Guild hollow body V Gibson ES 175?

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I'm considering a hollowbody guitar having played flat-tops all my life.
I'd like one for playing fingerstyle jazz, blues etc. and I'd like a smooth, clean warm tone.
I have no experience of archtops and I'd appreciate a recommendation and maybe some comparisons between say, a Gibson ES 175 and the Guild X 500 OR X 700, or indeed any other Guild models?
Thanks,
John.
 
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I'm considering a hollowbody guitar having played flat-tops all my life.
I'd like one for playing fingerstyle jazz, blues etc. and I'd like a smooth, clean warm tone.
I have no experience of archtops and I'd appreciate a recommendation and maybe some comparisons between say, a Gibson ES 175 and the Guild X 500 OR X 700, or indeed any other Guild models?
Thanks,
John.
 

bobgoblin

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i think that guild's idea of the equivalent of the es-175 was the x-150, 16" body, 3.5" (or so) depth, bound body & neck, no binding on f holes or headstock...i think everyone here will pretty much tell ya that their guilds are the bees' knees, (i know mine is!). the 500 is a great guitar (or the few i've played were), i've never played a 700, but i think bob benedetto revamped that model, so i'm sure its a helluva guitar as well. if you want something even more like a es-175, look at ce-100's (i think that's the model designation), but x-175's are real nice (ask walter or dklsplace or hans). honestly, for jazz/blues, i think just about any hollow (or semihollow) model will do ya just fine. good luck.
 

bobgoblin

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i think that guild's idea of the equivalent of the es-175 was the x-150, 16" body, 3.5" (or so) depth, bound body & neck, no binding on f holes or headstock...i think everyone here will pretty much tell ya that their guilds are the bees' knees, (i know mine is!). the 500 is a great guitar (or the few i've played were), i've never played a 700, but i think bob benedetto revamped that model, so i'm sure its a helluva guitar as well. if you want something even more like a es-175, look at ce-100's (i think that's the model designation), but x-175's are real nice (ask walter or dklsplace or hans). honestly, for jazz/blues, i think just about any hollow (or semihollow) model will do ya just fine. good luck.
 

Darryl Hattenhauer

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John,

How is your search going?

In general, it seems to me that you get a lot more for your money with Guild, especially a used one. I believe that's particularly true regarding jazz boxes with P90s.

If you want to play really loud, I suppose you don't want an all solid wood model, but I may be out of date on that.

I don't have any solidbodies. For my ear, my X 175 with P90s and flatwounds is great for jazz, and my startfire 5 with Duncs is great for rock, and my Duane with Dearmonds is great for country. And they're all great for blues. A friend of mine uses an X 150D for everything.
 
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