NGD T-100 1962

[Sergnaps]

Good day all!

I’ve had my vintage T-100 for almost 2 weeks now. It sounds excellent with the Franz pup through my supro delta king 10. I have yet to play it through my Ampeg reverberocket with the tremolo, which is what I’m REALLY looking forward to. I also need to get my pedals together and get some slap back delay going. I have a strat and thinline tele 72 reissue MIM. So this guild is something completely new to me and I’m not much of a jazz player aside from some chord voicings I still use from my days in HS Jazz band. They set it up at Rivington Guitars in NYC and put on a set of 11s with a wound g string. So no bending and I’m having some trouble staying within the narrow frets. To be honest, it’s a struggle at the moment getting used to it and I know the action is suppose to be on the higher end but it’s taking a lot for me to strum and pick the way I normally do on my fenders (which I expected but not to this degree). I absolutely love the sound but I wish the action can be a bit lower. Is this asking too much of the guitar or do you think I should bring it in to get the action adjusted a bit lower? It is nice to have a different type of guitar in my collection but I’m afraid I might not play it as much as I would have hoped (considering how much I paid). I have to bring it in anyway as the pots are a bit scratchy. Sound off! Thanks!
-Sergio

 

[Guildedagain]

How high is it?

I've been raising/lowering action as needed since my 1st electric in the 70's.

Lower one side at a time, like the treble side, until it's where you want it, and check all the notes up and down the neck on the treble string, all notes should be clear, if not raise the strings back up until all notes play clean, wherever that is is your minimum height, and you pretty much live with that if low is your aim.

To note, string height affects intonation, reintonate by moving the bridge for well intonated high and low E strings.

The proper way to do this is - forget the 12th fret octave note - sound the open string, and then at the 12th fret, use a tuner to corroborate position.

If you want to step into the modern world, probably lose the heavy flatwound strings with unwound G, but you'll need a different bridge, quite a consideration.

 

[Sergnaps]

Thanks for this info @Guildedagain ! I wouldn’t do this myself as I don’t have the experience and time to sit and tinker with a 1 yo running around. This is also why I wasn’t able to play it too often the last two weeks. Either way, I will bring this up to the guitar tech when I go back to the shop I purchased it from. I also use a local shop for a lot of my set ups and they’ve been wonderful the last 20 something years (and going strong!)

 

[GGJaguar]

That action looks pretty high. Can the saddle be lowered more or is it all the way down?

 

[Default]

Looks like it needs a neck resets to me. If you lower the action, it's going to hit the pup.

 

[walrus]

Nice guitar! Good luck in your quest to make it the way you want it!

walrus

 

[Sergnaps]

Here are some close ups. Lmk what you think and thank you @Default @GGJaguar in advance!

 

[GGJaguar]

It looks like you might be able to lower the strings a millimeter or two (the treble side of the saddle only has that much to lower... maybe). But as Default said, the strings may touch the pickup cover if you go any lower.

 

[teleharmonium]

If those are D'addario Chromes, going to a set of Thomastik Jazz Swing will feel better due to lower tension. They make a .010 set too, still with a wound G, so you would not need to change the bridge.

 

[Sergnaps]

It looks like you might be able to lower the strings a millimeter or two (the treble side of the saddle only has that much to lower... maybe).

 

[jp]

I'm a proponent of setting up a guitar how you like it best. I say go for it and try to lower it as much as you can.

Since it looks like your pickup cover doesn't quite fit the contour of the top, you might be able to sand it down slightly to be able to lower the bridge saddle a bit more to avoid the strings hitting it.

 

[mushroom]

Hello
I have a 62 T100 and the action was a little high on mine as well.
I changed the strings so tension was a little lower and I also bought a second bridge which I sanded down a bit lower.
This preserves the original if I ever want to sell it (unlikely ).
Doing these inexpensive things lowered the action that’s made the guitar very comfortable to play.
Good luck with yours with whatever path you take.

 

[Sergnaps]

Hello
I have a 62 T100 and the action was a little high on mine as well.
I changed the strings so tension was a little lower and I also bought a second bridge which I sanded down a bit lower.
This preserves the original if I ever want to sell it (unlikely ).
Doing these inexpensive things lowered the action that’s made the guitar very comfortable to play.
Good luck with yours with whatever path you take.

Oh wow. Okay cool. What style of music do you play on it mostly?

 

[mushroom]

My band days are done but I have a little recording setup here at home where I noodle about playing - or pretending to play - prog rock with a pop twist. I really like the T100 with a fair swack of reverb. Mainly on the ‘riffier’ type stuff. They are great guitars. Mine is beat to crap but it’s awesome.

 

[Shakeylee]

i would try to lower the bridge, and see about a lower pickup cover,

 

[Sergnaps]

Great advice all. I will take it in to the shop today to talk about options. I will ask about a lower pickup cover and/or a bridge to purchase that can be sanded down. Some new strings as well. I know this is a special guitar as is but I also want to make it my own while preserving it as much as possible. I’ll keep following up on this journey and I really appreciate all the info along the way.

 

[Shakeylee]

You can try this , before going to a shop;

Lower your pole pieces .

Turn the wheels on the bridge clockwise, until the he strings hit the pickup, then, back them up a little bit .

On a guitar with a floating bridge, the owner needs to learn adjustments, for string changes and shifts

 

[Sergnaps]

Update: I put a set of 10s on and it plays and feels a world better. However, sadly there is still some static/rumble sounds when I start to play open chords. After about 15 minutes or so of playing it (plugged in only), the static gets worse and worse. I brought it in and was able to replicate the issue thankfully. It’s possible that the franz pup is too powerful? Thoughts? TIA

 

[Ixtlan]

Hi Sergnaps, I had a similar thing with my T100. The way the guitar is built is that the neck is almost parallel to the body. Usually on an archtop, the neck is angled back a bit. One of the answers to this is a neck reset which is very costly. The other thing you can do is get the neck as straight as possible and buy a low bridge. Here's what I bought: https://www.ebay.com/itm/292489276511
So with that you can lower the action without any major adjustments. In fact, my action was so low that I raised the lowboy bridge a tad. If everything else is equal this may work for you. Good luck!

Edit: did you lower the bridge previously? In your photo it looks like you can drop it down moreso for the lower strings.

 

[Sergnaps]

Thanks. I didn’t lower the bridge from the picture. The shop put on some 10s after I purchased it and it’s been playing great. The main issue now is the crackling/static that comes out when it’s plugged in after about 15 or so minutes. It could be the pickup. I dropped it off to the shops tech who will look into this particular issue. Hope it could resolved as I purchased the guitar in “excellent” condition. Here’s the original listing.

1962 Guild T-100 Electric Hollowbody Sunburst > Guitars Electric Semi-Hollow Body | Rivington Guitars

Vintage orignal 1962 Guild T-100 Electric Holllowbody. Purchased directly from the original owner here in NYC! Plays real nice with a fat neck. Neck is straight and plays well all the way up and do...

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