Neal
Senior Member
As some of you know, I have become interested (addicted?) to NYC Guild archtops.
One of my recent acquisitions was a ~'53 X-150 redburst prototype that needed a full re-fret and fretboard leveling job, which was done beautifully by my luthier.
Once I got it back, I naturally wanted to A/B it against my very similar '54 X-200S. Both were strung with Elixer Heavy Nanowebs (12-54). The X-200S sounded great. The X-150 sounded somewhat harsh and brittle.
In order to soften the tone a bit, I put some D'Addario Chrome ECG24 flatwound strings on the X-150 and...
Wow. Night and day difference in tone. Warm, rich, but still very articulate.
Funny how two guitars that are virtually identical (except for the cutaway) can respond so differently to string choice.
I have not tried the Chromes on the X-200S, but am now tempted. As is, I can now reach for each of them to get a completely different vibe.
One of my recent acquisitions was a ~'53 X-150 redburst prototype that needed a full re-fret and fretboard leveling job, which was done beautifully by my luthier.
Once I got it back, I naturally wanted to A/B it against my very similar '54 X-200S. Both were strung with Elixer Heavy Nanowebs (12-54). The X-200S sounded great. The X-150 sounded somewhat harsh and brittle.
In order to soften the tone a bit, I put some D'Addario Chrome ECG24 flatwound strings on the X-150 and...
Wow. Night and day difference in tone. Warm, rich, but still very articulate.
Funny how two guitars that are virtually identical (except for the cutaway) can respond so differently to string choice.
I have not tried the Chromes on the X-200S, but am now tempted. As is, I can now reach for each of them to get a completely different vibe.