Hey Ralf is this an M75?

[adorshki]

As usual, while looking for something else, I came across this live video of It's A Beautiful Day doing "White Bird" at Tanglewood 1970.

I was digging the guitar solo starting about 3:15, thinking to myself "Sweet tone, man, shades of John Cipollina even..." (Quicksilver Messenger Service), when I finally saw a shot of the front of the guitar at about 3:59.

I'm thinkin' "Nah, gotta be a Gibson or Epi headstock flash", but then a couple of seconds later, at 4:01 we get the best view of the headstock, and by golly it looks right and it looks like the rooftop logo is there. And the body shape's got that distinctively shaped cutaway horn, and it's even got (I assume) a Guildsby.

Most important, that tone!! Reminded me of "Darkness Darkness"... so I'm bettin' it's an M75 or even a Bluesbird?



Heck, I was thinkin' about posting it anyway before I saw that!! So I hope this won't be "hard duty" for you as detective work goes.....

Edit: Posted the above before I even finished watching the vid, but if that's not a Guild headstock at 5:53, I don't know what else it could be!

 

[krysh]

I'm not Ralf but I see a M-75 from ca. 1970 with added bigsby. So it is a Bluesbird.

 

[walrus]

Me, too! Nice catch, Al!

walrus

 

[jp]

Bass player is also playing an impossibly rare Rickenbacker 4005 semi-hollow bass. Very cool!

 

[matsickma]

Yep... I say a M75 Bluesbird with the Guildsby. The guitar looks like it has the smaller "anti hum" pickups. The Guildsby has the tension bar that usually goes with a semihollow SF5 guitar. You could use that Bigsby especially if a block of wood is inserted under the top sound board and Guildsby screwed into it.
Definitely a sweet sounding guitar tone. I'm suprised the antihum's sound that good. Looks like the Neck pickup position was selected.
M

 

[SFIV1967]

Hal Wagenet with a 1969 or early 1970 BluesBird M-75 in black with bound back and a neck set at the 18th fret and mini-humbuckers and aftermarket added bigsby. And removed pickguard.

Mitchell Holman with the Rickenbacker 4005 bass (toggle switch changed to pot).

Ralf

 

[adorshki]

Me, too! Nice catch, Al!

walrus

Good thing I was drinking beer on the job, eh?

Yep... I say a M75 Bluesbird with the Guildsby. The guitar looks like it has the smaller "anti hum" pickups. The Guildsby has the tension bar that usually goes with a semihollow SF5 guitar. You could use that Bigsby especially if a block of wood is inserted under the top sound board and Guildsby screwed into it.
Definitely a sweet sounding guitar tone. I'm surprised the antihum's sound that good. Looks like the Neck pickup position was selected.
M

Wasn't there a version of the Bluesbird that actually had a through-body piece similar to the "semi-hollow" SF's right about that time, or is that what you meant?

I only see reference to the archtop and solid-body versions in Hans' book.. But since the solid body was introduced in '70, maybe this is one of the solid bodies? Or am I missing something.?

But I wouldn't expect that kind of tone from a solid body...