NGD Nightbird GG

[beecee]

Prior to my lockdown I saw this about half an hour after my last pass on GC. Guess I wasn't feeling all that good as I was being a bit of a bum. No picture, no description...price seemed ok so I jumped

Egnyte - 404 File Not Found

pyramidbrokerage.egnyte.com

Finally able to get to the store today. My pal Robin a great employee at Syracuse GC went f'ing gaga

Missing the correct switch and the pocket had these used eye-taleaan pickups from the DiMarzio family. (I'm paisan)....tech ran over and offered me $$ on the spot if I didn't need them.

Heck of a heavy guitar, Was really worried as I've not kept a black guitar in years,,,typically beat to snot-(less). This is incredibly clean.

Complete dummy here...point out what is wrong save for the replacement pups

Enjoy!

 

[beecee]

 

[beecee]

 

[beecee]

 

[SFIV1967]

Congratulations! A black one with chrome hardware is pretty rare. Maybe the DiMarzios were the original pickups in that guitar, but others can discuss the pickup topic.
So it's not the switch missing, just the switch tip. Which is a pitty as the original Guild one is very hard to get.

GAD's blog might give you a good headstart here:

GAD's Guide to Guild Nightbirds | GAD's Ramblings

Guild Nightbirds are some of the best electric guitars every produced at the Westerly Guild plant. I own more than my fair share of them, and since I have a pile of Nightbird reviews pending I thought I would consolidate some of the repeating information I had into a single article. Nightbirds...

www.gad.net

Ralf

 

[Rocky]

Nice score. As noted, not often seen in chrome. Hard to tell from the photos, but the black ones are typically spruce top. You can tell for certain if there's any 'finish sink' or you pull a pickup ring and look at the grain. Tuners look like the wafflebacks, but hard to say.

How heavy is it? With the chambering they should be fairly consistent from 8 to 8.5 pounds or so.

 

[HeyMikey]

Oh wow that is SLICK! Congratulations that looks like it’s in super condition. I bet it screams. Looking forward to the review.

 

[beecee]

Yup waffleback tuners. I'll be posting better pix tomorrow...(fell asleep after posting the above...first day out).

Wife looked at me bringing it in...I fibbed, told her it was from old house...

 

[adorshki]

Yup waffleback tuners. I'll be posting better pix tomorrow...(fell asleep after posting the above...first day out).

Wife looked at me bringing it in...I fibbed, told her it was from old house...

 

[beecee]

Well I can see it will be tough to get to sleep again tonight.

Trying to do a bit of research as to the DiMarzios possibly being "original".
Apparently Guild has used them...and these are similar looking

Guild label pickups

Are these EMGs or Kent Armstrong pickups? I assume the Guild labeling is rather uncommon either way.

letstalkguild.com

Assuming these are as well. Like the blacked out hardware

Guild Nightbird GG Burst | Reverb

Nightbird GG

reverb.com

and here...

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--exKBoNP6--/f_auto,t_supersize/v1604959210/ymgksdw1mm0cbhjuta7d.jpg

AND here...

Oh yeah, and a Nightbird I

Forgot about this one. My first spruce-topped Nightbird. It's a Nightbird I with Dimarzio pickups.

letstalkguild.com

but I'm not going to go grab them out of the case tonight

Any suggestions ?

 

[walrus]

Love that in black and chrome! Congratulations!

walrus

 

[GGJaguar]

Very classy guitar, congrats!!

 

[beecee]

Nice score. As noted, not often seen in chrome. Hard to tell from the photos, but the black ones are typically spruce top. You can tell for certain if there's any 'finish sink' or you pull a pickup ring and look at the grain. Tuners look like the wafflebacks, but hard to say.



How heavy is it? With the chambering they should be fairly consistent from 8 to 8.5 pounds or so.

No finish sink to speak of, I'll bet it's spruce.


I just stepped on bathroom scale with and without.....8lbs. Looks like I lost a few during my imprisonment too!

 

[mavuser]

beecee, those are the original Dimarzios. Guild used them in the early 80's, on the Nova and other similar pointy/heavy metal looking electrics. on some Nightbirds/Nightingales, they say "Guild" on them, in the corner of the black plastic cover, very similar looking to the "EMG" branding. Good grab- enjoy that bird!

 

[beecee]

Hans has been asking questions and has come up with a rather interesting take on the guitar.

I'm asking permission to share his thoughts with the group

 

[beecee]

Thanks Hans!!!

Hello again William,

At this point I’m not sure what the story is, but I will try to explain what is weird about the guitar.

Your guitar was started on during the year 1985. It has a 1985 serial number, but at that point in time the Nightbird did not have the German made hardware.

That’s why I dated it to 1986/1987, not necessarily because of the phase switch.

Now I have another guitar with the same serial number in my database, so we must find an explanation for that!

What I think is that your guitar was rejected for cosmetic reasons. It was oversprayed in black and completed at a later date with parts that should have been used for a Nightbird I.

That would explain the chrome Muller parts, the DiMarzio pickups, the mini switch

This may have been done officially at the factory (although normally in such cases the serial number would have been changed) or by somebody working at the factory and who had access to the parts.

If you look at the back of the headstock you will see that the black lacquer does not cover the imprinted number and letters completely; that would be very unusual for Guild!

I will think a little more about this, but this is the conclusion that I’ve come to by looking at the photos.

My only differing opinion is the laquer over the numbers. It's pretty thick, and with some super bright flashlights I could not see the same thing that we both saw in this picture. I defer to Hans of course but it is odd. Very hard to make out the number in natural light due to the thickness but it sure does pop in the flash picture.

 

[walrus]

Interesting! IMO, this adds to the guitar's mystique!

walrus

 

[GGJaguar]

A mystery guitar! Fascinating!

 

[SFIV1967]

So I guess you have to open her up and look for instance at the datecodes of the potentiometers and also under the pickups. Cool story! Looking forward to the next developments!
Ralf

 

[beecee]

So I guess you have to open her up and look for instance at the datecodes of the potentiometers and also under the pickups. Cool story! Looking forward to the next developments!
Ralf

Will do as soon as I can.

Tired, very tired f=ing Covid after effects