HeyMikey
Enlightened Member
… with HB1’s 
It’s the one discussed in this thread.
I had to work hard to convince the seller to sell it to me and ship it to the US. From what I can tell it is a 1991 CU. Ultimately, now I have mixed emotions about the transaction because the seller overstated the condition.
First the good news… It survived the two week trip mostly unharmed. A tiny bit of damage at the end pin because he didn’t remove or pad it like I requested. Everything seems to be working. I only spent a short amount of time with it through a small clean practice amp but it plays and sounds really good. The action and intonation is spot on. I have to run it through a tube amp to see how the HB1s really respond. I can already tell I like them much more than the EMGs. If Guild made HB1’s standard I have no doubt every LP player in the world would have wanted one.
What I’m not happy about is the condition. It was advertised as excellent and immaculate with minor wear to the metal. I already knew about the control knobs so no surprise there. It’s my own damn fault for acting too fast and not asking for good close-up pictures. I just didn’t want to lose the chance to seal the deal. The gold plating is 50% well worn off the pickups and a portion of the bridge. The rest of the metal was dull from tarnish. Metal polish helped a lot to bring back some of the shine. The frets are pretty worn with double string gouges up through the 6th fret. Light but substantial scratches on the rear, the neck was beyond filthy and caked with layers of crud. It took 4 rounds of cleaning to get all the crud off the neck. The rest of the guitar was pretty filthy as well.
Ok, so it’s been played. I would not be upset about the condition at all if the seller was forthcoming. However, I paid up on this one based on the advertised condition and his assurances, so was expecting it to be in much better shape than it is.
I just finished about 5 hours of cleaning and polishing, minimizing the scratches where I could, sanding and crowning the frets to the point where the strings don’t get hung up any more. I may need a partial fret replacement sooner than later. We shall see. It now looks respectable, especially at a distance. It is definitely well used, especially when compared to my truly “excellent” condition spruce top NB II.
I will get over it, especially the more I play it. It’s the combination of the pickups in this bird that I was after, and that is ultimately what will matter most.
It’s the one discussed in this thread.
I had to work hard to convince the seller to sell it to me and ship it to the US. From what I can tell it is a 1991 CU. Ultimately, now I have mixed emotions about the transaction because the seller overstated the condition.
First the good news… It survived the two week trip mostly unharmed. A tiny bit of damage at the end pin because he didn’t remove or pad it like I requested. Everything seems to be working. I only spent a short amount of time with it through a small clean practice amp but it plays and sounds really good. The action and intonation is spot on. I have to run it through a tube amp to see how the HB1s really respond. I can already tell I like them much more than the EMGs. If Guild made HB1’s standard I have no doubt every LP player in the world would have wanted one.
What I’m not happy about is the condition. It was advertised as excellent and immaculate with minor wear to the metal. I already knew about the control knobs so no surprise there. It’s my own damn fault for acting too fast and not asking for good close-up pictures. I just didn’t want to lose the chance to seal the deal. The gold plating is 50% well worn off the pickups and a portion of the bridge. The rest of the metal was dull from tarnish. Metal polish helped a lot to bring back some of the shine. The frets are pretty worn with double string gouges up through the 6th fret. Light but substantial scratches on the rear, the neck was beyond filthy and caked with layers of crud. It took 4 rounds of cleaning to get all the crud off the neck. The rest of the guitar was pretty filthy as well.
Ok, so it’s been played. I would not be upset about the condition at all if the seller was forthcoming. However, I paid up on this one based on the advertised condition and his assurances, so was expecting it to be in much better shape than it is.
I just finished about 5 hours of cleaning and polishing, minimizing the scratches where I could, sanding and crowning the frets to the point where the strings don’t get hung up any more. I may need a partial fret replacement sooner than later. We shall see. It now looks respectable, especially at a distance. It is definitely well used, especially when compared to my truly “excellent” condition spruce top NB II.
I will get over it, especially the more I play it. It’s the combination of the pickups in this bird that I was after, and that is ultimately what will matter most.
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