guild pickups?

Dreamlander

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I own a Guild s-100 reissue from the 1990's and would like to put some of the orignal pickups that they used in 1970's into this guitar. One of my friends has a s-90 from the 70's and i love the way those pickups sound and that is what i want. I see auctions on ebay for guild humbuckers that say mid 60's guild pickups and i was wondering if these are the same pickups or if they are different. And how is a guy suppose to go about identifying different pickups that you see for sale that don't have much info. Did guild make alot of different humbucking pickups for their electrics at that time or is a guy pretty safe with buying any of them.
Any thoughts on the subject would be much appreciated.
thanks
 

matsickma

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Hi Dreamlander,

Guild chrome/gold Humbuckers from the 1960's are the small humbucker style with 1 height adjustment screw on each side of the PUP. I wouldn't go by what people say in the literature rather look at the physical details. These were probably around from 1963 to late 1969. More precise info will require Hans's input.

In the early 1970's (maybe 1970) Guild introduced the larger style chrome/gold humbucker. It is similar in size but slightly bigger to other full size humbuckers. They are a tight fit using non Guild HB rings. The standard Guild full size HB PUP has 2-mounting holes on one side and a single on the other. For guitars with this style PUP the body is routed assymetrically and in a manner that locates the two-hole side of the PUP on the bass side of the strings.

The full size Guild humbucker has a neck and bridge style. Also depending on the year they were made they some times come with a cable tied directly into the PUP or with tabs. Some even are available with the 4 wires of the two bobbins accessable. Overall I think if you are looking to get the standard Guild HB sound any configuration will work. You only need to be concerned on wiring configuration if you are planning to split the coils for a tap.

Guild also used Dimarzio HB Pickups. However these don't have the chrome/gold covers so can't be mistaken.

There is one other style chrome/gold pickup that I have seen. These have a feature that have 3-holes on one side and 1-hole on the other side of the PUP. Thus they can be readily mounted to Guild or non-Guild guitars.
I don't know if these were made by Guild or Fender. Possibly Hans can be more specific.

Note use of the "chrome/gold" implies that the PUPs came in either a chrome finish or a gold finish.

M
 

matsickma

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Update:

I checked out the pair of Guild humbuckers I have with 3 holes on a side and verified that they have the Guild name marked on the back. Also the 3 holes are on both sides of the pickup.

I was looking at a late model Westerly X170 I own a noticed the pickup mounting rings are identical to the extra set of PUPs I have. This weekend I'll pull the X170 HB and see if they have the 3 holes.

M
 
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