Thunderface said:
Great for rock and blues. I wouldn't necessarily think it would lend itself as well to jazz, but I don't play a lot of jazz, so I'm not the best judge of such things. It's got a fuller, thicker tone than my other Guilds and has tons of sustain.
Sorry, I would have answered sooner, but - funny enough - I was playing the M-80. Oh, and the '96. Tuned it to Eflat and went palm-mute-triplet-crazy with some Slayer riffs. Whew...forearms need more exercise.
Okay, I'm never sure exactly how to describe the sound of guitars and pickups. In my mind there are two main tones - vintage and modern. The Guild HB-1 pickups in my S-100's are on one end of the spectrum with a tone that definitely falls into the vintage category. Think of old Sabbath. On the modern side would be the Seymour Duncans in the '96. They have a crisper, more modern tone. I don't know if that really makes sense, but if it does imagine the XR7's in the M-80 somewhere in between (although a tad closer to the vintage sound of the HB-1's).
What I can tell you about these pickups and what I play is that they all maintain definition no matter what pickup selection I use, or if I use the phase switch, tweak the tone/volume on the guitar or on the amp, etc. I play mainly with the mids and highs cut down really far and the bass way up. Then there's the question of amp and speakers: I have a 1990 Marshall JCM 900 model 4100/dual reverb (which I never use) that can blow the walls out of my house. It's designed for more lead playing than I do, but I replaced the 12AX7 preamp tube with a 12AT7 (per capnjuan) to cut the shrillness out of the gain a bit. My 4x12 cab is a Peavey from 1988 - the height of metal - and probably doesn't give me quite the tone I would ideally like to get, but I traded a cheap Ibanez someone gave me for it. So it cost me nothing. It has two Peavey speakers and two Celestion GK12-85's.
Whatever, the point is that I play with tones that essentially drive my amp and speakers to a bottom they aren't really designed to handle, but the HB-1's and XR7's handle those ranges just fine. I dig 'em both. I could get into more comparisons and a list of the differences, but in the end they are different beasts (as is the '96). The neck on the M-80 is the same as the S300, so you might dig one of those. I have no idea how the M-80's pickups would compare to the DiMarzios in your guitar, but DiMarzio made them both.
Also, it should be noted that I only really ever play through the neck pickup. Sometimes I want the twangy compressed sound of the phase switch, so I leave the switch on and flip the pickup selector to the middle for it then back. It's a lot easier than trying to flip that tiny little phase switch.
You know, you should probably just get one of everything for your collection so you can try them out yourself. :lol: :lol: :lol:
One more thing about HB-1's: the S300-A has the same p'ups as my S-100's but it sounds a tad more metal. A bit harsher, but still with the same smooth vintage tone. I guess it's the ash vs. the 'hog.
