S 70 general questions

stclrob

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I was thinking about picking up an S 70 to go along with my S 300. My big question is the pickups. What did Guild put in the different models? So far I have only seen DiMarzios, but did Guild use their own single coils on any models? I noticed Grot's S70D has 'S70' on the truss rod cover so I'm a bit confused there. Anyway, how do the Guild single coils (should they exist) compare to the DiMarzios?

Also, how mellow is the 'hog model compared to the ash one? Also, would an S 70 fit an S 300 case, or is there a variation on the body? Finally, how hard is it to find one of these guys - were they limited production? S300s seem to be all over the bay recently, but I've only seen 2 S70s. Thanks in advance!
 

GAD

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stclrob said:
I was thinking about picking up an S 70 to go along with my S 300. My big question is the pickups. What did Guild put in the different models? So far I have only seen DiMarzios, but did Guild use their own single coils on any models? I noticed Grot's S70D has 'S70' on the truss rod cover so I'm a bit confused there. Anyway, how do the Guild single coils (should they exist) compare to the DiMarzios?

Also, how mellow is the 'hog model compared to the ash one? Also, would an S 70 fit an S 300 case, or is there a variation on the body? Finally, how hard is it to find one of these guys - were they limited production? S300s seem to be all over the bay recently, but I've only seen 2 S70s. Thanks in advance!

I don't have the answer to all your questions, but the recent glut of S300s is recent in my experience. I've wanted an S300AD to replace mine for years, and I've seen five of them online in the past few months.

I have a Guild catalog from '78 or '79 and it sows only Dimarzio single coils on the S60 as the S60D, but Guild or Dimarzio humbuckers. Someone like Hans would know more obviously.

The S70s come up pretty regularly on Ebay. I'd venture to say probably with the same regularity as the S300s, though recent sales may seem to indicate otherwise. I know for years when I wanted an S300 all I ever saw was S70s, so I guess you looking for an S70 is why I was able to score some nice S300s. :)

GAD
 

matsickma

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If I recall correctly at one time Guild stated in an advertisment that the S300 was the most successful solid body guitar they ever made (up until the time the advertisment came out).

I believe all S70's came with Dimarizo pickups. THe white one on ebay right now has white pickups. I suspect the covers were changed or the pickups were swapped. Hans is probably the only one who know the truth about the pickups.

The S70 I own was modified by the addition of a NOS Guild Bigsby like the one used on the S100 Deluxe. It always struck me as odd that Guild didnot include a vibrato on this model.

The S70 has a 5 way switch to select N, N-M, M, M-B & B pickup combinations. Additioally it has a phase switch so that in the 2nd and 4th switch position you can put the pickups out of phase. I always found that with the single coils out of phase the sound was to thin sounding. I modified my S-70 with the addition of a POT on the middle pickup to allow the volume to be adjusted so that teh out-of-phase sound is appealing. Additionally Guild used a double sided 5 way switch. I swapped out the master volume switch with a POT and DPDT switch. I rewired the unused side of the switch to select a different selection of pickups. In particular I can now select the N-B & NMB in and out of phase. This added an additional dimension to the S70. My S300 is Ash and the S70 is mahogany. I thing the single coils go well with the mahogony and the Dimarizio humbuckers go well with the Ash. I once owned a mahogony S300 with HB1's and that was a good combination. I would like to hear a Ash with HB-1s.

M
 

stclrob

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matsickma said:
I believe all S70's came with Dimarizo pickups. THe white one on ebay right now has white pickups. I suspect the covers were changed or the pickups were swapped. Hans is probably the only one who know the truth about the pickups.
Yeah, that white S70 has stratocaster pickups per the description. He doesn't say what the originals are, although that makes a few votes that they're probably DiMarzio. The only single coil DM pickups I've tried were Corgan's strat and Malmsteen's strat and both were pretty hot. Another thing popped up, how do you think the S 70 sounds compared to a stratocaster?

I'd like to see pictures of the mods if you got 'em!They sound really cool!
 

balzakjeff

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I'm the fourth owner of my S70D. First guy (now a local guitar teacher) owned it for years and sold it to a friend of mine (but at the time I wasn't playing guitar so didn't know about it) and he sold it to my friend and coworker. My friend and coworker pulled the phase switches and replaced the saddle PUP with a Texas special. He also rewired it strange (tone knob didn't affect the tone of the TS PUP) and installed locking tuners. He sold it to me after owning it for a short period. I pulled all the PUPs and replaced them with close outs from Reverend Guitars (70% single coil/30% P90 sound, so the web page said). I installed them and rewired it like a strat.

Jeff
 

balzakjeff

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About a year after I bought the guitar from the third owner, the second owner dropped off the original instruction sheet that came with the guitar. It explains the main and phase switches. I can dig it out if you have specific questions.

Jeff
 

stclrob

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balzakjeff said:
About a year after I bought the guitar from the third owner, the second owner dropped off the original instruction sheet that came with the guitar. It explains the main and phase switches. I can dig it out if you have specific questions.

Jeff
I'd love to see the original instruction sheet if you have it! I didn't see it on Guild's website.
 

danerectal

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From all the sources I've seen, Guild was using the SDS-1 single coil from DiMarzio. Dreamlander has a pair in his S-60D, one of which he had to replace as the previous owner had installed a Seymour Duncan hotrails JB Jr. They sound a lot like a p-90 rather than a standard single coil. Pretty high output pickups.
 

matsickma

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I know a lot of people say they don't like the sound of the stock S70 pickups but I really like them. They have the right amount of distortion to them and the center counter wound pickup give a nice quacky sound when selected with the neck or bridge. My biggest complaint about the S70 was no bigsby and since you only have a master VOL & TONE you could not get a useful tone out the phase switches when selected for the out-of-phase configuration. I eventually altered the wiring on mine to include a middle pickup volume control so I could balance the middle pickup better. I also added a bigsby and additional wiring changes to allow selection of the neck/bridge combination.

S-70_1.jpg


SF5018.jpg


M
 

balzakjeff

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stclrob said:
balzakjeff said:
About a year after I bought the guitar from the third owner, the second owner dropped off the original instruction sheet that came with the guitar. It explains the main and phase switches. I can dig it out if you have specific questions.

Jeff
I'd love to see the original instruction sheet if you have it! I didn't see it on Guild's website.

Well I just went through my "music drawer" and found every receipt for every penny I spent on music, every instruction manual, my iTunes password, 1/8 to 1/4 adapters, boxes and packages and even the old pickups, but no instructions. Started on my misc. papers and finally found the intra-campus envelope (my friend worked on campus) with 1 sheet "New! S-70D Solid Body, with 3 DiMarsio SDS-1 Pick-Ups." on one side and "Operating Instructions, Guild-70D" on the other.

If you want a copy PM/email me (don't recall if my email is hot on this web site jclewin at mtu dot edu) with your snail mail addy.

Jeff
 

stclrob

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matsickma said:
I know a lot of people say they don't like the sound of the stock S70 pickups but I really like them. They have the right amount of distortion to them and the center counter wound pickup give a nice quacky sound when selected with the neck or bridge. My biggest complaint about the S70 was no bigsby and since you only have a master VOL & TONE you could not get a useful tone out the phase switches when selected for the out-of-phase configuration. I eventually altered the wiring on mine to include a middle pickup volume control so I could balance the middle pickup better. I also added a bigsby and additional wiring changes to allow selection of the neck/bridge combination.

M
matsickma, that is one very awesome modification! :shock: That added volume mod would probably be very nice on my tele (also S/S/S with master volume/tone). Jeff, pm sent.
 

stclrob

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Controls which is very cool, thanks balzakjeff:
scan0001wav.jpg


BTW, qvart new Clutch album in one week (I just noticed that today).
 
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About a year after I bought the guitar from the third owner, the second owner dropped off the original instruction sheet that came with the guitar. It explains the main and phase switches. I can dig it out if you have specific questions.

Jeff
Hello balzakjeff. If you still have the instruction sheet, may I get a copy of it?
 

DrumBob

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When I was at Guild, the guitar was known as the S-70D, with the D standing for DiMarzio. I don't think there was a separate S-70 with any other pickups. To my knowledge, Guild never made Strat-style pickups in-house.
 
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