- Joined
- Mar 23, 2023
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 43
- Guild Total
- 2
This guitar will be familiar to some of you. A couple of you have even owned it. Why it’s been passed on I will explain. I am a fixer, so I will be doing that to this guitar. My background is in electronics. I have worked for the US Navy for over a decade servicing nuclear reactor instrumentation and control electronics, strategic weapons systems, among other systems. I’m a maverick with a soldering iron, but I don’t know crap about wood. Too bad that’s most of the guitar.
OVERVIEW
This is an ‘85 (according to the serial number) Nightbird. It is in great cosmetic shape. It plays very well. It sounds punchy and aggressive. There have been a number of modifications to it. Some are beneficial, in ways. Most are easily reversible.
STORY
I acquired this a week ago and have been sleuthing ever since. Something seemed fishy about it but I scooped it up anyways. The guy I bought it from told me a number of things that were not correct. There are apparently TWO #33 Nightbirds, and the official one is not black. The hunch is that this was rejected at inspection for whatever reason but finished anyway, and sprayed black in the process, possibly to hide cosmetic flaws. I’ve been told there are a number of ghost guitars out there like this Nightbird, so I’m not the first. This guitar has known a number of owners in the last five years. Some of them have made changes. Pickups aren’t original. Frets have been brought into fretless wonder territory either intentionally or unintentionally, I’m not sure. Control knobs are not original.
PLAYABILITY/FEEL
This guitar is rock ready, no bones about it. The action is low. It chords very easily. It bends well. You will notice the frets are wide and flat. Someone compares it to a fretless wonder. This guitar has frets that are not quite to that level of filing but it’s getting close, with less mastery. There’s not enough material left for a proper crown. But it is surprisingly playable considering. There’s a reason Les Paul set his up that way. Which makes me think it was intentional. Anyone who didn’t know they were doing with their file shouldn’t have gotten it this close to fully playable. Or maybe there were multiple hands on these frets. Bottom line, you get intimate with the fretboard. But there is a complication to the extremely low/flat frets, heel hump. If I refret, a correction can be shared between minor planing of the fretboard and leveling the frets. There is only one dead fret. High E fret 13 is high. This kills the 12th fret off pretty quickly. This high fret can be brought down however because 14 is quite low in comparison. Not sure how they missed that one. My Luthier would love to refret it. I’m thinking about letting him. I would opt for stainless, unless the mentors here have any objections about that.
SOUND
There is a significant amount of mid honkiness about it (compared to a vintage Bluesbird). There is a wider range of sound between the mismatched SD pickups than I normally hear in a guitar. That makes this a little more versatile. The phase switch brings out some shimmery character when on. Or what I perceive to be “on”. Probably a little too bright. The tone knob isn’t as effective as the volume knob at rolling the high end off. You’ll notice the cap configuration (pic). The guitar held its own during Garage Heroes practice. It fit right in. And were picky about our guitars.
LOOKS
No dents. One or two quinoa sized knicks. No noticeable scratches. Microscratches aplenty. The only finish cracking is at the neck at the cutout joint. Appears only to be surface. The rest is still bonded. My Luthier says he rarely sees a neck joint this old in this good of shape for a played guitar. I’m not convinced this was played often. There is white showing at the back of the neck joint (pic). Not sure how paint would miss that. There is black paint missing from part of the Made in the USA text. A little uncharacteristic.
The vol/tone knobs are unfortunately robbed from another unknown guild Guitar. The original knobs are still in the case, however, surprisingly (pic).
There is a cloudiness under the finish of the neck, top, and back. It is patchy and I assume it cant be buffed out. Not sure what causes this (pic).
The nut is orange. Micarta does that. I've never seen orange bone, though. That is the ugliest thing about this guitar, hands down, if you don't open the control cavity. Speaking of the control cavity...
<edit 1>The fretboard binding is white on top and yellow on the sides. I thought this indicated sanding/planing. My luthier said that lacquer is not typically applied to the top of the binding, so a color difference there is normal. Can anyone advise on that?
ELECTRONICS
The schematic I’ve seen doesn't show two caps in the cavity. I may lift one side of the weirdo to see the difference. They apparently didn’t opt to clean up the flux after themselves. It would be forgivable if the solder fillets were good, however they are not.
The original Dimarzio pups are long gone. That’s okay. There are many options today that would sound similar if not better. Would be nice for it to sound original, but many folks swap original pickups out of Nightbirds to taste, so I’m not that concerned. I may put some new production HB-1s in it if I determine the nickel and chrome don’t clash too badly. (Opinion time) I don’t love Guild’s allowance for so many different pickups within even the first run of Nightbirds. For a high end guitar, there should be a little more determination about that. What was GGs original vision?
Pickups were changed from the original Dimarzios to SD ‘59 in the bridge and a SD Jazz Model Bridge “P” in the neck. I haven’t played with the pickup elevator screws to hunt the tonal possibilities because there are bigger fish to fry at this point.
CASE
The case is in very good shape. I’m not that surprised considering the great shape of the guitar.
CONCLUSION
Its restorable for under $600. <edit 2> It looks great, sounds great, and its a dream guitar. I may not find another one in this color in this great of shape on the market any time soon. This bird deserves to sing and I'm going to make it happen.
OVERVIEW
This is an ‘85 (according to the serial number) Nightbird. It is in great cosmetic shape. It plays very well. It sounds punchy and aggressive. There have been a number of modifications to it. Some are beneficial, in ways. Most are easily reversible.
STORY
I acquired this a week ago and have been sleuthing ever since. Something seemed fishy about it but I scooped it up anyways. The guy I bought it from told me a number of things that were not correct. There are apparently TWO #33 Nightbirds, and the official one is not black. The hunch is that this was rejected at inspection for whatever reason but finished anyway, and sprayed black in the process, possibly to hide cosmetic flaws. I’ve been told there are a number of ghost guitars out there like this Nightbird, so I’m not the first. This guitar has known a number of owners in the last five years. Some of them have made changes. Pickups aren’t original. Frets have been brought into fretless wonder territory either intentionally or unintentionally, I’m not sure. Control knobs are not original.
PLAYABILITY/FEEL
This guitar is rock ready, no bones about it. The action is low. It chords very easily. It bends well. You will notice the frets are wide and flat. Someone compares it to a fretless wonder. This guitar has frets that are not quite to that level of filing but it’s getting close, with less mastery. There’s not enough material left for a proper crown. But it is surprisingly playable considering. There’s a reason Les Paul set his up that way. Which makes me think it was intentional. Anyone who didn’t know they were doing with their file shouldn’t have gotten it this close to fully playable. Or maybe there were multiple hands on these frets. Bottom line, you get intimate with the fretboard. But there is a complication to the extremely low/flat frets, heel hump. If I refret, a correction can be shared between minor planing of the fretboard and leveling the frets. There is only one dead fret. High E fret 13 is high. This kills the 12th fret off pretty quickly. This high fret can be brought down however because 14 is quite low in comparison. Not sure how they missed that one. My Luthier would love to refret it. I’m thinking about letting him. I would opt for stainless, unless the mentors here have any objections about that.
SOUND
There is a significant amount of mid honkiness about it (compared to a vintage Bluesbird). There is a wider range of sound between the mismatched SD pickups than I normally hear in a guitar. That makes this a little more versatile. The phase switch brings out some shimmery character when on. Or what I perceive to be “on”. Probably a little too bright. The tone knob isn’t as effective as the volume knob at rolling the high end off. You’ll notice the cap configuration (pic). The guitar held its own during Garage Heroes practice. It fit right in. And were picky about our guitars.
LOOKS
No dents. One or two quinoa sized knicks. No noticeable scratches. Microscratches aplenty. The only finish cracking is at the neck at the cutout joint. Appears only to be surface. The rest is still bonded. My Luthier says he rarely sees a neck joint this old in this good of shape for a played guitar. I’m not convinced this was played often. There is white showing at the back of the neck joint (pic). Not sure how paint would miss that. There is black paint missing from part of the Made in the USA text. A little uncharacteristic.
The vol/tone knobs are unfortunately robbed from another unknown guild Guitar. The original knobs are still in the case, however, surprisingly (pic).
There is a cloudiness under the finish of the neck, top, and back. It is patchy and I assume it cant be buffed out. Not sure what causes this (pic).
The nut is orange. Micarta does that. I've never seen orange bone, though. That is the ugliest thing about this guitar, hands down, if you don't open the control cavity. Speaking of the control cavity...
<edit 1>The fretboard binding is white on top and yellow on the sides. I thought this indicated sanding/planing. My luthier said that lacquer is not typically applied to the top of the binding, so a color difference there is normal. Can anyone advise on that?
ELECTRONICS
The schematic I’ve seen doesn't show two caps in the cavity. I may lift one side of the weirdo to see the difference. They apparently didn’t opt to clean up the flux after themselves. It would be forgivable if the solder fillets were good, however they are not.
The original Dimarzio pups are long gone. That’s okay. There are many options today that would sound similar if not better. Would be nice for it to sound original, but many folks swap original pickups out of Nightbirds to taste, so I’m not that concerned. I may put some new production HB-1s in it if I determine the nickel and chrome don’t clash too badly. (Opinion time) I don’t love Guild’s allowance for so many different pickups within even the first run of Nightbirds. For a high end guitar, there should be a little more determination about that. What was GGs original vision?
Pickups were changed from the original Dimarzios to SD ‘59 in the bridge and a SD Jazz Model Bridge “P” in the neck. I haven’t played with the pickup elevator screws to hunt the tonal possibilities because there are bigger fish to fry at this point.
CASE
The case is in very good shape. I’m not that surprised considering the great shape of the guitar.
CONCLUSION
Its restorable for under $600. <edit 2> It looks great, sounds great, and its a dream guitar. I may not find another one in this color in this great of shape on the market any time soon. This bird deserves to sing and I'm going to make it happen.
Attachments
Last edited:
Oh yes, that is a tiny lid!
