S-280 Flyer

dklsplace

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Date Posted: 02/21/2005 4:20 PM
Posted By: Squawk

I picked up one of these on e-bay last summer for the heck of it. It's a strat-style mid-80's metal guitar with a single active EMG pickup and a Kahler trem. For another $20, I bought a Kahler overhaul kit (all orig. 1980's screws, springs, etc.) and was able to download good info from that vendor on the care and feeding of your Kahler. I rebuilt the Kahler and didn't have the patience to restring and adjust it, so I put it away and almost forgot about it. Having the day off today, I spent 2 hours and was able to adjust everything so that I have great action, intonation and a great sounding trem. Keeping the volume at 7 or so gives me a nice clean sound; at 10, you get a decent distortion but I need to refine my amp settings. The rosewood fingerboard is beautiful, and I must admit this is one nice guitar for rock n' blues - even got a nice surf sound. My daughter plays punk on an ESP with a Floyd rose, and this beats it (and the ESP ain't bad). Anyone else have one of these?


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Date Posted: 02/21/2005 4:45 PM
Posted By: hansmoust

Hi Squawk,

These are really good guitars and they can be had for very little. Can you show us a picture? I'm curious as to which headstock you have.

Sincerely,

Hans

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Date Posted: 02/21/2005 9:38 PM
Posted By: Squawk

Hans -

I just took some pictures, but I can't directly post them here, so I am e-mailing them to you - but please feel free to share them here or anywhere. One of these days, I'll set up a website

I am sending one picture of the full guitar, a close-up of the headstock, and a close-up of the Kahler (without the arm). Please note the single volume control knob is not original - it's a recent gibson tone knob, but I had it laying around and it is 100% functional. Also a case question - the case you see is an old beat up chipboard one the seller used to send me the guitar. Would this model fit in a standard strat case? BTW, the serial # is HC101448 which, according to the Fender site, indicates this is one of the last Flyers made in 1986 (unless you have better info - I trust you more

Thanks!



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Date Posted: 02/22/2005 8:31 AM
Posted By: hansmoust

Here are the photos of Squawk's Guild:

S-280_full.jpg

S-280_Kahler.jpg

S-280_headstock.jpg









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Date Posted: 02/22/2005 11:03 AM
Posted By: hansmoust

Re. a case question - the case you see is an old beat up chipboard one the seller used to send me the guitar. Would this model fit in a standard strat case?
To be honest, I didn't know if it would fit in a standard Strat case, but since I have some of these Guilds lying around I tried to put it in a 'vintage' Fender case. I'm sorry to say that it doesn't fit. The somewhat 'stretched' Strat body style of the Flyer make the whole guitar a little longer. I'm quite sure that you should be able to find an aftermarket case for it and I believe that a standard Jaguar/Jazzmaster case would work as well.

Re. the serial # is HC101448 which, according to the Fender site, indicates this is one of the last Flyers made in 1986 (unless you have better info - I trust you more
The information is right. The guitar is from 1986.

Maybe you should take a look at the tuners. Usually the tuners are black on Flyers!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
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Date Posted: 02/22/2005 9:09 PM
Posted By: Squawk

Hans -

I am sending you a picture of the tuner backs now. If these are not original, I'd never know as there are no extra holes, everything is tight - and they work great - even with the locking nut loosened. Are you pretty sure they were replaced?

And thanks for the case info - I'll check out some 3rd party cases this weekend and report back.



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Date Posted: 02/23/2005 2:34 AM
Posted By: hansmoust

Hi Squawk,

It is what I thought. They were replaced but they did choose a machinehead with a similar footprint, so that's good. And it's a good machinehead. These were made for Ovation. You can tell by the logo on the back.

Cheers, Hans



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Date Posted: 03/03/2005 11:12 PM
Posted By: matsickma


Hi Squawk,

I also have discovered how great the non-traditional Guild style guitars of the 1980's are. I own a beautiful cream colored S281 with 2 actrive EMG Humbucker PUPs. The sound of these pickups are outstanding. My S281 is unusual in that it has 3-control knobs, a standard 3-position pickup selector switch and a mini switch that functions as a amplifier boost. The head of the guitar is the "foot" design and the origional machines were replaced with Spergel locking models. It has a Kahler vibrato and locking nut.

What makes this guitar unusual is the control Knobs and the boost switch. One of the control knobs is a Master Volume. The other two appear to be a "Mid" and a "Treble" equalization control. These controls work quite different from a standard passive tone control. They don't just roll off the upper end or boost cut the mid. The Treble control, through most of its range, appears to influence the lower frequency fullness sound of the guitar. The Mid functions in a similar but different manner . I can't easily describe the sonic qualities but I can tell you it is not like any passive control I ever played.

The tone of the EMG is a really open with every finger nuance and articulation picked up. The mini-switch looks like a classic Guild phase switch. However it kicks in a serious gain boost. Easily 10 dB, maybe 20 dB!. It is definitly a amp boost because you can hear the noise floor rise when it is kicked in. When playing with the boost out you can have a open and clean sound. When you hit the boost it will saturate the front-end of any amplifier resulting in a great sounding overdrive sound. This control makes it easy to change the character of the guitar sound.

I often considered selling this guitar but finally decided that due to its unique sound qualities it a keeper. I could not duplicate its sound with my GG Nightbird or Detonator II even though they both have a pair of active EMG Humbuclkers.

My positive experiance with this guitar got me onto a kick to pick up as many different circ '80 models I could find. I would say most are have unique tonal characteristics that are not easily duplicated.

Thanks,

matsickma


S281_1.jpg

S281_2.jpg

S281_4.jpg

S281_5.jpg
 

Accept2

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Its interesting that they used the Flyer trem on one and the Pro trem on the other. I had a Runaway which was very similar. It had one humbucker, looked like an EMG, but wasnt, and it had the Pro trem.............
 

matsickma

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Hi Guild Gang,

I decided to thin out my guitar assortment and sold this guitar last month on eBay. The features on this particular guitar were pretty rare but I still let it go.

matsickma :oops:

Sellers Remorse :(
 

matsickma

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Hi Guild Gang,

I decided to thin out my guitar assortment and sold this guitar last month on eBay. The features on this particular guitar were pretty rare but I still let it go.

matsickma :oops:

Sellers Remorse :(
 
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