guildman63
Senior Member
It could be said that it is now truly a "one of a kind", and therefore could justify a resale value of $3500. :lol:
NGD: S-100 MIK
- Thread starter Qvart
- Start date
kitniyatran
Senior Member
HAving worked in the pest business for 35+ years, I'd say a "worm"(actually beetle larva) is quite possible as a cause. I likes it!
Thunderface
Senior Member
I may just have to do that. Don't leave anybody out, that's my policy. I used to not even have a policy, but now I've got that one.
Gangnam Style!
Thunderface
Senior Member
Mighty fine juxtaposition of Vintage and New.Here's all three together:
Thunderface
Senior Member
drunkenguitarist
Member
Hey Qvart, how well do those pickups handle the heavy stuff on the import?
Qvart
Senior Member
Nothing like HB-1's. Can't get quite the heaviness I want out of them, but they're not bad at all.
Qvart
Senior Member
drunkenguitarist
Member
Oh, thanks. Based on some earlier demo's I had a feeling that they'd lack a bit of low end response.
Qvart
Senior Member
What I expect for low end is probably more than most people so my opinion on that point may be biased.
These p'ups might hold up against the Duncans in the reissue S-100's. But I don't have one of those anymore so I can't do a comparison.
Qvart
Senior Member
This ain't Highlander, QV!!
Qvart
Senior Member
jthrel
Member
I too am experiencing a NGD with a Korean accent. My S100 MIK arrived today from Elderly Instruments. The photos would be redundant to those published in this thread and another excellent post from Woodroar.
Let me add a few first-day observations:
The Case.
- The case is very good quality with nice piping and stitching on the two ends. The guitar fit is excellent. The headstock is appropriately suspended. The neck of the guitar rests on top of a case-width x 7" tall storage compartment. There are no "saddles" to restrain the neck. The horns of the upper bout are solidly contained in the shaped lateral bolsters. The containment of the body prevents the head/neck from moving side-to-side or from sliding lengthwise. The case hardware is quality, the plywood weight/thickness is solid and the padding is soft with no over-glue stiffness. The only missing element is the FEET on the bottom of the case. There ARE feet on the hinge edge. There are no feet on the bottom of the case (where the case rests when you take the guitar in/out).
- The case is constructed by the Good Folks at TKL. Mine arrived with the TKL sticker on the outside. For those of you in need of a case for an older S-100, try begging TKL for stock number TKL B2312/BL
The Guitar
- I can re-iterate what the fit/finish of the guitar is very nice. Frets are well dressed with smooth ends and the action is low and fast with perfect intonation. Binding is straight with no gaps. As noted by Woodroar, the routing for the fretboard inlays are a teeny-tiny bit large with an ever-so-fine edge of glue around the inlay when viewed very closely under bright light. Despite this quibble, there are no detectable ridges or gaps around the inlay (and I have very sensitive fingers). The guild logo and chesterfield on the headstock DO NOT have any problems. The routing and inlays of the headstock appear flush around the edges.
- My particular guitar body is well matched and jointed on the front. The center seam in the back between the two body pieces is visible (when you are looking for it) but not obvious. I own a vintage Guild S-300 in a natural finish that has a much more noticeable center seam in the body.
- The body and neck of the guitar are balanced. I'm NOT getting the Gibson SG neck dive.
Electronics and sound
- The 3-way switch and the vol/tone pots work smoothly and I like the range of tones available with this guitar. As noted by the other posters, the pick-ups are a touch treble-y. I will have to fuss with this awhile using different amps/settings. I am blessed with a '69 Starfire-XII with vintage mini-humbuckers and I will attempt to draw comparisons as I have more playing time.
- The outermost strings (1 and 6; high and low E) are not aligned with the centers of the associated neck/bridge pickup poles - although the outermost strings do pass over the outer edges of the poles. The middle strings (2 thru 5; B thru A) are aligned with the middle 1/3 of the associated poles of the neck/bridge P/U.
- My S-100 MIK was shipped with a set of fairly inexpensive 10's for strings. I am chiefly an acoustic player and do not like light strings - especially cheap light strings. Additionally, the setup I received (? Guild or Elderly at fault ?) did not employ a "sting lock" wrap for the cut end. If you don't know about a string lock wrap - you should watch this video from Martin. To jump to the string lock technique, start at 7:00. Without a string lock, the new strings slip easily while settling - enough to detune the guitar within a few pick strokes. The tuners are reproductions of vintage open gears which don't have the finer gear ratios of modern closed-back tuners. The combo of the two made the first hour of playing an exercise in constant tuner twisting - frustrating! Re-stringing with some high-end nickel-steel 11's or some flat-wound jazz strings are in this guitar's immediate future. I am from the Dick Dale school of electric guitar tone ("first take six tree trunks and thread them though your tailpiece...")
Overall
- Impressive and a keeper. I like the feel and tone (and I'm betting it will improve dramatically with proper strings and amp settings).
Keep the faith.....
Al
Let me add a few first-day observations:
The Case.
- The case is very good quality with nice piping and stitching on the two ends. The guitar fit is excellent. The headstock is appropriately suspended. The neck of the guitar rests on top of a case-width x 7" tall storage compartment. There are no "saddles" to restrain the neck. The horns of the upper bout are solidly contained in the shaped lateral bolsters. The containment of the body prevents the head/neck from moving side-to-side or from sliding lengthwise. The case hardware is quality, the plywood weight/thickness is solid and the padding is soft with no over-glue stiffness. The only missing element is the FEET on the bottom of the case. There ARE feet on the hinge edge. There are no feet on the bottom of the case (where the case rests when you take the guitar in/out).
- The case is constructed by the Good Folks at TKL. Mine arrived with the TKL sticker on the outside. For those of you in need of a case for an older S-100, try begging TKL for stock number TKL B2312/BL
The Guitar
- I can re-iterate what the fit/finish of the guitar is very nice. Frets are well dressed with smooth ends and the action is low and fast with perfect intonation. Binding is straight with no gaps. As noted by Woodroar, the routing for the fretboard inlays are a teeny-tiny bit large with an ever-so-fine edge of glue around the inlay when viewed very closely under bright light. Despite this quibble, there are no detectable ridges or gaps around the inlay (and I have very sensitive fingers). The guild logo and chesterfield on the headstock DO NOT have any problems. The routing and inlays of the headstock appear flush around the edges.
- My particular guitar body is well matched and jointed on the front. The center seam in the back between the two body pieces is visible (when you are looking for it) but not obvious. I own a vintage Guild S-300 in a natural finish that has a much more noticeable center seam in the body.
- The body and neck of the guitar are balanced. I'm NOT getting the Gibson SG neck dive.
Electronics and sound
- The 3-way switch and the vol/tone pots work smoothly and I like the range of tones available with this guitar. As noted by the other posters, the pick-ups are a touch treble-y. I will have to fuss with this awhile using different amps/settings. I am blessed with a '69 Starfire-XII with vintage mini-humbuckers and I will attempt to draw comparisons as I have more playing time.
- The outermost strings (1 and 6; high and low E) are not aligned with the centers of the associated neck/bridge pickup poles - although the outermost strings do pass over the outer edges of the poles. The middle strings (2 thru 5; B thru A) are aligned with the middle 1/3 of the associated poles of the neck/bridge P/U.
- My S-100 MIK was shipped with a set of fairly inexpensive 10's for strings. I am chiefly an acoustic player and do not like light strings - especially cheap light strings. Additionally, the setup I received (? Guild or Elderly at fault ?) did not employ a "sting lock" wrap for the cut end. If you don't know about a string lock wrap - you should watch this video from Martin. To jump to the string lock technique, start at 7:00. Without a string lock, the new strings slip easily while settling - enough to detune the guitar within a few pick strokes. The tuners are reproductions of vintage open gears which don't have the finer gear ratios of modern closed-back tuners. The combo of the two made the first hour of playing an exercise in constant tuner twisting - frustrating! Re-stringing with some high-end nickel-steel 11's or some flat-wound jazz strings are in this guitar's immediate future. I am from the Dick Dale school of electric guitar tone ("first take six tree trunks and thread them though your tailpiece...")
Overall
- Impressive and a keeper. I like the feel and tone (and I'm betting it will improve dramatically with proper strings and amp settings).
Keep the faith.....
Al
Despot
Junior Member
I picked one of these up yesterday ... went into the city to buy a few odds and ends (strings/polishing cloth etc) and spotted three of the Newark Street Guilds hanging on the wall - they'd just arrived last week. I wasn't actually expecting any of these to crop up in Dublin in a store (here it tends to be very Fender/Gibson with a few Gretsch models knocking around - but mostly Fender and Gibson, and then mostly Tele/Strat/Les Paul). So when I spotted the Guild logo I had to do a double take, then regain my composure and try one out.
I tried out the Starfire IV and Manhattan first - I didn't get much time with the Manhattan, as I put it down for a minute to pick up the S-100 and another guy nabbed it and took it into a corner for about thirty minutes of Jazz noodling. But the Starfire actually compares quite favourably to my '74 in terms of fit and finish - and (I know ... how dare I say it!) if I'm honest I have to admit to liking the neck of the MIK more ... this is a particular case though, my 74 has an extremely flat fret board - much flatter than the 12 inch radius I've always thought it should be - and I find it tough to play at times. The radius on the Starfire (at 9.45) was a lot easier to play ... though I'm not sure I'm a fan of the jumbo frets that FMIC tend to like to stick on everything these days that's not a vintage reissue.
I really had to convince myself to put down the Starfire and try the S-100 (and I may yet convince myself to pick up a MIK Starfire), but I'm glad I did.
First off - Negatives (because there are some and it's best to get them out of the way early...)
Weight - I haven't had a chance to weigh it yet, but the MIK is certainly a very heavy piece of mahogany. It's easily heavier than a modern Les Paul and probably somewhere between a chambered Les Paul and my old 80s LP Custom! Yup ... that heavy.
Wiring/pots - not sure if I'm 100% convinced by the pots and wiring ... the pickups (for those who haven't had the cover off to see the wiring) are connected to the pots via mini tamiya clip connectors (the sort of connectors that you sometimes see in remote controlled cars/toys to attach the battery). I can't see that it makes a difference, though I know that in the world of remote control stuff guys tend to change them for better connectors if they're serious about it - but I see that more being an issue of making sure that battery power goes where it's supposed to ... in my view if the wire connects to another wire then it's not going to detract from the pickups. It would actually be a pretty good system for pickup replacement if all pickups had a similar snap connection ... certainly easier than getting out the soldering iron!
Nut - cut well (in terms of slots) but sharp as a knife everywhere else. Easily sorted with some sand paper/file. At least the string spacing and height is perfect.
And that's it for the negatives ... now onto the positives!
Fit & finish - with the exception of the sharp nut, everything else is 100% - this was priced at 700 euro here, which puts it firmly in the MIM Fender/lowest end Gibson category here in Ireland. But for that we get proper B&B, a perfect urethane finish (and ... I took the pickguard off and a piece had chipped around the screw under the guard ... it's a thin urethane finish as well judging by the thickness of the paint chip missing - a lot less paint than I've seen on most modern fenders). Frets are finished well (not a store job either - came that way) and the neck angle is good (lost of room left to go on the adjustomatic bridge).
Neck - the spec sheet gives this as a 'soft vintage U' shape ... but it feels a lot like the necks on the Electromatic Gretsch models (which I like) - not a fender oval C ... closer to a Gibson slim taper, but slightly less skinny or flat on the apex of the neck. A nice neck - super fast and comfortable. Again, I'm not a huge fan of jumbo frets, but I find these to be pretty playable for someone used to 7 1/4 inch radius and skinny vintage frets.
Pickups - I've never played a Guild with original vintage mini-hums ... so I'm comparing them to my '74 Starfire's HB-1s ... and you know what, for the money these aren't bad. They sound like a Guild pickup rather than a generic humbucker ... they are bright (but this suits me) and the lower bass register is slightly boom-y (flabby perhaps, not well defined compared to the middle/treble), but I've played higher price guitars with much worse pickups than these. For my taste in music (running from modern alternative all the way back to 60s/70s rock) they're not going to sound out of place at all. Interestingly enough, doing an A/B with the '74 Starfire I found that the MIK has roughly similar output - in that both guitars seemed to be driving my JMI 4 to the same degree, whereas putting my '65 Duo Sonic in there without touching the settings brought a return from an amp just on the point of breaking up (and responding nicely to pick attack) to absolutely 100% clean ... though granted the Duo Sonic's pickups are pretty low output.
Cons - weight/pretty average wiring/pots/sharp nut
Pros - solid construction with no visible cutting of corners/pretty damn good pickups (if not exactly vintage sounding).
I tried out the Starfire IV and Manhattan first - I didn't get much time with the Manhattan, as I put it down for a minute to pick up the S-100 and another guy nabbed it and took it into a corner for about thirty minutes of Jazz noodling. But the Starfire actually compares quite favourably to my '74 in terms of fit and finish - and (I know ... how dare I say it!) if I'm honest I have to admit to liking the neck of the MIK more ... this is a particular case though, my 74 has an extremely flat fret board - much flatter than the 12 inch radius I've always thought it should be - and I find it tough to play at times. The radius on the Starfire (at 9.45) was a lot easier to play ... though I'm not sure I'm a fan of the jumbo frets that FMIC tend to like to stick on everything these days that's not a vintage reissue.
I really had to convince myself to put down the Starfire and try the S-100 (and I may yet convince myself to pick up a MIK Starfire), but I'm glad I did.
First off - Negatives (because there are some and it's best to get them out of the way early...)
Weight - I haven't had a chance to weigh it yet, but the MIK is certainly a very heavy piece of mahogany. It's easily heavier than a modern Les Paul and probably somewhere between a chambered Les Paul and my old 80s LP Custom! Yup ... that heavy.
Wiring/pots - not sure if I'm 100% convinced by the pots and wiring ... the pickups (for those who haven't had the cover off to see the wiring) are connected to the pots via mini tamiya clip connectors (the sort of connectors that you sometimes see in remote controlled cars/toys to attach the battery). I can't see that it makes a difference, though I know that in the world of remote control stuff guys tend to change them for better connectors if they're serious about it - but I see that more being an issue of making sure that battery power goes where it's supposed to ... in my view if the wire connects to another wire then it's not going to detract from the pickups. It would actually be a pretty good system for pickup replacement if all pickups had a similar snap connection ... certainly easier than getting out the soldering iron!
Nut - cut well (in terms of slots) but sharp as a knife everywhere else. Easily sorted with some sand paper/file. At least the string spacing and height is perfect.
And that's it for the negatives ... now onto the positives!
Fit & finish - with the exception of the sharp nut, everything else is 100% - this was priced at 700 euro here, which puts it firmly in the MIM Fender/lowest end Gibson category here in Ireland. But for that we get proper B&B, a perfect urethane finish (and ... I took the pickguard off and a piece had chipped around the screw under the guard ... it's a thin urethane finish as well judging by the thickness of the paint chip missing - a lot less paint than I've seen on most modern fenders). Frets are finished well (not a store job either - came that way) and the neck angle is good (lost of room left to go on the adjustomatic bridge).
Neck - the spec sheet gives this as a 'soft vintage U' shape ... but it feels a lot like the necks on the Electromatic Gretsch models (which I like) - not a fender oval C ... closer to a Gibson slim taper, but slightly less skinny or flat on the apex of the neck. A nice neck - super fast and comfortable. Again, I'm not a huge fan of jumbo frets, but I find these to be pretty playable for someone used to 7 1/4 inch radius and skinny vintage frets.
Pickups - I've never played a Guild with original vintage mini-hums ... so I'm comparing them to my '74 Starfire's HB-1s ... and you know what, for the money these aren't bad. They sound like a Guild pickup rather than a generic humbucker ... they are bright (but this suits me) and the lower bass register is slightly boom-y (flabby perhaps, not well defined compared to the middle/treble), but I've played higher price guitars with much worse pickups than these. For my taste in music (running from modern alternative all the way back to 60s/70s rock) they're not going to sound out of place at all. Interestingly enough, doing an A/B with the '74 Starfire I found that the MIK has roughly similar output - in that both guitars seemed to be driving my JMI 4 to the same degree, whereas putting my '65 Duo Sonic in there without touching the settings brought a return from an amp just on the point of breaking up (and responding nicely to pick attack) to absolutely 100% clean ... though granted the Duo Sonic's pickups are pretty low output.
Cons - weight/pretty average wiring/pots/sharp nut
Pros - solid construction with no visible cutting of corners/pretty damn good pickups (if not exactly vintage sounding).
fronobulax
Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
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Thanks for the report. Interesting about the nut. My local dealer ordered one of each of the Newark Street models and he said they all needed a little touch up at the nut. No big deal but it does seem like that is one are for improvement across the board.
How do you like the color? When I saw the S-100 in the store, the cherry red kind of popped out for me (not in a bad way), perhaps because it was in the vicinity of Newark Street and vintage Starfires.
Despot
Junior Member
It's pretty vibrant alright.
Compared to my old Starfire it's a lot more of a bright cherry colour (my starfire is a darker almost wine red colour). I like it though ... but the shade does make it seem a lot less like a S-100 and more like a modern SG (if that makes any sense).
Compared to my old Starfire it's a lot more of a bright cherry colour (my starfire is a darker almost wine red colour). I like it though ... but the shade does make it seem a lot less like a S-100 and more like a modern SG (if that makes any sense).
Qvart
Senior Member
Despot
Junior Member
I'll stick up a NGD post tomorrow - I'm operating from ipad land at the moment thanks to my laptop packing in (and my reprioritizing of laptop money into GAS...) and it makes doing things that are simple on a keyboard (like typing) extremely time consuming.
Tonight I'm off to see Grizzly Bear here in Dublin ... tomorrow (no doubt 'enjoying' my day off with a sore head) will be perfect for NGD posts (ahem ... plural ... though the other one will go up on my other internet haunt, Offsetguitars as it's non-Guild related ... '65 Duo Sonic II).
Tonight I'm off to see Grizzly Bear here in Dublin ... tomorrow (no doubt 'enjoying' my day off with a sore head) will be perfect for NGD posts (ahem ... plural ... though the other one will go up on my other internet haunt, Offsetguitars as it's non-Guild related ... '65 Duo Sonic II).