I recently purchased one of the special run a150’s. Its in white, Grover imperial tuners and the rhythm chief 1100 pickup. Other than that, its the same guitar. I really like the white finish. Because of the few differences, the prices jump. Its the most expensive archtop electric they make. There is one or two out here with standard tuners, but these were listing at 1599. Was told only about 8 were made of this run. So i shopped around and waited for a good deal. I found a store that normally sells pointy guitars, but has one of these in stock as the guild salesman brought it in and hyped it up. Got almost no playing for even being picked up to look at. So they made me an offer, and shipped it out. I am not one for flat wounds, these come with them. I played it a bit with the flat wounds, and tried a few different round wounds in the same 12 gauge. Overall, its a great guitar for what i paid for it. I think the 1100 pickup is a better sound for me, but the controls on the pickgaurd leave a bit to be desired. The tone knob can be turned 50 percent before it engages, and then it goes full tone drop. Having played it a few days i noticed that no matter what i did, there was string buzz. I raised the bridge ridiculously high, and any time i played notes over the 12th fret, i got buzz. Took it to a local luthier at guilds request, and he mentioned there were multiple high frets after the 12th fret, and a few here and there along the fret board. Guild did send me a return label, and i shipped it out to them last week. Its been there since last Tuesday. They will access and determine if they can fix it, or take it from there. Down side is that they cant get another one just like it as only 8 were made. I don’t want the standard version with the 1000 pickup, so i will wait and see what happens. i didnt send it back to where i bought it from for two reasons, they dont sell or work on archtops, and they count replace it either with the same model.
So , short story made long, i like the guitar, it plays very well, the solid top does project better than some other electric archtops I have had, but nothing like my solid wood Eastman ar610. So it doesn’t hold up at all in a acoustic jam setting, but it does help it project. It looks sharp. Over all the details look good, with a few minor imperfections. I am guessing that the standard a150 sounds identical, and if I swapped the pickup it would be minus the white and gold trim on this one. I would recommend it overall, regardless of what becomes of the one i sent in for repair. I will follow up if anyone wants to know what guild says about it.
