES175 by swapping out the original Guild pickups for Gibson “patent #” humbuckers. A new pickguard was made to accommodate the larger Gibson pickups. The tuning machines were also replaced with Schallers. It's got a great neck and a wide range of tones, from jazz to blues and rock to rockabilly twang (thought I don't indulge in the last very often).
Having acquired other guitars recently, I don't play this one much any more, and I think it ought to be in the hands of a serious jazz student or working musician. But the volume pots have gotten noisy, and it may need some electronics work, possibly a whole new wiring harness. I am considering restoring it to more or less original specs, with current Guild humbuckers and the nearest I can find to the original pickguard. (The Gibson pickups have some resale value, which could help finance the project.) On the other hand, I could go full Gibson and rewire to ES175 specs, with options of "modern" or "50s" wiring.
Anyone have any advice on this project? Are there likely to be technical/parts hurdles in going back to the original pickup mounts, etc? Thanks in advance.
For years, my main electric was a blonde CE100d a friend calls my "Guildson." Sometime between its manufacture in Hoboken in 1965 and when I bought it in 1978 from Guitars Unlimited in Menlo Park, someone decided to make it even more like the Gibson ES175 by swapping out the original Guild pickups for Gibson “patent #” humbuckers. A new pickguard was made to accommodate the larger Gibson pickups. The tuning machines were also replaced with Schallers. It's got a great neck and a wide range of tones, from jazz to blues and rock to rockabilly twang (thought I don't indulge in the last very often).
Having acquired other guitars recently, I don't play this one much any more, and I think it ought to be in the hands of a serious jazz student or working musician. But the volume pots have gotten noisy, and it may need some electronics work, possibly a whole new wiring harness. I am considering restoring it to more or less original specs, with current Guild humbuckers and the nearest I can find to the original pickguard. (The Gibson pickups have some resale value, which could help finance the project.) On the other hand, I could go full Gibson and rewire to ES175 specs, with options of "modern" or "50s" wiring.
Anyone have any advice on this project? Are there likely to be technical/parts hurdles in going back to the original pickup mounts, etc? Thanks in advance.