Look what I've got here - Nightbird X-2000 lefty

ruedi

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Personally, I think your English is superb and is much better than mine on most days. But, most importantly, congrats Ruedi. That is a beautiful guitar!!!!

Well thank you sir! deepl translator is my friend :)

Thanks AI for the interesting links! Living in times with general history blindness (at least I feel so) and arbitrary interchangeability of things and people I like to set some kind of counterpoint and stick to things with a story, so these "tales" are of big interest to me!

Yesterday evening I experimented with the phase switch and distortion, I think I'm getting closer. The Nightbird is slowly revealing it's secrets in terms of versatility.

Idk how to call the colour, it's unlike anything I've seen before. The woodgrain beneath the finish changes it's appearance depending on the light and angle of view, and so does the lacquering itself. I like your proposition "woodgrain red" Ralf, it's something special like the guitar itself.

On Saturday I will change the strings and take this opportunity to explore the inner life of the instrument. Come back here for updates :)

cheerio
 

SFIV1967

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I like your proposition "woodgrain red" Ralf, it's something special like the guitar itself.
That's what was officially written in the Guild catalogs, they called those colors the "Woodgrain colors" and there were Woodgrain Red, Woodgrain Green, and Woodgrain Blue specified at that time in the pricelists as available colors.
Ralf
 

adorshki

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Idk how to call the colour, it's unlike anything I've seen before. The woodgrain beneath the finish changes it's appearance depending on the light and angle of view, and so does the lacquering itself.
It's a property called chatoyancy and is especially apparent in high grade maple, which Guild had a great supply of from the mid '80's through the early 2000's, thanks to a guy named Willie Fritscher:
http://www.westerlyguildguitars.com/articles/woodselection.pdf
The finishes themselves appear different on different topwoods but definitely enhance the effect.
Maple tends to make finishes "pop" the best, I think.

Come back here for updates :)
cheerio
Count on it.
:friendly_wink:
 

ruedi

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ok that's cool, so the color has an official label (woodgrain red) and the effect has a name (chatoyancy) :) learn every day, thanks Ralf and AI!


String change is postponed to next wednesday, but i have something for you already:

IMG_20200221_212147.jpg

there seems to be no label in whatever form, so Hans and GAD were right (how could they not).

wish you all a wonderful weekend
 
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hansmoust

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Yesterday evening I experimented with the phase switch and distortion, I think I'm getting closer. The Nightbird is slowly revealing it's secrets in terms of versatility.

That last photo shows that your guitar does not have a phase switch; looks like a single coil switch. It would be the most effective on the fingerboard pickup, so I assume that's how it is wired!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

ruedi

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*note to self: need to look up difference between phase switch and single coil switch.

Please forgive my ignorance and thank you Hans! The switch indeed does have it's effect on the neck pickup.
 

walrus

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That's cool how you can see the quilting on the unfinished wood!

walrus
 

GAD

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*note to self: need to look up difference between phase switch and single coil switch.

Please forgive my ignorance and thank you Hans! The switch indeed does have it's effect on the neck pickup.

A phase switch reverses the direction of the signal on one pickup so that the "both pickup" selection can sound thin and nasally (peter green tone).

A coil split takes one of the coils of the pickup and shunts it to ground so that the humbucker becomes a single coil pickup.
 

GAD

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BTW the ability to coil-split is why I love those 4-wire HB1s. You can't do that on the vintage models.

Also, I'm wrong all the time. Just look at the pics in my X175 article. Oy. :very_drunk:
 

ruedi

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Dear people of LTG

Since string change is due tomorrow morning and it's too late already to furthermore gladden the neighbours with my lovely guitar noises, I decided to remove the pickups and finally reveal their secret: Am I actually dealing with the glorious vintage HB1? Having spent a lot of time on GAD's pages and LTG in the last couple of days, I was very curious. As a reference for my superficial and quite amateurish analysis, I used GAD's work "Guild Full-Sized HB1 and SD1 Pickup Variations". Many thanks at this point!

Here are the pictures. Neck:
IMG_20200225_204805.jpg

Bridge:
IMG_20200225_205808.jpg

As you can see, there are NO solder terminals, the wires are just solded on the back of the pickup. Neither there are engravings of a date of any sort. So most probably no vintage HB1. The inscription "Guild Made In U.S.A." however, leaves us to two possibilite: They are either (1) the quite rare mid-90ies Guild HB1, or (2) the Seymor Duncan SD1. I tend to believe they are HB1 because: a) they don't have any stickers on them, as SD1 usually seem to have, and b) the adjustment screws are large flathead and gold rather than smaller philips heads.

What are your thoughts on the this affair?
 

ruedi

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Now that's cool. Thank you for the confirmation!

But why on earth did they abandon the solder terminals?
 

GAD

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Now that's cool. Thank you for the confirmation!

But why on earth did they abandon the solder terminals?

I couldn't tell you. My guess would be to lower cost. Hans may know for sure, though.

I *love* those 4-wire HB1s.
 

ruedi

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I couldn't tell you. My guess would be to lower cost. Hans may know for sure, though.

This might well be the case. It's just a shame to sacrifice such a nice and clean solution to save a few pennies and go back to this tinkering... But as long as it doesn't affect the sound I'm fine with it, I don't need to look at it all day :)

I've only now seen your entry "Guild Pickup Wiring" where you point out to the different coloured wiring as a distinguishing feature between the mid-90ies HB1s and the SB1.

And yes, they sound unlike anything other and better than everything I've heard before, just awesome.
 
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GAD

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This might well be the case. It's just a shame to sacrificesuch a nice and clean solution to save a few pennies and go back to this tinkering... But as long as it doesn't affect the sound I'm fine with it, I don't need to look at it all day :)

I've only now seen your entry "Guild Pickup Wiring" where you point out to the different coloured wiring as a distinguishing feature between the mid-90ies HB1s and the SB1.

And yes, they sound unlike anything other and better than everything I've heard before, just awesome.

Agreed.

Don't forget that with four wires you'd need four solder points as well, so that may have been a complication someone didn't want to deal with. Fender did it and they ended up looking like this:

Guild-Fender-HB1-Back-11.jpg
 

DThomasC

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Back in the 80's I molested the neck HB-1 on my S300 to allow coil splitting. (It wasn't vintage then, just a used guitar.) It works really well.
 

ruedi

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Back in the 80's I molested the neck HB-1 on my S300 to allow coil splitting. (It wasn't vintage then, just a used guitar.) It works really well.

That sounds like a good idea! And I like everyone who starts their statement with the words "Back in the 80's I ..." :)
 
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