X500 and X550

[mbrindell]

Hi Friends,
I wanted to share the two kings of my Guild collection with you all. Here we have my 1959 Guild X550 on the left along side my 1961 Guild X500. Essentially the same guitars. The X550 has Franz pups and the X500 has Dearmond Dynasonic pickups. All the hardware is the same as well except for two styles of TRC. They are both all original, except one of the tone knobs on the X500 has a silver cap. It's barely noticeable. Both play like you would expect. Since the aquisition of my X550, my X500 is not getting as much use and I am willing to trade the X500 for another sweet Guild model or two I do not yet have. You can see what I currently have on hand in my signature. I will sell the X500 to an LTG member only for $2800. That is a sweet price as I paid much more for it. If it sells here I will donate $100 to the site. The sale or trade is listed in the For sale section of this forum. I really hate to break up such a nice pair, but there are other models I am looking for as well. Both guitars are in excelent condition showing only normal cosmetic wear for their ages. The X550 has a bit of binding shrinkage in some areas and has all been glued back without having to replace any of it. The X500 has all it's binding 100% in tact. Anyway, here's a good look at a couple of fantastic vintage guild guitars that I am sure anyone here would love to have in their collection. Am I showing off a bit, yeah, but why not. Thanks for looking.

 

[Los Angeles]

Thank you for sharing this! Beautiful guitars indeed!

 

[Jeff Haddad]

Quite the pair!

 

[guildman63]

Very nice! How does the tone of the pups compare between those two guitars?

 

[Walter Broes]

Beautiful guitars!!!

 

[mbrindell]

Hi everyone and thanks for the replies,
Very good question. Believe it or not the sound of the pickups are not that dissimilar. Of course both guitars are made of the same woods, the exact same dimensions, etc... I play mainly blues and rockabilly so I generally set these guitars up with GHS medium round wound strings with an unwound G string. The franz pups seem to give the guitar a bit more of a bluesy tone while the Dearmonds in the X500 give it a very nice twang on the bridge pup for rockabilly. Both guitars are very versitile and will go from a dull jazz tone to a wide open twang. I am not a jazz player so I cannot speak of that tone, since they are not setup for Jazz. I would say that the Dearmonds have a bit more bite to them. The dearmonds I would say are a bit more articulate as well. The franz pups are much lower output than the Dearmonds so there is definately a difference in volume. If the pole pieces of the dearmonds are too close to the strings they will distort much easier so I have backed them off. Both guitars have a beautiful bell like tone but can push any tube amp to overdirve.

I think that if the guitars were made of different woods there would be a bigger difference in tone. They are both spruce top guitars, but if one was maple, for example, I think the tones would be very different. Different types of would vibrate at different rates but these two guitars are the same and very close in age as well. All I can really say is that they both have beautiful tone and color.

 

[jimmyl51]

Mike,

I would love to buy that 61 X-500 from you! If memory serves me correctly I believe that I bought a T-100 from you a few years ago yes? Great guitar by the way! I believe you are in Florida? Could you e-mail me offline at: jimhahn@rocketmail.com

 

[walrus]

Beautiful guitars! Good luck, jimmy, that would be a great purchase!!

walrus

 

[guildman63]

I play mainly blues and rockabilly

You should consider one of the new GSR T-500's. I have only had mine for one week, and I can't seem to put it down. SD really did a great job recreating the vintage Franz pup.

 

[mbrindell]

I was wondering if the SD franz actually sounded close to the originals or not. So I suppose you rreview is that they sound pretty close to the orginals. The original franz pups are without a doubt my favorite single coil pups. With Dearmond dynasonic running a close second. Well if there is someone out there who may have a GRS T500 I suppose I would consider a trade. Even up trade only as the vintage X500 will only gain value and the T500s will initially lose value. Much like some of the newer GSR starfire 6s now selling for $1000 less than what they originally sold for. Thanks, MB

 

[guildman63]

Both GSR's are still available new, so now would be the time to trade for one if you can find someone willing to part with either. Once they are both sold out the prices will likely go higher as there are only 18 and 25 pieces respectively. I know 2nevets is offering his Starfie VI for 2k because of a finish problem, but I am not aware of any others for sale used. Having bought both I could sort of understand a straight up trade involving the Starfire (even though I would not do that), but I would be very surprised if anyone with a new T-500 would be willing to part with it for anything close to what they paid new. The world is a funny place, full of funny people, so you never know what deals you can make. :shock:

 

[mbrindell]

I may be willing to trade for a T500, but I already have a number of vintage starfires and even though I know that the GSRs are great instruments I just cannot imagine the sound of the starfire VI would be close to what the Dearmonds or mini-antihums on mine can produce. I would have to hear it in action first. But I did not know the Starfire VI had a finish problem. It is not in the description in the ebay listing for $3K. I asked 2nevets why he was selling and if it was because the guitar was not as it was hyped up to be. His response was that he bought his family home and needed to fix it up. Which I can certainly understand. He actually has a number of guitars for sale. All very nice indeed. My question and his answer are posted on the ebay listing so I am not betraying any secrets here. However I do have some interesting offers on the table for the X500. Nothing yet that makes me want to run to fedex to ship. I am really more of a vintage guild person with a concentration from the 50s through the mid to late 60s. But I have nothing against any Guild guitar. I had a 2002 Stafire V which was basically untouched, owned by a previous Guild luthier and made in Corona. It was beautiful, but the fit and sound just wasn't there for me.

 

[guildman63]

The finish issue was taken care of by Guild, so it's no longer an issue as far as I know. I love the vintage pups as well. I have never played a Starfire with DeArmonds or mini's, so I can't compare, but the pups on my new T-500 sound very much like that on my 56 CE-100. I am very interested in hearing what the new X-180 will sound like, and in what Guild has on store for their 60th anniversary. I'm thinking that SD didn't reproduce the Franz pup for 25 guitars, but time will tell.

 

[fronobulax]

I know 2nevets is offering his Starfie VI for 2k because of a finish problem

To clarify, the finish problem has been resolved/corrected/addressed/fixed under warranty at the factory and the guitar for sale does NOT have a finish problem. See the later posts in this thread.

The finish issue was taken care of by Guild, so it's no longer an issue as far as I know.

I'm not adding anything new here but since LTG comments on guitars for sale have been cited as being the reason a sale fell through or a price was too low, I think it is important to emphasize that 2nevets guitar no longer has a finish problem.

 

[mbrindell]

I am terribly sorry, but I did not say he has any finish issues. I don't generally like to get in the middle of anyone else's sales. He just answered a question for me that is posted on the listing. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
MB

 

[mbrindell]

I would love to hear the new SD Franz pups on the T500. Unfortunately there is no store in driving distance to me that would have one. Actually I should do my homework about the T500 since I only really only found out about it a couple of weeks ago.