GGJaguar
Reverential Member
I was so jazzed by my recently acquired ’64 S-50 that I had to have another guitar with that using the chrome covered P-90-ish pickup. The natural choice was its sibling, the S-100 Polara, and I managed to find a decent (nearly matching) 1964 example. It would have been a perfect match if it had a cherry finish instead of “burst” finish. The Grover Sta-Tites work much better than the S-50’s Waverly 3-on-a-strip tuners. I have to say, these pickups are exceptional and work really well with the music I play. The S-100 can definitely hang with its contemporaries - the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar. I love my HB-1 and SD-1 equipped Guilds, but it’s nice having a few Guild models with single coil pickups to liven things up.
Though it has a cool retro look, I’m not crazy about the Hagstrom vibrato, but I have other single coil, solid body guitars with vibratos to fill that niche. Overall, like the S-50, this S-100 has a comfortable neck, is lightweight, and sounds great. I was so laser-focused on Guild’s archtops models that I overlooked the solid body models for a long time and I think the mid-60s S-50 and S-100 are real winners.
Though it has a cool retro look, I’m not crazy about the Hagstrom vibrato, but I have other single coil, solid body guitars with vibratos to fill that niche. Overall, like the S-50, this S-100 has a comfortable neck, is lightweight, and sounds great. I was so laser-focused on Guild’s archtops models that I overlooked the solid body models for a long time and I think the mid-60s S-50 and S-100 are real winners.
