continuation of Blonde Aristocrat by SugarMountain

matsickma said:

I considered buying a 1968 Bluesbird before I picked up my '72 (own it about 4 years now). I found the mini humbuckers made the guitar a little thin sounding-it's all up to an individuals taste. However one thing I noticed about the '68 is that the neck and how it attaches to the body is more like an Aristocrat. In fact if I remember correctly a late model M75 will not fit in the case of the earlier model.

I like the change Guild made to the neck and placement relative to the body on the 1972 model. IMHO the later year design of the hollowbody M75 Bluesbird was the best of them all.

matsickma

Click to expand...

Hello again everybody (sorry about the move),

The neck change already took place during 1968. It was basically the same change that was implemented on the double-cutaway Starfire-series at the end of 1966. After the move from Hoboken to Westerly there was a lot of experimentation going on at the Guild factory. One of the things they were trying was to update the Bluesbird M-75, so it would be a little better feedback resistant. These experiments would eventually lead to the discontinuation of the Hollow Body M-75 and the introduction of the Solid Body version.

Here's a shot that shows a block under the bridge of an early '70s M-75CS:


[img:756:567]http://www.guitarchives.nl/fotos/M75CSdetail_1.jpg[/img]














And here's another shot of a similar guitar that shows that even a three-pickup M-75CS was tried out but, as we all know now, it didn't make it to the production line:



[img:756:567]http://www.guitarchives.nl/fotos/M75CSdetail_2.jpg[/img]






Both really cool guitars, but the timing was not right!


Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

Nice pictures. What years are those two guitars? I would have guessed later 70s as the bridges are the adjustomatic type that go into threaded studs vs the earlier type where the bridge itself is threaded...or did they use both styles randomly?

AdjustoMatic bridges

ave del noche said:

Nice pictures. What years are those two guitars? I would have guessed later 70s as the bridges are the adjustomatic type that go into threaded studs vs the earlier type where the bridge itself is threaded...or did they use both styles randomly?

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Good eye ave del noche!

So far I've seen 4 different versions of that bridge and both these guitars originally had a different one. They were not used randomly although there seem to be 'transition' periods during which they would use both. The 'blonde' one is the oldest and dates from 1970. It had the first variation of the bridge. The 'sunburst' one is from early 1972 and it originaly had a slightly different version bridge.

If you want to I could make photos of the original bridges!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore

4! Wow...I had no idea there were so many. I've only seen the two (notched with threaded studs and non-notched with threaded bridge). Those guitars are beautiful.

Hi Hans,

Wow! I love that Blond. Where did you track down that guitar? I see Guild used a Thunderbird 3-switch control plate for pickup selection. Can you explain the wiring configuration?

Also, I find those Thunderbird control plates very difficult to come across. Do you or anyone else have any extras? I have been considering using Fender Jaguar plates for a few ideas I have been toying with.

M

Hi Hans,

In follow up to neck placement...I just checked page 57 of "The Bible" and see you show a '67 and '68 M-75. I didn't realize the neck changed on that new model so quickly. The guitar I was considering buying was blond and must have been one of the first models. I had assumed that the neck changed when Guild changed to the larger Humbucker pickups. Is the neck and body connection of the 1970's M75 identical for the hollow body and semi-solid models?

M

matsickma said:

Hi Hans,
Wow! I love that Blond. Where did you track down that guitar?

M

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Hello Mike,

Don't remember exactly but I could look it up in my books. I already bought it when I was doing the research for the Guild book. It was before eBay and I didn't even own a computer. I made up a little stencil in which I explained that I was interested in buying used Guilds. I did send it to every address that was somehow connected with the sale of used guitars. Didn't hear back from most of them but some did respond and I was able to buy most of the Guild guitars that are in my collection now.
I collect M-75 Aristocrats and M-75 Bluesbirds and I haven't been able to buy any (for reasonable money) since the book is out. So far for shooting yourself in the foot! Anyway, sending out the stencil was a pretty good idea at the time but I don't think it would work if I tried it again today.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

matsickma said:

I see Guild used a Thunderbird 3-switch control plate for pickup selection. Can you explain the wiring configuration?

Click to expand...

The wiring is pretty straightforward; 3 on/off switches for the individual pickups, 3 Volume pots to control each pickup and 1 Master Tone Control.
That's about as basic as you would want it on a 3-pickup guitar.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

AdjustoMatic variations

ave del noche said:

4! Wow...I had no idea there were so many. I've only seen the two (notched with threaded studs and non-notched with threaded bridge).

Click to expand...

Hello ave del noche,

That's basically right but there were several variations over the years.

This is what I've seen so far:

[img:889:510]http://www.guitarchives.nl/fotos/AdjustoVaria.jpg[/img]




There were a couple more variations but they didn't have the roller saddles!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

Thanks for the great photo...it shows the variations quite well.

It's also encouraging to hear that they made a version without the roller-saddles. Have you come across a source for those versions or any other non-roller direct-retrofit?

The roller design, although wonderful for not breaking strings and setting spacing, is not my favorite tone-wise.

non-roller bridge

ave del noche said:

It's also encouraging to hear that they made a version without the roller-saddles. Have you come across a source for those versions or any other non-roller direct-retrofit?

The roller design, although wonderful for not breaking strings and setting spacing, is not my favorite tone-wise.

Click to expand...

I actually have a few of those non-roller bridges that I found when the Westerly-plant closed. It's interesting because these bridges were designed wrong, which is probably the reason why you hardly ever see 'm on production models. It's a great bridge though and with a little work they can be made to work. I'll make a photo tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

Thanks! I'd love to see it. If you have any you'd be willing to sell or trade for other parts let me know. I've been looking for a non-roller bridge for both of my s-100s for a while with no success.

AdjustoMatic variations

ave del noche said:

Thanks! I'd love to see it. I've been looking for a non-roller bridge for both of my s-100s for a while with no success.

Click to expand...

OK, here it is. As you can see it uses a similar base as the roller bridges.
The design fault is in the way they've placed the length adjustment screws; they're off-set (as are the roller saddles) but the way they did it, it doesn't allow for turning the saddles 180 degrees, in case you need to for proper intonation. On some guitars the amount of adjustment is sufficient though.

[img:849:567]http://www.guitarchives.nl/fotos/AdjustoVaria_6.jpg[/img]
A simple way to cure this problem is to drill 2 extra holes in the middle of the base-edge, so the 3rd and 4th string saddles can be turned around. It doesn't look all that odd and it certainly works.

Another problem you might run into, with some Guild solid body guitars from the first half of the '70s, is that they have a very shallow neck angle.
In some cases the original AdjustoMatic roller bridge will be flat on the top of the guitar. If you have one of those, this bridge might not work since it's 2 millimeters higher than the roller bridge version. You could file the saddles down quite a bit, but you would lose the chrome plating.


Something to think about!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl