What's with this Guild Pilot?

[LeFinPepere]

This Guild pilot is for sale on Leboncoin here in France. I thought these would be more expensive ....? Which one is it? SB 601 or???Active? Passive? What could be the mysterious apendage near the tuners? It looks like a diy contraption of some sort....Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[SFIV1967]

What could be the mysterious apendage near the tuners?

This tuner drops the "E" string down a whole step to "D" with the flick of a lever. A lot of people who play four string basses want to be able to play lower notes than conventional four string can provide, but don’t want to use a five or six string bass. The D-tuner means that you can get to those lower notes. Various versions for various tuner sizes available.

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Ralf

 

[fronobulax]

The contraption is a dropped D tuner. You can flip it and it lowers the pitch of the lowest string from E to D (or raises it from D to E). I have asserted that it was factory since my Pilot has one but no one has confirmed or contradicted my hypothesis.

Your post doesn't have price info that I can find but we used to see them for under $500 in decent cosmetic condition and with the OHSC. Nowadays I'd expect most of them to be around $800 plus or minus. Reverb has several under $1,000 and a few over that. I'm not comparing specs but some models can command a higher price. The Sold listings are almost all under $1,000.

I don't obsess over Pilot models and numbers but maybe @The Guilds of Grot will ID.

Pilots with active electronics are much more common than (factory installed) passive PUs so if I had to guess without doing any research I'd guess Active.

 

[LeFinPepere]

Oooomph! On 2nd thought, I guess it's a legit drop-D thingy...So, the price is 400 Euros, seems pretty fair....

 

[LeFinPepere]

Thank you SFIV1967 and Frono!! I learned something today!

 

[fronobulax]

It's a string bender.



Ralf

I prefer not to use the word bender because it means something to guitarists that this device does not do. Most bassists would understand "dropped D tuner".

 

[fronobulax]

Oooomph! On 2nd thought, I guess it's a legit drop-D thingy...So, the price is 400 Euros, seems pretty fair....

If it were local, under $500 USD and had no issues, I'd probably start trying to justify another bass because "this one's blue".

 

[SFIV1967]

I prefer not to use the word bender because it means something to guitarists that this device does not do. Most bassists would understand "dropped D tuner".

I wasn't even ready editing my post yet and you were all so fast replying! I updated my post above!

Ralf

 

[Nuuska]

400€ in EU - hasn't @EWH bought it yet?

 

[twocorgis]

This Guild pilot is for sale on Leboncoin here in France. I thought these would be more expensive ....? Which one is it? SB 601 or???Active? Passive? What could be the mysterious apendage near the tuners? It looks like a diy contraption of some sort....Any ideas? Thanks!

That one looks a lot like my '86, but it has the "cakeknife" headstock so it's later, likely '87 or '88. 400 Euros is a great price for one, especially if it has the OHSC.

 

[LeFinPepere]

Thanks for the infos, you are all very reactive!!!The fellow that sells the Pilot also sells a handfull of basses, including this one:
a sparkly x 702!! (400 Euros as well) I'm not interessed, but maybe someone around is...(I don't have a %!)

 

[jte]

The pickups are EMG active pickups, and if the controls are the factory wiring it has a passive treble cut tone control and a passive volume control, just like a Fender Jazz Bass.

 

[krysh]

Nice basses and good price!