NGD 1961 Guild X175

[die Bullen]

Today I brought home a new addition to the family, a 1961 Guild X175. It is in immaculate condition considering age- no checking, finish looks more like a 80's or 90's guitar than from the early 1960's. This guitar will be my gigging guitar as soon as I have some mods made to it to make it more to my liking (like changing/ upgrading the bridge).

 

[guildman63]

Congrats on your new addition...can't wait to see pics!

You should be able to do the photobucket thing yourself in about 2 minutes total. All you need to do is:

log on to photobucket.com
create a free account and log in
click on "Upload Now"
click on "Select Photos and Videos"
find, select and open the pictures to be uploaded
click on "Save and Continue to My Album"
position the cursor over the desired photo and copy the IMG code
paste the IMG code in your message

Done!

These instructions are probably not even needed as it is very intuitive. Good luck!

 

[die Bullen]

[got your back and fixed the first post, DB! -- Chaz]

 

[Thunderface]

dB, where do you find these things? That X-175 is su-wheet!

 

[Default]

I think "Thou shalt not lust after thy neighbor's gear" was the 11th commandment, yes? :shock:

 

[die Bullen]

Ha ha I am always on the lookout! This one I got in CT- the '53 in OH.

This is probably the last archtop I buy for awhile though. I really don't need any more at this point.

 

[guildman63]

That is some serious Guild goodness for sure!

 

[die Bullen]

gotta admit though as much as I like 'em all I think my '53 is my favourite of the lot. So simple and yet so "deeeeeee-lish"

 

[Jeff Haddad]

Great guitar! Congrats!

 

[Treem]

Congratulations on your new beautiful baby! 8)

 

[MojoTooth]

beautiful! now I want that X-50! :lol:

 

[Walter Broes]

That's really nice! With a Manhattan from that time-frame, make sure to take a look at the tone pots. (you can see them through the F-hole). If they're the strange, large, stacked "double pots", consider replacing them with regular single tone pots with one cap, the stacked ones have two pots and two caps, and nowhere in their rotation, not even on "zero" are they out of the circuit, so there's no "neutral". Replacing them is really worth the trouble, guitars sound much better without them.

 

[die Bullen]

That's really nice! With a Manhattan from that time-frame, make sure to take a look at the tone pots. (you can see them through the F-hole). If they're the strange, large, stacked "double pots", consider replacing them with regular single tone pots with one cap, the stacked ones have two pots and two caps, and nowhere in their rotation, not even on "zero" are they out of the circuit, so there's no "neutral". Replacing them is really worth the trouble, guitars sound much better without them.

Excellent advice.

I have this guitar out to the luthier to replace the bridge, and a few other little things. I will have them check those pots and replace if they are as you said. Time to do it is now before I start playing it regularly. I actually wouldn't mind a treble bleed circuit anyway so maybe I'll ask them to rewire the pots completely. I can always have them save the pots in case this guitar becomes worth a million dollars in 30 years and all original really matters (ha ha)

 

[AlohaJoe]

I think "Thou shalt not lust after thy neighbor's gear" was the 11th commandment, yes? :shock:

Yes, but it was deleted when it was found to be unenforceable.

 

[parker_knoll]

that;s a sweet 175. i like those.

 

[die Bullen]

That's really nice! With a Manhattan from that time-frame, make sure to take a look at the tone pots. (you can see them through the F-hole). If they're the strange, large, stacked "double pots", consider replacing them with regular single tone pots with one cap, the stacked ones have two pots and two caps, and nowhere in their rotation, not even on "zero" are they out of the circuit, so there's no "neutral". Replacing them is really worth the trouble, guitars sound much better without them.

Confirmed with the tech that the guitar does have the double stacked 2 cap pots. He'll remove them and put in a treble bleed circuit- all in all this will be much more useful to me since I actually do need a "no tone" option on this guitar.

Good news/ bad news on the guitar though. Bad news- when I talked to the repair shop today they said that the neck needs a reset- the bridge height problem is due to this. Of course the good news is that this was under warranty from GC where I bought it so they are footing the bill for that. Means I won't have the guitar for a few weeks but I really don't care as long as the neck is properly reseated and I don't have to pay for it.

 

[Ian]

I think "Thou shalt not lust after thy neighbor's gear" was the 11th commandment, yes? :shock:

Bugger thats another one I've broken then.... :lol:

 

[Walter Broes]

[
CHe'll remove them and put in a treble bleed circuit- all in all this will be much more useful to me since I actually do need a "no tone" option on this guitar.

I'm not crazy about treble bleed circuits, but a lot of people like them, so it's another one of those "taste" things. For my ears, a treble bleed thing wired to the volume pots cuts too much low end once you start turning down.

Guilds are wired "decoupled" - compared to typical Gibson wiring, the leads to the volume pot are reversed. (twin pickup Rickenbackers are wired like this too).
The upside of this is that in the middle switch position (both pickups selected), you can turn down one pickup entirely and still have signal from the other pickup coming from the guitar, unlike what's standard on Gibsons.
The downside is that if you so much as touch the volume control, you start losing highs, fast.

Rewiring a Guild to 50's Gibson specs will get you more travel out of the volume controls before mud sets in - I'd say "worth a try", if it wasn't such a pain to work on archtop electronics.

 

[die Bullen]

I should probably call over to the tech again on the pot replacement just to be clear on my requirements for rewiring this guitar. Right now the '53 and the '55 both offer a full tone range- especially important to me are settings between 0 and 2 on the tone dial. My AVRI tele is wired to '52 specs so it has a unique "dark" circuit that has a large tone cap- it gives you a huge bassy sound and is significantly different that setting the tone for the neck regular pickup to 0- it also totally bypasses the tone pot. I think I might be one of the only guys in the world who favours this config but it offers a possibility and sound you would never dream of from a tele- some have told me is sounds more like an L5.

I'll have to look at the vintage Gibson specs- admittedly I am not an electronics guy. Lucky thing after all this will be a few weeks in the shop just in case I need to change something

 

[Walter Broes]

[quote="die Bullen" I am not an electronics guy. [/quote]
Oh me neither, trust me! :lol: If I take it real slow, and I have a very clear wiring diagram, I manage, but it's not like I really know what I'm doing!