LeBlaze
Junior Member
Greetings to all. This being my first post; I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself, and tell a little about me and my Guild guitars. I’ve recently joined, but have been reading / lurking for a few months, trying to get a feel for the level of the participants. I must say, I am impressed with the amount of collective knowledge here, and I hope I may be able to contribute in my own way.
In the beginning there was music; and it came to me that I too could make music and enchant all manner of listeners with my playing. However, one small fact prevented me from becoming the musician that I knew I was. I didn’t know how to play, not one single lick.
Enter Mom, and Christmas of 1963 found a beautiful no-name six-string folk guitar under the tree, with a Chet Atkins “learn to play” instruction manual. I was in heaven!
Learned to tune the guitar, learned to play chords, man, changing from D to G was such a chore! Forget about A Minor! I stuck with it and as time progressed, so did I. The nylon strings gave way to steel, I learned barre chords, learned to play songs, copied the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf. Got turned onto the blues, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, the list goes on. Heard John Mayall, Paul Butterfield, then, my life changed forever. I got a ticket to see Jimi Hendrix at Devonshire Downs. I knew from that moment that I had to have an electric, and a big loud amp!
From my paper route I had saved some money, enough to buy a brand new ten-speed.
This would have powered me through my paper route with greater ease and speed than previously possible, but somehow this idea was beginning to lose its appeal. I HAD to have an electric guitar!!!
I could not afford both, so the decision had to be made.
I found a used Teisco with incredibly high action, scratchy pots, and I was immediately smitten; together with the Kalamazoo amp I spent my 100 dollars.
Fortunately for me my dad was a Ham operator, and so when the old Kalamazoo smoked (TURN THAT THING DOWN!) I was able, with his guidance, to fix it. Look out!
I remember those days fondly, and actually appreciate that first set-up for those gear taught me that even the cheapest piece of crap guitar and amp can sound wonderful; well at least to a sixteen year old! In retrospect, the atrocious action on that Teisco gave me an appreciation for better quality instruments that may have otherwise been lacking.
Next came a Vox guitar and a Univox transistor amp with 2-12 and about 40 watts.
I really didn’t have my ear “tuned” for tone, yet, just wanted LOUD! So be it.
The Vox had a built-in fuzz, and an A tuner. The action wasn’t great, but it was better than what I was used to. That transistorized Japanese monster Univox was MUCH harder to repair than the tube powered Kalamazoo, but hey! It was loud!
I found myself at the mercy of Uncle Sam soon after High School. Fixing amps paid off here, as I qualified for electronics training and radio school.
After separation from Military service, the GI bill paid for college, and I finished my degree in Electronics Engineering.
During this period, around 1975, I was heavily into Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath, well, you get the idea. Just to show how stupid I was, I bought an S-100 new, cuz it looked like Tony Iomi’s SG. Best guitar I ever owned, and started me on the path that I still travel. The Guild name has always been in my heart and in my hands.
I currently own 3 S-100’s (the 1974 was stolen from me in the early 80’s) two from the 70’s and one re-issue.
An S-275, an S-25, an X-79, two Starfire IV's, one from the 70's, one is brand new, I think from the Corona factory after the buyout.
I have a Blues 90 tobacco burst, one of 35 Holoflake Bluesbirds, another AAA bookmatched mapletop Bluesbird, another red Bluesbird, an M75, a Custom shop M70,
Two GG Nightbirds, one amberburst Nightbird, and a black Nightbird ST, which is the last one made in 92.
The M75 I have heavily modified with a Kent Armstong P90 on the bridge, and a DeArmond GoldTone in the neck position, which is switched for series / parallel operation. Awesome action, lightweight, and the tone is heavenly.
The red Bluesbird has the Dan Torres BluesBucker kit installed. All other are completely original.
I think that is all of them, but I have other guitars; sometimes I get so confused..
I’ll post some photographs for anyone that is interested, let me know how and I'll be happy to.
Also, I design and build Class A tube amps. I have my own production, and have built several in the 35 watt range. Dick Dale and Brian Blush are two of my happy customers. This is a very long story, but if anybody would care to talk about amps, I’d be happy to share what I know.
So, I hope that I haven’t bored everyone to tears. Reading some of the posts about “my first Guild” I felt compelled to join in.
Thank you for your patience, best to all!
Riff Blaze.
In the beginning there was music; and it came to me that I too could make music and enchant all manner of listeners with my playing. However, one small fact prevented me from becoming the musician that I knew I was. I didn’t know how to play, not one single lick.
Enter Mom, and Christmas of 1963 found a beautiful no-name six-string folk guitar under the tree, with a Chet Atkins “learn to play” instruction manual. I was in heaven!
Learned to tune the guitar, learned to play chords, man, changing from D to G was such a chore! Forget about A Minor! I stuck with it and as time progressed, so did I. The nylon strings gave way to steel, I learned barre chords, learned to play songs, copied the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf. Got turned onto the blues, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, the list goes on. Heard John Mayall, Paul Butterfield, then, my life changed forever. I got a ticket to see Jimi Hendrix at Devonshire Downs. I knew from that moment that I had to have an electric, and a big loud amp!
From my paper route I had saved some money, enough to buy a brand new ten-speed.
This would have powered me through my paper route with greater ease and speed than previously possible, but somehow this idea was beginning to lose its appeal. I HAD to have an electric guitar!!!
I could not afford both, so the decision had to be made.
I found a used Teisco with incredibly high action, scratchy pots, and I was immediately smitten; together with the Kalamazoo amp I spent my 100 dollars.
Fortunately for me my dad was a Ham operator, and so when the old Kalamazoo smoked (TURN THAT THING DOWN!) I was able, with his guidance, to fix it. Look out!
I remember those days fondly, and actually appreciate that first set-up for those gear taught me that even the cheapest piece of crap guitar and amp can sound wonderful; well at least to a sixteen year old! In retrospect, the atrocious action on that Teisco gave me an appreciation for better quality instruments that may have otherwise been lacking.
Next came a Vox guitar and a Univox transistor amp with 2-12 and about 40 watts.
I really didn’t have my ear “tuned” for tone, yet, just wanted LOUD! So be it.
The Vox had a built-in fuzz, and an A tuner. The action wasn’t great, but it was better than what I was used to. That transistorized Japanese monster Univox was MUCH harder to repair than the tube powered Kalamazoo, but hey! It was loud!
I found myself at the mercy of Uncle Sam soon after High School. Fixing amps paid off here, as I qualified for electronics training and radio school.
After separation from Military service, the GI bill paid for college, and I finished my degree in Electronics Engineering.
During this period, around 1975, I was heavily into Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Black Sabbath, well, you get the idea. Just to show how stupid I was, I bought an S-100 new, cuz it looked like Tony Iomi’s SG. Best guitar I ever owned, and started me on the path that I still travel. The Guild name has always been in my heart and in my hands.
I currently own 3 S-100’s (the 1974 was stolen from me in the early 80’s) two from the 70’s and one re-issue.
An S-275, an S-25, an X-79, two Starfire IV's, one from the 70's, one is brand new, I think from the Corona factory after the buyout.
I have a Blues 90 tobacco burst, one of 35 Holoflake Bluesbirds, another AAA bookmatched mapletop Bluesbird, another red Bluesbird, an M75, a Custom shop M70,
Two GG Nightbirds, one amberburst Nightbird, and a black Nightbird ST, which is the last one made in 92.
The M75 I have heavily modified with a Kent Armstong P90 on the bridge, and a DeArmond GoldTone in the neck position, which is switched for series / parallel operation. Awesome action, lightweight, and the tone is heavenly.
The red Bluesbird has the Dan Torres BluesBucker kit installed. All other are completely original.
I think that is all of them, but I have other guitars; sometimes I get so confused..
I’ll post some photographs for anyone that is interested, let me know how and I'll be happy to.
Also, I design and build Class A tube amps. I have my own production, and have built several in the 35 watt range. Dick Dale and Brian Blush are two of my happy customers. This is a very long story, but if anybody would care to talk about amps, I’d be happy to share what I know.
So, I hope that I haven’t bored everyone to tears. Reading some of the posts about “my first Guild” I felt compelled to join in.
Thank you for your patience, best to all!
Riff Blaze.
