GGJaguar
Reverential Member
Until now, I only had one crazy-shaped, big hair metal guitar – a 1984 G&L Interceptor. Enter the 1985 Guild X-79 Skyhawk which makes the Interceptor look tame by comparison. GAD did his usual fabulous write-up of the X-79 so please read that for the full blown details.
I have no special interest in 1980s superstrat or wildly shaped guitars, but I figured this was a clean, Westerly-made Guild for the price of a used Korean-made Guild. Kind of a no brainer. GAD noted that finding a 35+ year old X-79 in excellent to mint condition is no easy feat. You mainly see them with chips and dings and broken headstock bits. The guitar here appears to be a case queen and must have only been played occasionally at home. It’s very clean and I believe the color to be Electric Blue, if I’m reading the price lists correctly.
The first thing I noticed is it’s nicely light at 7.3 lb (3.3 kg) and I’m guessing the body is made of poplar since it’s so light, but with a solid finish guitar, ya never know. I was pleasantly surprised that it balances well on my thigh when playing while seated. The body shape is an advantage in this regard. However, I found myself constantly monitoring where the pointy parts were in relation to other things in the room. You know, things like walls, furniture and ceiling fans. The guitar is so clean that I don’t want to ding or break a pointy part. I should have a playing area just for this guitar where there is a stool in the middle of the room with “Do not cross” crime scene tape around it in a 6 ft (2 meters) diameter circle. Pointy guitar paranoia is a real thing!
The nut width is 1 5/8” but the neck doesn’t feel small at all and is very comfortable to play. My G&L Interceptor, also with a 1 5/8” nut width, feels popsicle-stick-thin by comparison. The fretboard radius feels flat to me and I’m guessing it has a 12” or 14” radius, but maybe it’s upwards of 20”. I haven’t unpacked my gauges yet so I can’t measure it. The ebony fingerboard is glass smooth and the frets are big, but not the low, wide jumbos that were often used on guitars in the 1980s. This is my first 24-fret guitar, but as with all my guitars, it’s rare for me to venture above the 12th fret. Such is the life of a rhythm guitarist.
From the dealer photos I thought the guitar was fitted with the optional EMG pickups (not my favorite), but after playing it for a bit, these felt and sounded more like the Duncan 59/JB combo used on the 1990s S-100 reissue. I managed to find my multi-meter amongst my boxes so I took some DC resistance readings: 8.3K ohm (neck) and 13.6K ohm (bridge). The bridge pickup value is too low to be a JB, but is consistent with a DiMarzio Super Distortion. So, I loosened the strings and pulled the pickups.
Sure enough, they are DiMarzio units hiding under EMG-type covers! I’m betting the bridge pickup is a Dual Sound aka Super Distortion and the neck pickup is a Super II aka XR-7. They are not a bad combo! I’m perplexed as to why they used EMG-type covers and wonder if all the late X-79s (circa 1984-85) that appear at a glance to have EMGs are really fitted with DiMarzios.
While I had my small screwdriver handy, I removed the control cavity cover and checked the pot values. Both the volume and tone pots are 200K (not the 500K pots found in GAD’s review). Yet, the guitar doesn’t sound dull or muddy at all. In fact, it’s nicely bright, but not HB-1 bright.
Doing a quick swing through Reverb for other X-79s, it looks like the later versions (like my ’85) have a horizontal script Guild logo instead of the silkscreened peaked logo, octagonal Schaller M6 tuners instead of the usual M6 units, rear-loaded Vol/Tone controls instead of front-loaded Vol/Vol/Tone controls, and possibly DiMarzio Super II/SD pickups instead of a pair of XR-7s. I much prefer the clean look of the rear-loaded controls and I don’t miss having the extra volume control. On the other hand, I am disappointed that the late version of the X-79 has a plain trapezoidal TRC. The earlier headstock-shaped TRC is so cool looking! Anyway, all the minutia is very interesting if you’re a gearhead, but boring if you’re not.
One other note – I don’t like the way it hangs from just the treble side headstock point on Hercules stands. The bass side doesn’t touch the hanger at all! I think that’s too much weight bearing on a small area that’s already fragile (pointy guitar paranoia!). So, it’s either in my hands being played or in the case away from the dangers of the world and Hercules guitar stands.
Overall, I have to agree with GAD’s assessment – the X-79 is (super) cool to look at and they play well (and sound good to me), but they are an exercise in form over function. I’ll try to enjoy it and hope to get over my pointy guitar paranoia soon.
I have no special interest in 1980s superstrat or wildly shaped guitars, but I figured this was a clean, Westerly-made Guild for the price of a used Korean-made Guild. Kind of a no brainer. GAD noted that finding a 35+ year old X-79 in excellent to mint condition is no easy feat. You mainly see them with chips and dings and broken headstock bits. The guitar here appears to be a case queen and must have only been played occasionally at home. It’s very clean and I believe the color to be Electric Blue, if I’m reading the price lists correctly.
The first thing I noticed is it’s nicely light at 7.3 lb (3.3 kg) and I’m guessing the body is made of poplar since it’s so light, but with a solid finish guitar, ya never know. I was pleasantly surprised that it balances well on my thigh when playing while seated. The body shape is an advantage in this regard. However, I found myself constantly monitoring where the pointy parts were in relation to other things in the room. You know, things like walls, furniture and ceiling fans. The guitar is so clean that I don’t want to ding or break a pointy part. I should have a playing area just for this guitar where there is a stool in the middle of the room with “Do not cross” crime scene tape around it in a 6 ft (2 meters) diameter circle. Pointy guitar paranoia is a real thing!
The nut width is 1 5/8” but the neck doesn’t feel small at all and is very comfortable to play. My G&L Interceptor, also with a 1 5/8” nut width, feels popsicle-stick-thin by comparison. The fretboard radius feels flat to me and I’m guessing it has a 12” or 14” radius, but maybe it’s upwards of 20”. I haven’t unpacked my gauges yet so I can’t measure it. The ebony fingerboard is glass smooth and the frets are big, but not the low, wide jumbos that were often used on guitars in the 1980s. This is my first 24-fret guitar, but as with all my guitars, it’s rare for me to venture above the 12th fret. Such is the life of a rhythm guitarist.
From the dealer photos I thought the guitar was fitted with the optional EMG pickups (not my favorite), but after playing it for a bit, these felt and sounded more like the Duncan 59/JB combo used on the 1990s S-100 reissue. I managed to find my multi-meter amongst my boxes so I took some DC resistance readings: 8.3K ohm (neck) and 13.6K ohm (bridge). The bridge pickup value is too low to be a JB, but is consistent with a DiMarzio Super Distortion. So, I loosened the strings and pulled the pickups.
Sure enough, they are DiMarzio units hiding under EMG-type covers! I’m betting the bridge pickup is a Dual Sound aka Super Distortion and the neck pickup is a Super II aka XR-7. They are not a bad combo! I’m perplexed as to why they used EMG-type covers and wonder if all the late X-79s (circa 1984-85) that appear at a glance to have EMGs are really fitted with DiMarzios.
While I had my small screwdriver handy, I removed the control cavity cover and checked the pot values. Both the volume and tone pots are 200K (not the 500K pots found in GAD’s review). Yet, the guitar doesn’t sound dull or muddy at all. In fact, it’s nicely bright, but not HB-1 bright.
Doing a quick swing through Reverb for other X-79s, it looks like the later versions (like my ’85) have a horizontal script Guild logo instead of the silkscreened peaked logo, octagonal Schaller M6 tuners instead of the usual M6 units, rear-loaded Vol/Tone controls instead of front-loaded Vol/Vol/Tone controls, and possibly DiMarzio Super II/SD pickups instead of a pair of XR-7s. I much prefer the clean look of the rear-loaded controls and I don’t miss having the extra volume control. On the other hand, I am disappointed that the late version of the X-79 has a plain trapezoidal TRC. The earlier headstock-shaped TRC is so cool looking! Anyway, all the minutia is very interesting if you’re a gearhead, but boring if you’re not.
One other note – I don’t like the way it hangs from just the treble side headstock point on Hercules stands. The bass side doesn’t touch the hanger at all! I think that’s too much weight bearing on a small area that’s already fragile (pointy guitar paranoia!). So, it’s either in my hands being played or in the case away from the dangers of the world and Hercules guitar stands.
Overall, I have to agree with GAD’s assessment – the X-79 is (super) cool to look at and they play well (and sound good to me), but they are an exercise in form over function. I’ll try to enjoy it and hope to get over my pointy guitar paranoia soon.
