Another Mystery guitar/ left handed

[Stanthemanllan]

I bought this guitar about 20 years ago from Adirondack Guitars. I was told that it was built by one of the original luthiers / employee at Guild Rhode Island?

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG! I don't have an answer to your question, but to me, that headstock looks like something from Multivox Premier. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will swing by with an answer.

 

[Stanthemanllan]

Thanks for allowing me to join the group.
I was told the guitar was made circa 1970
I have a copy of The Guild Guitar book and there is a photo of Gilbert Diaz with possibly the only lefty T 500. I’m wondering if he made, or had made for him, this guitar?

 

[JohnW63]

I haven't seen a sunburst like that. Could be refinished.

 

[Stanthemanllan]

I agree, I’ve not seen a similar sunburst.
Definitely not refinished, it’s original

 

[dreadnut]

Unique for sure. Looks like an old Hoboken headstock, but Thunderbird inlay...

 

[GGJaguar]

Also appears to have Fender HB-1 pickups.

 

[fronobulax]

FWIW the knobs are Guild. Someone with more motivation might be able to date them by the labeling. Also there is "Guild" on the headstock which was not obvious to me until I enlarged the image. Maybe I shouldn't be cynical about the employee/factory connection. In some areas Pat. Pending, Pat. Applied For and a patent number can be used to date things. Would that apply to the Bigsby?

 

[Stanthemanllan]

Yes Guild is clearly marked on the headstock but seems to be deliberately faded so it doesn’t stand out
No serial number or anything inside the guitar
It’s a lovely guitar and plays really well

 

[DThomasC]

I'd say there's plenty of Guild inspired details, but I doubt that came from the Guild factory or was even assembled outside the factory with Guild parts. It does say "Guild" on the headstock, but it doesn't look like any that I've seen on a mustache headstock. The line under the letters is too low compared to the letters. The TRC looks Guild inspired, but it has three mounting screws! The fingerboard inlays look like those on some high-end Guilds, but they really aren't right.

As for the body, the visual quality of the maple is poor. I suppose it's possible that it was originally an X-170 or something similar. If so it must have had a solid color opaque finish.

The pickups do look like Fender HB-1 and may have come from the same donor as the knobs, and possibly the bridge. It looks like it might be a Gotoh as used on many Guild electrics during the 1990's and 2000's, which would have been around the same time that the Fender HB-1's were used. Can't tell from the photos.

But honestly, too much about it says fake for me to think that anyone from Guild had anything to do with its manufacture.

 

[Stanthemanllan]

DThomas C Thanks for the detailed analysis and I’m grateful for your knowledgable assessment
All I know for sure is that when I communicated with the owner of Adirodack Guitars in New York State he was fairly sure that the guitar had been made by an employee of Guild back in the early 70s
I guess it’s definitely unique and certainly plays well,
Regardless of its “design flaws”
Maybe the maker wasn’t looking to exactly replicate a specific Guild guitar, but put something together to suit the player with various parts and hardware that were available to him

 

[DThomasC]

Yes, that is definitively a possibility. It's clearly a fine guitar. I wish the two of you a long happy life together.

 

[SFIV1967]

My 5 cents: Seems to look like a nice guitar and a nice finish! And you said it plays nice! Sounds like a nice guitar!

Now to the details I notice regarding a possible Guild employee connection:
The GUILD font used is not the real Guild font but just a kind of copy. Different angle as well.
Those pickups and that specific type of black pickup rings didn't exist in the 70ies but only end of the 90ies. If the guitar is from the 70ies it had different pickups at some point in time.
The knobs are the after 1973 models.
The outer body shape is a X-170/X-175 shape but the f-holes are not Guild shaped f-holes as far as I can see.
The knob position is not a position Guild used.
The headstock shape is not a Guild shape either.
The TRC shape is not Guild hence probably also the TRC not and also the neck not.
Mean many points do not match Guild factory origin of the whitewood parts.
Which does not mean that it still could be a guitar a Guild employee built in his spare time. I highly doubt Gilbert Diaz would have had anything to do with it.

Ralf

 

[Stanthemanllan]

Ralf. Thanks very much for your comments
I’m certainly getting a better understanding of its history, the only thing I’m not so sure about are the pickups. I’ve had the guitar for about 20 years so when I acquired it the pickups would have been less than 10 years old, however they seemed pretty aged and worn even when I bought it
I’ve taken a closer pic and if you’re sure they’re from the 90s, I’m not going to disagree. Regards John

 

[JohnW63]

The type of mounting screws and their placement tells a few of the pickup nerds something. I'm not one, but... try some of GADs blogs:

Guild HB1 Pickups: New vs. Old | GAD's Ramblings

As you may know, I am a huge fan of Guild guitars and especially their vintage HB1 pickups. Guild recently released a new version of the coveted HB1s, so I bought one and decided to see how it compared with a vintage model. As of right now, this comparison is only regarding appearance and size. …

www.gad.net

Guild Full-Sized HB1 and SD1 Pickup Variations | GAD's Ramblings

One of the questions I see on the guitar forums quite a bit is, “What kind of pickups does this Guild guitar have?” Since I’ve posted in many of these threads, I seem to get a lot of emails with the same question. I thought that I might write up a quick summary of the …

www.gad.net

He may be along shortly to elaborate in even more detail.

 

[SFIV1967]

I’ve had the guitar for about 20 years so when I acquired it the pickups would have been less than 10 years old, however they seemed pretty aged and worn even when I bought it

Agreed, the pickups look "old". But the gold plating was very thin only and it was easy to polish or rub it off.
When you change strings next time, take them out and look at the bottom, I'm sure they are Fender made which means from the late 90ies. They would look like this on the left (Guild branded), the right is the Fender own version:

Ralf

 

[gilded]

What does the case look like? Is it a good fit? Is it a Guild case?

Nice looking guitar, by the way.

 

[kakerlak]

For clarification -- the reason folks here are assuming they're the Fender version is the screw spacing on the side that has the tilt adjust was closer together with the Fender version and a bit wider apart on the original Guild pickups. The black screws is also a Fender thing, but those can be changed. You can see it a bit in GAD's pics at his site. The old ones (with the wider spacing) had those adjust screws nominally centered along the pole screws/slug poles in the pickup, whereas the Fender ones sit noticeably inside.

Does some of the wear/black staining in the top look like it's under the finish to you? It sort of looks like it had some substantial pick wear above the bass strings. I wonder if this is something that might've started life in the seventies and gotten reworked a bit shortly before it came into your life? Maybe somebody refinished it and wasn't happy with the way the burst came out and sold it off.

Pretty interesting guitar! It definitely has the look of something luthier-made and not simply a budget guitar passed off as a Guild for a quick buck, like so many of the recent fake acoustics we've seen. And obviously, somebody had access to some Guild parts, regardless of era. It'd be interesting to put this back-to-back with a right-handed X-170 and see how close the body outlines are.

 

[SFIV1967]

It'd be interesting to put this back-to-back with a right-handed X-170 and see how close the body outlines are.

The f-holes are definitely different.

Ralf

 

[kakerlak]

The f-holes are definitely different.

Ralf

Thanks for the side-by-side, Ralf! Looks like the cutaway is a little more elegant/pleasing on OP's guitar, too, but they're definitely close. What's the story on the double-wide bridge on that photo you scrounged up?