M-75 Aristocrat Newark St.

[guitarlover]

Goldtop was a limited edition and I have one ! Great guitars.

 

[SFIV1967]

Update on the back of the Newark St. Aristocrat: All info was in my NAMM 2013 report (I only repaired post #1 and #5 there, the other posts all still have missing pictures as the old picture hosting company went out of business):

NAMM 2013: Newark St. Collection electric models

NAMM 2013: Newark St.™ Collection electric models "Guild is proud to announce the Newark St. Collection, the return of eight classic Guild electric favorites from the 1950s and ’60s—once again putting the distinctive Guild styling and voice that helped shape popular music into the hands of...

letstalkguild.com

Ralf

 

[Stefan Eff]

Update on the back of the Newark St. Aristocrat: All info was in my NAMM 2013 report (I only repaired post #1 and #5 there, the other posts all still have missing pictures as the old picture hosting company went out of business):

NAMM 2013: Newark St. Collection electric models

NAMM 2013: Newark St.™ Collection electric models "Guild is proud to announce the Newark St. Collection, the return of eight classic Guild electric favorites from the 1950s and ’60s—once again putting the distinctive Guild styling and voice that helped shape popular music into the hands of...

letstalkguild.com

Ralf

Interesting! The Franz reissues in the Newark St. Aristocrat are the same like in the Patriarch?
I liked them a lot in my Manhattan but love them in the Aristocrat. Seems they’re perfect for the special M-75 construction. So sensitive...a wonderful pickup for dynamic players. Alnico2 is very nice, works also fantastic in Telly bridge pickups.

The only bug: the height of the bridge pickup! It‘s simply 1-2 mms too high. My Aristocrat got a nice string height with her wonderful straight neck (1.65 mm on both E-strings) but the high e‘ could easily reach the 1.5 mm range if the pickup wouldn‘t sit that high. I guess I‘ll try to sand the cover down at least 1 mm. But hey, that’s a real luxury bug!

 

[SFIV1967]

The Franz reissues in the Newark St. Aristocrat are the same like in the Patriarch?

Yes. The only difference was that the Newark St. version comes with quick connectors between pickup and harness and in the American Patriarch the pickups were soldered to the harness as far as I remember.

My American Patriarch report from NAMM 2013 was the below, unfortunatelly I can't repair the pictures and videos as I get an error message: "Please enter a message with no more than 10000 characters." The old forum software back in 2013 allowed longer posts....

NAMM 2013: New Custom Shop American Patriarch™ Series

NAMM 2013: New Custom Shop American Patriarch™ Series In celebration of Guild’s 60th Anniversary, the iconic American company has officially opened the GUILD® CUSTOM SHOP in New Hartford, Connecticut. The GUILD® CUSTOM SHOP in New Hartford not only introduced a whole new series of acoustic...

letstalkguild.com

Ralf

 

[Stefan Eff]

Any chance to get those beautiful vintage knobs somewhere?

 

[freddyfingers]

Hi, my first post ;-)

I‘ve recently bought a very inspiring M-75 Goldtop: great guitar, fine build quality, fantastic tone, superb playing comfort.

No need for any modding except a bridge swap (Truarc Serpentune).
But I‘d like to know:
is it a laminated or massive spruce top?
Are sides and back laminated or massive mahogany?

What about the woods used on the old originals? Massive or laminated?

Thanks much for some information!

Ive seen this somewhere before. Just cant put my finger on it. Still a sharp guitar!

 

[Stefan Eff]

Ive seen this somewhere before. Just cant put my finger on it. Still a sharp guitar!

You‘ve seen it on Gretsch Talk

 

[Stefan Eff]

Those are pretty similar to the vintage knobs on the Patriarch, no?

 

[parker_knoll]

Hi, my first post ;-)

I‘ve recently bought a very inspiring M-75 Goldtop: great guitar, fine build quality, fantastic tone, superb playing comfort.

No need for any modding except a bridge swap (Truarc Serpentune).
But I‘d like to know:
is it a laminated or massive spruce top?
Are sides and back laminated or massive mahogany?

What about the woods used on the old originals? Massive or laminated?

Thanks much for some information!

Did you change the knobs? They look great, by the way.

I must admit I'm tempted by one of these but absolutely CANNOT justify it

 

[Stefan Eff]

@parker_knoll: Nope, just ordered. They‘re from the Savoy, a bit different but nevertheless pretty similar.

 

[parker_knoll]

@parker_knoll: Nope, just ordered. They‘re from the Savoy, a bit different but nevertheless pretty similar.

I mean the gold ones in your first picture as they are not the standard clear Guild knobs. They look like Gibson top hats.

 

[Stefan Eff]

I mean the gold ones in your first picture as they are not the standard clear Guild knobs. They look like Gibson top hats.

Yep, those are Gibson Hats from the pre owner, the originals were in the case and already swapped. But I prefer the vintage clear amber knobs

 

[Stefan Eff]

Isn‘t she lovely?
I‘m playing for three hours now and couldn‘t get enough. A dream guitar. If you’re interested- I‘ve wrote a little review on Gretsch Talk:

Review: My Guild M-75 Aristocrat

GUILD M-75 ARISTOCRAT Newark St. (2014) The Guild M-75 Aristocrat was originally introduced in 1954 (reissued in 2013). The guitar looks similar to a Duo Jet or Les Paul but it‘s got a completely different construction. My reissue is one of the rare gold tops, only 24 were delivered to europe...

www.gretsch-talk.com

 

[SFIV1967]

That is a great review on Gretsch Talk! Regarding the mounting of the pickups. On the original 50ies version there are actually two fat braces in parallel which run on both sides of the pickup holes. Below is a view again through the removed output socket. Where I have the red arrow there is the bridge pickup hole and towards the right the neck pickup hole. Guild added at the holes another additional piece of wood and you see where they routed through the main bracing and why that added piece of wood makes sense. (where the light shines through).

Now to lower the pickup you could simply take a sharp chisel and take a bit of the wood away, so the pickup sits lower in the hole.

The below picture shows the same spot from the top, again marked with a red arrow. You can also see that the main bracing is where the pickup is screwed into and the additional piece just closes the sides. So sanding the plastic cover will not lower your pickup, you need to chisel a bit of the two main bracings out. If you have a Dremel tool you could also just mark the outline of the bottom plate of the pickup and rout the bracing out. You can't really damage anything, in case you routed too deep you simply add a wooden shim and your pickup goes up again.

And here is the neck pickup removed, you see they also made space for the pickup wires in the bracings. What you also see, the pickups were only mounted with two screws! No holes in the wood for the other two screws! So Guild saved screws in the past!

Ralf

 

[Stefan Eff]

That is a great review on Gretsch Talk! Regarding the mounting of the pickups. On the original 50ies version there are actually two fat braces in parallel which run on both sides of the pickup holes. Below is a view again through the removed output socket. Where I have the red arrow there is the bridge pickup hole and towards the right the neck pickup hole. Guild added at the holes another additional piece of wood and you see where they routed through the main bracing and why that added piece of wood makes sense. (where the light shines through).

Now to lower the pickup you could simply take a sharp chisel and take a bit of the wood away, so the pickup sits lower in the hole.

The below picture shows the same spot from the top, again marked with a red arrow. You can also see that the main bracing is where the pickup is screwed into and the additional piece just closes the sides. So sanding the plastic cover will not lower your pickup, you need to chisel a bit of the two main bracings out. If you have a Dremel tool you could also just mark the outline of the bottom plate of the pickup and rout the bracing out. You can't really damage anything, in case you routed too deep you simply add a wooden shim and your pickup goes up again.

Ralf

Thanks a lot, very interesting and helpful!
My thought was sanding the pickup cover let it sit straight on the pickup (with the polepieces came completely out). That little space is enough. Anyways I‘ll have to see first if I generate space by swapping the Truarc for the flatter Bigsby bridge.

 

[walrus]

I'm late to this party, but great first post and great looking guitar! Welcome!

walrus

 

[Stefan Eff]

Swapped the Serpentune for the Bigsby Bridge after slotting and dead flat sanding. That looks a lot prettier, no? I‘ve always loved the simple oldskool look of the Bigsby Bridges!
Differences:
Very subtle. The Bigs got a tad more twang on the wound strings and it‘s all in all a hair brighter. The copper Serpentune puts a bit more „body“ in the tone. Intonation is great on both.
At first I wasn‘t sure but after a second try I‘ll keep it.

 

[F30]

That looks really sweet now

 

[RicoWindstar]

These Goldtops are beautiful, I have one myself. Anyone on here have an idea of the value of one these days?

 

[Stefan Eff]

These Goldtops are beautiful, I have one myself. Anyone on here have an idea of the value of one these days?

Here in europe they‘re offered for their regular retail price of ~ 2014. But I‘ve also seen an offer in France for 1.3k (€). They‘re rare birds.