New Guitar Day - 2002 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

It's here! Here's the blow by blow as I upload them from the camera!

First shot- the box. Got me worried. Lookit the bottom. Accordion. OH NO



Tore it open, peanuts and bubble wrap and cardboard all over the place, and here's the case - it all looks ok from the outside (check the tag...)



And WHEW IT IS OK. Sorry for the non-pro pics, obviously I didn't take time to take awesome beefcake pics while I was trying to get to the "plug into the amp" part - bad lighting, low light and all that, sorry!





And here it is in my lap, about to plug into my amp - right in your face comes the flame!



Plugged in and YES the middle position is hum FREE! Thank you, reverse wound bridge pickup!



To all the Guild Detectives, this one's a red herring. No inscription or date inside the body inside either cavity, or on the back of either plate, and no dates on the pots (the control plate is still wrapped in its factory plastic, how collector crazy is that!)





And the last pics by me - it was strung wraparound style with 9s, but I prefer 10s for the tone and feel and I also used the locking string technique thanks to Dan Erlewine's book to help with stability (stays in tune). Restrung and done!



And here's the back with the "Proto" and the Fleming Fender Custom Shop moniker:



That's it! If you want to see the original seller's far better pics, here they are:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v449/ ... =slideshow

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Truly beautiful! Congrats!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Jahn said:

It's here! Here's the blow by blow as I upload them from the camera! ... Sorry for the non-pro pics, obviously I didn't take time to take awesome beefcake pics while I was trying to get to the "plug into the amp" part - bad lighting, low light and all that, sorry!

Click to expand...

Quite a beauty! You have impeccable taste. Perhaps the guitar is beaming with joy to be home, but to my eye she looks even better in these pics. Congratulations Jahn. As someone who thoroughly enjoys your videos, I can't wait to hear this one in action too.

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Ha! Check out the applause cross-posts! :lol:

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Bravo! Well done and enjoy that beautiful guitar.

Dave

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Thanks all! And the neck is far more comfortable to me than my Starfire VI, which is pretty thin in the back. This Blues 90 is nice and beefy back there, which I guess makes sense since it's the Acoustic/Electric Guild Songbird neck profile. Coming from an acoustic background, this neck fits me to a T! Man, the more I play it the more things just come together for me! I sold a Gibson R8 to get this and let me tell you - zero seller or buyer's regret, from top to bottom this transaction ended up just perfect!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Sick! Makes me wish I jumped on it first.

Normally I wouldn't advocate dumping an Historic for a Bluesbird - as much as I love my Guilds, I like Historics better. But in your case, I think you made the right call. That thing is beautiful! I love P90s, and I bet they scream in that thing.

And next time you sell an R8, let me know first!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Congratulations Jahn, she looks great & you seem happy so all is good!

The chunky Blues90 neck is an attraction for sure.

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Very nice!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Just had enough time this morning to take quick outside pics to get a better shot of what it really looks like, and to strum it acoustically - sounds great this way too thanks to the chambering, makes for a nice "practice unplugged" guitar!



Final shot before going back to work without a Guild in my hands:

You can see the potting soil bag reflected in the face of the flame!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Jahn:

that is an almost impossibly beautiful instrument. You did real good!
MD

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

very nice looking guitar, congrats! Does that have the hot Duncan pickups?

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Didn't take them off to check the bottoms, but yep they're supposed to have the hot seymour duncans. Still a lower output than my buckers tho, including the firebird in the neck of my Tele. So it's a nice bright clean chiming sound still. So hmm, could it possibly not have the hot versions in there? I know Fleming was into winding his own pickups back then, so who knows - I should check, but I kinda don't want to take them off, the heights are perfect right now and I just restrung her, haha! Well, the bobbins don't have any kind of indication of the maker either, so maybe a mystery to solve the next time this one's ready for a string change. BTW this one definitely has a nitro finish, not poly - really not too many scuffs here and there at all, but they're there and ayep they're indicative of scuffs on nitro.

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype





YDM!
You 'da man!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Can't wait for the sound clips! That is one beautiful guitar!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Jahn said:

Final shot before going back to work without a Guild in my hands. You can see the potting soil bag reflected in the face of the flame!

Click to expand...

Sorry to post again, but just look that that flame...



Can't even be deterred by a bag of potting soil reflecting off it. Awesome!

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Jahn said:

Didn't take them off to check the bottoms, but yep they're supposed to have the hot seymour duncans. Still a lower output than my buckers tho, including the firebird in the neck of my Tele. So it's a nice bright clean chiming sound still. So hmm, could it possibly not have the hot versions in there? I know Fleming was into winding his own pickups back then, so who knows - I should check, but I kinda don't want to take them off, the heights are perfect right now and I just restrung her, haha! Well, the bobbins don't have any kind of indication of the maker either, so maybe a mystery to solve the next time this one's ready for a string change. BTW this one definitely has a nitro finish, not poly - really not too many scuffs here and there at all, but they're there and ayep they're indicative of scuffs on nitro.

Click to expand...

You could just plug in cable into her & measure the DC resistance of each pickup across across the plug at the other end of the cable. Use the selector switch to measure each pickup & have the vol/tone knobs full up. It should give you a result only a few percent less than if the pickups were out of the circuit.

I had a hot SD P90 in my Hamer Korina Jr & from memory it was about 16k. Most vintage style P90s are about 8 or 9k I think.

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Zelja said:

Jahn said:

Didn't take them off to check the bottoms, but yep they're supposed to have the hot seymour duncans. Still a lower output than my buckers tho, including the firebird in the neck of my Tele. So it's a nice bright clean chiming sound still. So hmm, could it possibly not have the hot versions in there? I know Fleming was into winding his own pickups back then, so who knows - I should check, but I kinda don't want to take them off, the heights are perfect right now and I just restrung her, haha! Well, the bobbins don't have any kind of indication of the maker either, so maybe a mystery to solve the next time this one's ready for a string change. BTW this one definitely has a nitro finish, not poly - really not too many scuffs here and there at all, but they're there and ayep they're indicative of scuffs on nitro.

Click to expand...

You could just plug in cable into her & measure the DC resistance of each pickup across across the plug at the other end of the cable. Use the selector switch to measure each pickup & have the vol/tone knobs full up. It should give you a result only a few percent less than if the pickups were out of the circuit.

I had a hot SD P90 in my Hamer Korina Jr & from memory it was about 16k. Most vintage style P90s are about 8 or 9k I think.

Click to expand...

Good call, I used my multimeter to check the DC resistance - the neck was 12k, the bridge was 15k. So I guess they are the hot SD P90s after all! Could have fooled me, they sound super clean to me! So these are ceramic magnets? Go figure! These are the ones then, right?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/comparetones/view/48

Actually some of my fave buckers are also ceramics, the mini indox ones in my Explorer. Cut really nicely...hmm, i should do that DC trick to check the strength of those too!

Edit - just did it, whoa the raging hot explorer is 5.2K in the neck, 8.2k in the bridge? Go figure, those pickups never fail to overdrive all my stuff, I always thought they were the beefiest pickups I had! Maybe resistance isn't the only reason a pickup is "hot?"


edit again - found an answer- my head is spinning!

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=35840

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

Jahn said:

Good call, I used my multimeter to check the DC resistance - the neck was 12k, the bridge was 15k. So I guess they are the hot SD P90s after all! Could have fooled me, they sound super clean to me! So these are ceramic magnets? Go figure! These are the ones then, right?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/comparetones/view/48

Actually some of my fave buckers are also ceramics, the mini indox ones in my Explorer. Cut really nicely...hmm, i should do that DC trick to check the strength of those too!

Edit - just did it, whoa the raging hot explorer is 5.2K in the neck, 8.2k in the bridge? Go figure, those pickups never fail to overdrive all my stuff, I always thought they were the beefiest pickups I had! Maybe resistance isn't the only reason a pickup is "hot?"


edit again - found an answer- my head is spinning!

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=35840

Click to expand...

Yep, as per the OP in the thread you linked, I find Inductance to be a far better general indicator of pickup tone than DC resistance. I bought a multimeter which also measures inductance & it's a handy tool.

Interesting that the thread starter also links to the TV Jones site which is one of the few manufacturers that show inductance for their pickups. Coincidence or not, my favourite humbuckers before discovering HB-1s were the TV Jones Classic Plus with an inductance of 3.7H. Most HB-1s I've measured are also 3.7H or thereabouts. The pickups do not sound exactly the same though they both are clearer than standard humbuckers & have some overlap.

Lots of things affect a pickups sound: number of turns of wire, type of wire, type of magnet, single bar magnet or 6 rod magets, coil height, coil width, base metal type, cover type etc.

The TV Jones Classic plus I ended up putting in an Ibanez AS200 bridge position & it was perceptively louder than other pickups which the specs would say were "hotter" i.e. DC Resistance & Inductance were higher e.g. a a 6H humbucker. So, specs aren't everything, especially when comparing PUs of different construction. I do find them very helpful when comparing PUs of the same type & you have one as a reference & you want to go clearer or darker etc based on that.

Re: New Guitar Day - 2001 Guild Blues 90 Prototype

I learn something new every day, thanks for the info! Hmm, so "hot" P90s aren't as evil as I thought they'd be...

BTW here's a quickie demo of the Blues 90, I showed how it's hum free in the middle position, and put some pickin' and strummin' dynamics in there to show how it all responds - pretty clean sounding if you ask me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkTczjDfW1U