1967 T-100D

[nmiller]

The front is as clean as it looked in GC's photos. The back is almost as clean, with a few small spots of melted lacquer where it sat against a cable or something for 50 years; there's a little finish wear to the back edges, but overall it's better than your average T-100. The switch is a replacement, but the original's in the case. The only significant plastic shrinkage is the headstock veneer. This is the first Guild I've had with these tuners, and they're pretty smooth for "budget" hardware. The original hard case is as clean as the guitar, with just some light scuffing.

The neck angle is less than ideal, but still workable. The bridge has been slotted deeper and I may shave some additional material off the bottom of the saddle, but it's playable without a neck reset. The joint itself looks almost perfect, so I think it's been at this angle since before I was born.

The pickups are out of phase. I know many Guilds from this era were like that from the factory, but I also know that someone replaced the switch. Any of you know whether this model/year should be out of phase?

The pickups sound fantastic. If I could get these in a standard size they'd be in every partscaster Tele I've done.

 

[GGJaguar]

Nice, congrats!

 

[Norrissey]

That looks lovely. Congrats! Thanks for sharing. I'm with you regarding the Mickey Mouse pickups - I'm a big fan of them : )
I don't know the answer to the "out of phase" question. Hopefully someone will come along with an answer.

 

[Walter Broes]

The pickups go to the pots before they go to the switch, so unless anything else was done replacing the switch didn't put the pickups out of phase

 

[Harp Tail]

It sounds like you decided it's a keeper. Congratulations on your 1967 T-100 D, nmiller!

 

[BradHK]

That looks really nice! Congratulations!

 

[Default]

That looks lovely. Congrats! Thanks for sharing. I'm with you regarding the Mickey Mouse pickups - I'm a big fan of them : )
I don't know the answer to the "out of phase" question. Hopefully someone will come along with an answer.

I've never heard anyone suggest that pickups being out of phase was intended. One thing to consider is this was the most frenzied period of the guitar industry. Companies were pumping out as many instruments as possible, with a lot of new hires. Pickup phase was most likely ignored, particularly on budget guitars.
As an example, my Starfire 3 didn't have the pickup covers soldered to the baseplates. They were press-fits for 25 years, and no one noticed.

 

[Walter Broes]

Yep, I don't think the out of phase was intentional either

 

[matsickma]

Adding a pot with the push/pull switch would give you additional tone options. I often like to utilize the out-of- phase pickup arrangement and adjust the Volume to balance out the heavy low frequency cancellation And just keep a touch of that nasal tone at the high-end.

Additionally I don't think quality control of pickups back then gave much consideration to pickup pole orientation either. I have found both type of arrangements. If you are fortunate enough to have a North and South pole pickup that will also provide an additional tone out of those single coil pups.

 

[walrus]

Very nice!

Congratulations!

 

[shihan]

The out of phase thing is pretty odd; I’ve had 2 Guild guitars over the years wired that way.
I’ve also played a bunch of Gibsons, and never come across that phenomenon, with the exception of a fabulous ES-5 I got the chance to play one time, and that is wired that way intentionally.
Anyway, congratulations on getting such a cool guitar. Put it out of phase and play some T-bone Walker licks!

 

[nmiller]

I can't accept that the out-of-phase pickups were unintentional. Every other guitar builder, from Fender and Gibson to Harmony and Kay, got it consistent, yet Guild didn't care?

 

[Default]

If you have a group of Portuguese speaking workers pulling pickups out of a box and soldering them into a guitar, are they going to be checking? I've worked in a factory. Mistakes are going to be made. Maybe a guy can't remember what wire is supposed to be ground and which is hot. It gets to final inspection and it passes sound at all three switch positions. Is the inspector going to send it to shipping? If it's a slow year, maybe not, but look at the production numbers. There was most likely pressure to get product shipped, and since most guitarists (and guitar factory workers) back then had no clue what phase was, it was most likely not a factor.
You have to look at it in the perspective of the time, not as an technically far more advanced guitarist in 2024.

 

[nmiller]

Yes, of course they would be checking. That's why manufacturing companies have final inspection. The idea that the factory would not know that half the guitars were wired differently from the other half would have been absurd, even in 1967.

Far cheaper guitars than Guilds did not have this discrepancy, which says to me that Guild did it intentionally.

 

[BradHK]

I would not be surprised that mistakes would happen. However, it could have been a request from somebody. I don’t think we will ever be able to confirm unless Hans has the facts. I have seen out of phase on other brands from this era. Here is a link to a 1960 Gibson that also is out of phase so it was not just Guild.

1960 Gibson ES-335 with factory installed out of phase pickups? On YouTube

This super clean vintage 1960 Gibson ES-335 guitar has just come in from the original owner but there was a surprise when I finally plugged it into a real amplifier: the pickups are out of phase from each other in the middle position! I inspected the entire guitar closely to determine if this...

truevintageguitar.com

 

[Default]

<shrug>
When was Guild consistent?

 

[Walter Broes]

Yes, of course they would be checking. That's why manufacturing companies have final inspection. The idea that the factory would not know that half the guitars were wired differently from the other half would have been absurd, even in 1967.

Far cheaper guitars than Guilds did not have this discrepancy, which says to me that Guild did it intentionally.

I don't think it was intentional. I had a first year Starfire IV for a while that had the pickups out of phase, and they were un-messed with. Not factory spec for a Starfire IV.

Maybe the Guild electronics check after final assembly didn't go deeper than "yup, everthing works, good to go!", who knows?

And the odd Gibson has out of phase pickups too (not talking about ES5's, 345's or 355's). It happens.

 

[nmiller]

But we're not talking about the odd Guild here. I've played probably a dozen from the mid-late '60s with the middle position out of phase - more than I've played with it in phase. It was definitely the norm for a while, though I don't have enough of a sample size to say which years or which models. Saying it's unintentional is not only illogical from a manufacturing perspective, it doesn't square with Guild's standard of construction.

 

[Walter Broes]

I think a lot of us LTG'ers have played more in phase ones than OOP ones - and my taste runs towards Hoboken guitars too.

I think out of all of us, Hans has probably inspected the biggest number, so his findings would be interesting that way.

Could be an interesting topic for a poll on LTG.

 

[BradHK]

Could be an interesting topic for a poll on LTG.

I currently own over 20 Guilds from 1954-1971 with two pickups and none are out of phase in the middle position. Maybe I didn’t buy one completed on a Friday afternoon!