Today’s mad science experiment involves me tearing apart a vintage Guild AntiHum pickup from the mid-1960s. This rare item is pretty valuable, so if you’re sensitive about gore, best to look away.
You and I both know that you’re not going to look away.
Like with the vintage Guild HB1 I dismantled, I tore this pickup apart in the name of science. Well, that and pure raw curiosity; I like to see how things work. So, without further ado, let’s dig in and tear this puppy open! Read More
For my 30th Guild guitar review, I decided to publish something special, which is a review of this 1994 Guild S100 Polara. I’ve already reviewed two Guild S100s, one from the 2015 Newark Street line and one from the 1997 Westerly Reissue series. Why another S100 review? Because this one is special and rare. It also blows those other ones out of the water.
This black beauty is a Guild S100 Polara from 1994. It was owned by a member over on the LetsTalkGuild forum who was kind enough to let me borrow it for a quick (three month) write up and review after which I threw money at him until he let me buy it outright. While that may not be strictly true, what’s important is the fact that it’s now mine and you can’t have it. What’s the big deal about an S100 from 1994? You’re just going to have to read the review to find out.
One of my most popular articles is Guild Full-Sized HB1 and SD1 Pickup Variations where I put into writing all the nitpicky details about those pickups that I’ve learned over the years. I often get people asking me about the Guild “mini humbuckers” from the 1960s and thanks to a recent project that involved them, I have now gathered enough information to describe them in nitpicky detail, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Read More
The first guitar review I wrote for this blog was back in 2014 when I wrote up a 1965 Guild S200 Thunderbird. That post started a trend of me writing about Guilds with almost 30 guitars reviewed along with a pile of other articles, all of which you can see at GADsGuilds.com.
When Guild reissued the Guild S200 Thunderbird T-Bird, hits to that page soared and one of the most common requests I get ever since is, “When will you review the Newark Street Thunderbird T-bird?”
The time is now. Let’s take a look at the Guild Newark St. S200 T-Bird.
I am one of those apparently rare guitarists who doesn’t like Telecasters. Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate their tone and I understand their place in the history of music as we know it, but every time I play one I walk away thinking that it has to be about the least ergonomically designed guitars on the planet.
Being a Guild collector, though, when a Guild T250 guitar came up for sale I had to buy it to see if my favorite guitar brand could somehow change my mind about the venerable Telecaster. Let’s take a look at this relatively uncommon Guild electric guitar. Read More
Today’s review is of a Guild S270 Flyer from 1985. I picked up this ’80s Guild shredder at a great price because they seem to often get picked over by people looking for vintage Strats, Charvels, Jacksons, and the like. That’s a shame because any Guild from the Westerly plant should be taken seriously and this model is no exception.
As you might have guessed by looking at the picture, this is a very simple instrument so let’s see if it can hold up against the impossibly high standards that I have for Guild electric guitars.
One of the benefits of writing about vintage Guild guitars is the fact that I get emails about vintage Guild guitars. In this case, I got an email from someone asking if I’d help identify a Guild for sale in a local New Jersey store. I said “sure”, and the person sent me a picture asking if the guitar was a Guild S285 Aviator.
In my years of collecting and writing about Guilds I had never seen a Guild S285 Aviator and only read descriptions of them in books, but even though it wasn’t a perfect match, this guitar seemed like it might be one of those rare beasts. When the potential buyer informed me that he was passing on the guitar he gave me the store information and I made arrangements to pickup the guitar since it was in a store that was less than an hour from my house. My journey of discovery had begun. Was this really a rare S285? Let’s take a look and see what I’ve learned about this guitar and why I call it an S284+.
In a departure from my normal Guild reviews, today’s writeup is about the Burnside Lance, model BE100R.
While not strictly speaking a Guild, Burnside was a company that operated under the Guild umbrella so that Guild could sell less expensive import guitars along with their US-made brethren. Some companies (Jackson comes to mind) managed to produce some stellar import guitars, so let’s see if this Burnside Lance can compare with the US-made Guilds from the 1980s.
Today we’re going to take a look at the Guild Nightbird I. Not the Nightbird or the Nightbird Custom or The Nightbird GG, or… You know what? We’ll talk about the crazy number of Nightbird models later. For now just accept that this is a Nightbird I.
This isn’t really a model that I lusted after so there’s no cool story about me wanting one since I was born (20 years before the guitar was even made). Nope – I bought this one just to write it up, so lets see if it’s worthy of the Guild Nightbird name by evaluating all its details in a completely impartial and unbiased way. Well, as impartial as unbiased as an unabashed Guild fanboy can be.
Guild Nightbirds are some of the best electric guitars every produced at the Westerly Guild plant. I own more than my fair share of them, and since I have a pile of Nightbird reviews pending I thought I would consolidate some of the repeating information I had into a single article.
Nightbirds come in a dizzying array of colors, configurations, and models, and it can be quite difficult to discern the difference between a Nightbird, a Nightbird I, a Nightbird II, and so-on. Having gone through this pain myself and having collected a fair bit of information, I have put it all into a hopefully easy to digest article that should help you if you find yourself considering the purchase of one of these fine instruments. Read More