Hi guys, I wound up with a circa '70 M-75 hollow-body guitar

[gilded]

swiveltung, Default, you're both right. The body is 17 1/4" long, the lower shoulders are 13 1/2" wide and the depth is 2". Basically, Les Paul dimensions.

Sorry, I missed it.

 

[gilded]

Hey, guys, here's the latest on the BluesBird re EIA codes, what kind of tone caps are inside and more, more, more!

1) HARNESS WORK: my Repair Guy/good friend started pulling part of the harness out of the guitar, but things slowed down during removal of jack plug. He started digging around and found.....Cotton, lots of cotton! [See pic below]

I had not seen the cotton before because it was actually spread out against the inner edge of the body and probably had 'zero effect' on the ability of the guitar to keep from feeding back and 'maximum effect' on making sure that the Wiring Harness was jammed up, etc.

2) TONE CAPS: got some pics of part of the wiring. The tone caps are just what Ralf said they would be:

.047uF in neck tone cap
.01uF in bridge tone cap

I'm assuming that both sets of pots had original values of 500K for volume and 200K for tone. Again, thanking Ralf for the info on Guild potentiometers/

As for the tone caps, I'm gonna hang on to them until the right set of Gold HB-1s come along.

3) EIA CODES: Well, I asked 'My Guy' to tell me what the DOB codes were for what was left of the harness with the .047uF neck tone cap and a .01uF bridge. He said that while he could not read everything, he could tell that the pots were dated to '67 and '68. That said, it just says/means that the parts were used no earlier than '67 and '68, but most folks know that doesn't mean that the guitar itself wasn't born in '69 or '70.

There's a guy who builds pickups in my home-town in Tejas, so I'm hoping he'll look at the pickups and 'tell me the real story.'

 

[SFIV1967]

while he could not read everything he could tell that the pots were dated to '67 and '68.

Yes, looking for instance on the bridge tone pot you see
004019 (Guild 500kohms)
137 (CTS Chicago Telephone Supply, manufacturer #137) and
6746 (1967, 46th week):



The bridge P/U tone pot capacitor: 0.01mF (10nF = 10000pF) 200V Mullard 'mustard cap' from the legendary UK company. Originla for that vintage.

Now both volume pots are the newer style pots, so those might be the 1968 marked pots (marking hidden on the side):



And the light green 47nF cap between neck tone pot and neck volume pot is also an original one as far as I know:



The guitar might have had 4 times 500kohms potentiometers already.

Ralf

 

[gilded]

Ralf,
This is a clumsily formed question, but here goes:

The '004019' markings, are they a code used exclusively for CTS and Guild, or do other companies use/identify '004019' with Guild?

As well, thank you so much for sharing this info with me.

Best, gilded in Texas.

 

[GAD]

Ralf,
This is a clumsily formed question, but here goes:

The '004019' markings, are they a code used exclusively for CTS and Guild, or do other companies use/identify '004019' with Guild?

As well, thank you so much for sharing this info with me.

Best, gilded in Texas.

That's a Guild part number:

 

[GAD]

BTW I believe 004019 is 500 Ohm audio(log)-taper but it's been a while.

 

[gilded]

Thanks, GAD!
I get it, it’s like having Fender Part numbers
on some of the Fender amp transformers.

 

[lungimsam]

What a score!! Gorgeous axe! Bet it sounds amazing. I hope to get a Guild electric one day.

 

[drc]

This thread was a good read. Awesome information and awesome guitar!

 

[chazmo]

Hey, Sand! Did I tell you I have a '93 MIJ fretless jazz? It's a hum-dinger!

I think we gotta' see some pictures of this, Harry!!!

 

[gilded]

What a score!! Gorgeous axe! Bet it sounds amazing. I hope to get a Guild electric one day.

'sam, what kind of guitars do you have? Electrics? Acoustics? Guilds? Not-Guilds?

 

[gilded]

This thread was a good read. Awesome information and awesome guitar!

Dave, it has been a good read, hasn't it? I've learned a lot, since joining up in 2007!

This thread was a good read. Awesome information and awesome guitar!

 

[gilded]

I think we gotta' see some pictures of this, Harry!!!

Glad to put in some pics, chazmo, but it'll take me about a week. In the meantime, it's a black-bodied fretless. Very nice rosewood, maybe coloration is a little bit on the light side. It has good figuring on the board.

The case is mid-late '90s Fender Black case with the Red Label.

gilded

 

[lungimsam]

'sam, what kind of guitars do you have? Electrics? Acoustics? Guilds? Not-Guilds?

I have one electric guitar and 4 basses.
I would one day like to add a mahogany/rosewood/ebony Guild to complement the maple neck Strat:

Fender Blue Flower Strat
Guild Starfire II bass
Ric 4003 bass
Fender Blue Flower Pbass
Gibson LPDCT bass

 

[gilded]

I have one electric guitar and 4 basses.
I would one day like to add a mahogany/rosewood/ebony Guild to complement the maple neck Strat:

Fender Blue Flower Strat
Guild Starfire II bass
Ric 4003 bass
Fender Blue Flower Pbass
Gibson LPDCT bass

Looks like a good collection. I started out on an EB-3 around '72-3. Then I heard a guy play Fender Jazz Bass as an accompanist to a wonderful guitar player named Jim Hall and the rest of my 'Bass Life' has been mostly Fender Jazz and my '66 Starfire I bass.

 

[lungimsam]

Thanks.
As a kid in the 70’s I remember my Dad had the Jim Hall/Red Mitchel (upright bass) gatefold LP. We used to listen together to a lotta stuff. Fender Jazz bass accompaniment would be interesting to hear.
If your EB3 was anything like my modern Gibson SG bass I used to have back in 2011, then I know why you went to a Jazz bass after hearing one! A Jazz and a Starfire covers just about any genre. Nice choices!!