New Guild owner, first post A-150

[Sideman]

Hello all. I just recently acquired my first archtop, a 1959 Guild A-150. I don't really know much about these and haven't been able to find one like it online. It's definitely been played, but seems to be in pretty decent shape for a 53 year old guitar. There are some scratches on the top finish, the binding has come loose in a couple spots and it looks like the bridge may be starting to collapse toward the neck a little bit. The neck is really nicely warn in and I love the shape of it. It plays pretty nicely but buzzes a little on the low E. It could probably stand to have a truss rod adjustment to add a little relief. It doesn't have a pickup.

Oh yeah, and I got it for the best deal imaginable.

Does anyone have any insider knowledge on these guys? Any ideas what it might be worth? I'm not planning on selling it, but am curious. I'm going to take it down to my local luthier for a look and maybe have him do some restoration depending on what it will cost.

Anybody have any thoughts on adding a pickup to it? I would love to hear any opinions from those who are more familiar with these guitars.

Thanks!

 

[krysh]

welcome and congrats to your great taste in guitars.
there will soon sobody here to help with infos better than I can.
post well and post often.

 

[laverda]

What a gorgeous guitar!

Welcome to LTG. As Krysh already said someone will certainly be along to help answer your questions.
Cheers,
Mick

 

[southernGuild]

I cant help regarding priceing either, But, Wow what a sweet old Guild. If she sounds half as good as she looks, I would'nt think about selling it either.
Lovely guitar, and great first post.
Welcome to LTG, Enjoy.

 

[AcornHouse]

Welcome, and Nice!

A '59 Savoy A-150 in good to excellent condition is worth between $1700-2100, so, depending on what you paid for it, you probably have some room for the repair work. Adding a single, floating, humbucking neck pickup was an option, and turns the A-150 into an X-150.

 

[Jeff Haddad]

That's a beautiful guitar - congrats! A floating pickup as mentioned will allow you to amplify the guitar without doing anything more than adding a couple screw holes in the neck. I wouldn't even do that, but that's me - nobody would want to hear me trying to play jazz on it!

I believe the A-350 has a carved solid top instead of laminated top. Maybe try some acoustic-type strings on it and see if the heavier gauge puts enough tension on the neck to give a little relief.

Welcome!

 

[killdeer43]

WELCOME TO LTG!
That's a great looking Guild and a good start for the Guilds that will follow.

Keep it tuned,
Joe

 

[Ravon]

Wow, what a fine guitar! Like Jeff said, to add a floating pickup one would have to drill a couple holes in the side of the neck. And all the floating P/U's I've seen usually has material scooped away from the pick guard to accomodate to width of the P/U. With those alterations, the collectability/desirability of the guitar would diminish so much. I'd say unless you can find a period correct P/U P/G assembly I wouldn't touch it. And of course the obvious would not be to route any big holes in that fine carved top to plunker down any p/u that way. As been said also, try acoustic strings and maybe just try to mic it. Congratulations on scoring a wonderful Guild.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Welcome, nice first post.

Please don't put a pick-up on that beautiful guitar!

Just hang out here for a while and we'll find you a Guild with a pick-up! :lol:

 

[dapmdave]

Welcome, nice first post.

Please don't put a pick-up on that beautiful guitar!

Just hang out here for a while and we'll find you a Guild with a pick-up! :lol:

What he said! In the long run, you'll be better off if you resist the urge to make any modifications. If you really like the way the guitar plays, and need to be amplified, at some point you can pick up an old X-150 or something similar.

What a cool old guitar. Welcome to LTG.

Dave

 

[killdeer43]

Please don't put a pick-up on that beautiful guitar!
Just hang out here for a while and we'll find you a Guild with a pick-up! :lol:

I'll second that emotion. It's simply gorgeous just the way it is! :wink:

Joe

 

[SFIV1967]

Welcome to LTG! Nice "Savoy A-150" guitar and very clean looking!
The best information about that model and all other vintage Guilds can be found in "The Guild Guitar Book". Page 144 and page 146.
Also you might want to enter "A150" (not "A-150") in "Search" in the top right corner area here and you get much more info from here as well.

The 1960 catalog shows $280 for the blond model if that helps.

There was actually a "DeArmond Model 1000 floating pickup" that fit all Guild archtop models. See page 144 in The Guild Guitar Book.
Here's a picture of the mentioned black one made for Guild with "Guild Award Model by DeArmond" written on it.

But I wouldn't put any holes in the guitar, just get some new strings on her and play her unplugged!

Ralf

 

[X-170SB]

Congratulations, what a terrific guitar!

Enjoy it!

If you do decide you want a pickup, you can mount one to the pickguard, and avoid having to drill any holes or otherwise modify the guitar. Look on archtop.com in the Accessories section for several options.

 

[zizala]

Nice A-150! Congratulations!

I've had one of those on my "wish list" for several years now and even though circumstances have forced me to scale back the Guild collection I'd be sorely tempted if another showed up.

I have the 16" solid spruce topped CA-100. Its focused, spunky and lively as good acoustic archtops should be.
Its also surprisingly loud. With its somewhat shallow body and laminated back, it lacks depth in the bass but its balanced and forward across the strings with fat toned trebles. I'm imaging your larger A-150 to be much the same with more bottom end and that would be a very good thing.
With a set of nickel roundwound 12's, the CA-100 doesn't give away its acoustic sound and amplifies very well with a floating pickup.....much like a CE-100 with some acoustic presence.

As others have mentioned, a pickguard mounted pickup, perhaps with those under the guard mounted controls would be a nice non-invasive way to go.

Here's an A-150 that was outfitted with a DeArmond rhythm chief.
(Schoenberg Guitars photo)

Guild did factory equip some of these acoustic archtops with DeArmonds, though I can't say if this one of them.
Given that history I have no qualms about setting up an old DeArmond rig on an acoustic archtop Guild.

Fueled by crazy inspiration, I made a McCarty style Guild shaped pickguard/pickup for my CA-100.

Probably more work than most would care to do but I had some fun with it.
I like the sound of the originals on my old Gibson L-7's so thought a hybrid would be pleasing. It is.
Just as nice to be able to take this off and revert back to its old self.

Anyway....whichever way you go....enjoy that beautiful A-150!

ziz

 

[Default]

One of these might do the trick without killing the originality.

 

[Ravon]

Nice A-150! Congratulations!

I've had one of those on my "wish list" for several years now and even though circumstances have forced me to scale back the Guild collection I'd be sorely tempted if another showed up.

I have the 16" solid spruce topped CA-100. Its focused, spunky and lively as good acoustic archtops should be.
Its also surprisingly loud. With its somewhat shallow body and laminated back, it lacks depth in the bass but its balanced and forward across the strings with fat toned trebles. I'm imaging your larger A-150 to be much the same with more bottom end and that would be a very good thing.
With a set of nickel roundwound 12's, the CA-100 doesn't give away its acoustic sound and amplifies very well with a floating pickup.....much like a CE-100 with some acoustic presence.

As others have mentioned, a pickguard mounted pickup, perhaps with those under the guard mounted controls would be a nice non-invasive way to go.

Here's an A-150 that was outfitted with a DeArmond rhythm chief.
(Schoenberg Guitars photo)

Guild did factory equip some of these acoustic archtops with DeArmonds, though I can't say if this one of them.
Given that history I have no qualms about setting up an old DeArmond rig on an acoustic archtop Guild.

Fueled by crazy inspiration, I made a McCarty style Guild shaped pickguard/pickup for my CA-100.

Probably more work than most would care to do but I had some fun with it.
I like the sound of the originals on my old Gibson L-7's so thought a hybrid would be pleasing. It is.
Just as nice to be able to take this off and revert back to its old self.

Anyway....whichever way you go....enjoy that beautiful A-150!

ziz

Those look goood

 

[SFIV1967]

Here's an A-150 that was outfitted with a DeArmond rhythm chief. Guild did factory equip some of these acoustic archtops with DeArmonds, though I can't say if this one of them.

Hi Ziz, Hans wrote on page 144 of his book that the regular version with the dark-red cover (as in your picture) was used during the fifties. Later on the black cover version (with "Guild Award Model" written on, like in my picture way above) was custom made for Guild and used on instruments during the sixties.
The position of the volume knob in your picture makes me think that it was not done at the Guild factory.
Ralf

 

[Sideman]

Hey Guys, thanks a lot for the warm welcome and all the info.

Let me just say that I definitely don't plan on doing anything invasive that would mess up this beauty. For now, probably just some new strings and play her a bunch.

I'll keep you updated if I do any restoration.

Cheers.

 

[zizala]

Sideman....

.....I'm sure all of us have enjoyed looking at and talking about your new Guild.
Come back again with any news.

Ralf...

Yes...and thanks for your information and thoughts.
With the A-150 photo I posted, it did occur to me that it probably wasn't a Guild installation......I would't think Guild would have placed the volume pot so that the knob covers the Guild logo or graphics. Unfortunately thats just about the right place for one volume knob!

z

 

[Russell Letson]

It's possible to mount a pickup without compromising the integrity of the guitar--and while I suppose there are obsessive-originality collectors around who would object to the tiniest alteration, mounting a pickup with neck-mount tabs does not strike me as the kind of thing one should worry about. According to Hans' book, the A-150 has a solid top and laminated back and sides, which makes it roughly the equivalent of an Epiphone Zenith (though an inch larger)--a working man's instrument.

Here's the archtop.com page with lots of pickup options:

http://archtop.com/ac_access.html

On the other hand, cutting into the original pickguard is something to be avoided, but for a few hundred you can have a new pickguard made and a pickup and controls mounted on that, and even place the output jack there if you don't want to replace the existing strap button.

I've had pickups added to three of my archtops without altering their value--in fact, in the world where people actually play out on their instruments, a competently installed pickup adds value, and the guitar can still be played acoustically (as I do mine about half the time). I've tried the Fishman piezo bridge replacement and find the sound not at all right for the kind of swing I play. I have three old DeArmond-style single-coils that have the right sound, and a Kent Armstrong with a more "modern" tone (on an Eastman 805). (By the way, an actual DeArmond will probably cost way too much--and the Armstrongs sound just fine to my ear.)

BTW, if you want the guitar to speak properly, put mediums roundwounds on it--I prefer phosphor bronze, but tastes vary. But lights will not drive it well, and I find that flatwounds lack zing and die faster. Nickel strings drive a mag pickup better, but to my ear they don't sound nearly as good acoustically.