NGD - Thunderbird/Polara?

[BradHK]

The Thunderbird/Polara (aka Polarbird) is complete! Essentially, other than the body, truss rod cover, tremar, bridge height adjustment post, and the strap buttons I had to replace all of the other the non-correct parts with vintage correct components. A new pickguard was made (long story short but I sent off a tracing and the end result required rerouting the pickup routes and some fine tuning. Not a good experience. Next time I will just do this myself), reproduction kickstand arm, and new wiring and pots but all else is vintage correct parts. I also had a local luthier that I have used in the past and does great work do a refret as the originals were almost gone. It plays great and is a perfect blend between my Polara and Thunderbird! Body and anti-hum pickups from the Thunderbird and dot markers, no fretboard binding and the simple control layout of the Polara.







The finished trio:

 

[GGJaguar]

Holy mackerel, that came out fantastic! Guild should make a Polarbird reissue!! Call it an S-150. Wow!

 

[jp]

Killer job, Brad! Don't ever stop restoring. The orphaned and bastardized vintage Guilds of the world need you. :C)

 

[SFIV1967]

Simply amazing! Great job!

Ralf

 

[BradHK]

Thanks for the really nice comments everybody! I am pleased with the results and it plays and sounds great. I have a soft spot for vintage Guilds that need to be saved and brought back to life in a respectful way with period correct components. This was my fifth rescued Guild project and I might have another on the way…

 

[bieke]

There were a few more made of the kind you have, they had single coils. The pickup Guild made with the Todd wound coils. Hans book page 32 the middle picture. As you notice, it is yet different from your one as it has no big 3 switch plate and a normal Guild toggle switch knob.
Below is one which was available in Germany at Guitarpoint in 2017, I had some communication with the owner and Hans. Hans actually knows at least two more of them, one in cherry and one in sunburst. They are like the below one without the big 3 switch plate.
Hans told me that he would like to keep the info what those are for a future update of Part 1 of The Guild Guitar Book. (which I hope comes out soomer rather than later...)

The below is the one from Germany with S/N 29669. The current owner is not known to me.







Ralf

I'm the current owner of this No bird guitar, I got it off Guitarpoint in 2017.
I am currently thinking of putting it up for sale (locally), but I'm finding it really hard to let go of this one.
I was also thinking of fitting it with some other bridge (just to improve playability), it has a rather high action abve 12th fret.
Soooo, is there any bridge design with height adjustable saddles that I can just drop in, or a bridge that has a lower overall height.

 

[BradHK]

Welcome And I love your guitar!

I am assuming with the bridge you have run into the issue that the height adjustment post are sitting on the top of the pickguard which limits the ability to lower the bridge? I have seen this on a few 1963 Thunderbirds and Polaras where the pickguard goes under the bridge. The 1964 and later don’t have the pickguard under the bridge. That Hagstrom bridge post spacing is the same as an ABR so you could put an ABR on top of the post and I believe this will give you lower action. the ABR will sit a little sloppy on these post as the tip of the Hagstrom adjustable post is smaller diameter that the ABR studs. Another option is to buy another set of hagstrom post (these are easy to find) and modify to better fit the ABR bridge (or another bridge with the same spacing). Please do not modify anything permanent to get another bridge to work as you should be able to achieve your goal with reversible solutions and keep the originality.

If you are looking to sell sometime please let me know as I would be interested. Thanks!

 

[BradHK]

I forgot to add, you can get low profile ABR1 bridges if you need to lower oven more. Pigtail makes one but they are kinda expensive. I have one that I use on a guitar that has a low neck angle and it works great and is good quality.

 

[BradHK]

I just happen to have all of these bridges sitting around so I did a comparison. Below are photos of the Hagstrom bridge, a TonePros ABR1 and a Pigtail low profile ABR1. You will also notice the differences in radius between the Hagstrom and ABR1. FYI - the bridge on your guitar from the photos earlier in this post is not the correct Hagstrom bridge. They made ones with holes all the way through it to fit onto wooden floating bases and they made ones without holes all the way through that were made to rock on the bridge post for the tremar. The one in the photo has the holes all the way through. I checked mine and the height is the same for both so it won’t help the height but it will fit tighter on the post.

 

[bieke]

Welcome And I love your guitar!

I am assuming with the bridge you have run into the issue that the height adjustment post are sitting on the top of the pickguard which limits the ability to lower the bridge? I have seen this on a few 1963 Thunderbirds and Polaras where the pickguard goes under the bridge. The 1964 and later don’t have the pickguard under the bridge. That Hagstrom bridge post spacing is the same as an ABR so you could put an ABR on top of the post and I believe this will give you lower action. the ABR will sit a little sloppy on these post as the tip of the Hagstrom adjustable post is smaller diameter that the ABR studs. Another option is to buy another set of hagstrom post (these are easy to find) and modify to better fit the ABR bridge (or another bridge with the same spacing). Please do not modify anything permanent to get another bridge to work as you should be able to achieve your goal with reversible solutions and keep the originality.

If you are looking to sell sometime please let me know as I would be interested. Thanks!

Thanks Brad, well I've been a member here for some time now, just don't check in that often. I used to own a S-200 before, it had 1963 pot codes, but had a neck repair and ugly refin and no serial. I sold that one and regretted it afterwards and ended up buying this one. It is as far as I can tell, original, pot codes also of 1963, no repairs, had a couple of non-original saddle adjustment screws, maybe the TRC is not original but it's a genuine Guild part.

The bridge issue is exactly as you described, I have an ABR that I can drop that in, I could make a pair of metal bushings to get a better fit. I'm going to try that tonight. Never thought of that.

I wanted to put it up for sale locally (I'm in Belgium) see if there is any interest. I will let you know first before I put it up. I have never shipped a guitar outside Europe. In fact, I hardly ever sell anything, but I simply have too many guitars as it is, I have 4 more guitars that I was going to put up for sale (none have that same X-factor as the No Bird). There is something really peculiar about this guitar, it's hard to describe and may seem irrational, but when I'm feeling down, this guitar brings happiness.

 

[bieke]

I just happen to have all of these bridges sitting around so I did a comparison. Below are photos of the Hagstrom bridge, a TonePros ABR1 and a Pigtail low profile ABR1. You will also notice the differences in radius between the Hagstrom and ABR1. FYI - the bridge on your guitar from the photos earlier in this post is not the correct Hagstrom bridge. They made ones with holes all the way through it to fit onto wooden floating bases and they made ones without holes all the way through that were made to rock on the bridge post for the tremar. The one in the photo has the holes all the way through. I checked mine and the height is the same for both so it won’t help the height but it will fit tighter on the post.

Thanks a lot Brad! I have a Tonepros in a box somewhere it's a non-wire, with slotted saddles, I'm going to give that a try and will report back.
That Pigtail low profile bridge is new to me.

 

[bieke]

OK, I fitted the Tonepros ABR and I removed it immediately.
It was not really pleasing aesthetically, and also, the action was even higher with the Tonepros

I'm used to have superlow action on my guitars, and actually, it's not even that bad on the No Bird, it's perfectly playable.
I should just deal with it.