Mine had the rings in that layout as well. You can see it in the pic below.
I've never seen them of different thicknesses, but that means nothing other than I may be sheltered.
This is a "T" in orange. It's the MARS model that Hans mentioned, and this one (an early model) has both switches on the top bout. Later ones have the coil tap on the bottom (A much better arrangement IMO). I really wish they had put a master volume on the lower bout. Also, the coil tap switch was a very odd piece of hardware that I think might be hard to replace. Mine was intermittent, but it worked after I cleaned it out.
This is a "regular" X170 in Blonde
In my hands, the X170 is really more of a jazz guitar than anything else. Comparing the MARS version with the Gretsch 6120 I had, the Gretsch was much lighter and much more lively. The X170 was more bassy - more "jazzy" sounding, if there is such a thing. The X170 has a sound post which I think deaden's the top a bit. My Gretsch had trestle bracing which I think was a little less dampening.
The build quality is top-notch, as with all Guilds I've ever held. I loved the necks and the playability on both of them, but the X170T never really produced the Setzer-esq tones I was chasing, so I sold it off. I miss it, but I get my Guildsby action these days from my SFIII-90 which gets me closer to that sound than the X170T ever did.
That orange MARS Guild was one of the most eye-catching guitars I've ever owned. Everyone who saw it commented on it.
