Hello, long time Guild admirer here—my dad has an ancient hollowbody—but first time owner and first time poster. I picked up a new MIK S100 Polara on eBay a few days back and figured I'd throw in some details that I didn't notice in Qvart's thread.
It's 8.5 pounds, a tad heavier than the Gibson SGs I usually play (they're all around 6.5) but nothing outrageous. Gorgeous, striped mahogany like Qvart's. The fit and finish are excellent: frets are even and without burrs, no dead spots, no chips or cracks anywhere I could see. The binding could use some rolling/sanding but that's not unusual. The inlays were a tiny bit smaller than the route so they filled around the edges with glue, but the fretboard is even and that's all I really care about. I recently returned an import ESP LTD mostly because its fit and finish were terrible, but Guild apparently knows how to do it right. As far as I'm concerned, attention to detail is similar to my Gibson USA SGs.
The neck is rounded, about .8 inches at the 1st fret and .9 at the 12th. I'm used to 50s Gibson necks (about .83-.86 at the 1st and .93-.96 at the 12th) and can't stand their 60s “slim taper” necks, but it was still comfortable. It probably took me longer to get used to the lack of a neck tilt than the neck profile itself. The neck joint is excellent as is access to the upper frets.
The pickups are okay but not great. Notes lack definition and the lower strings especially are boomy. It gets a great “woman tone” if that's what you're looking for, but don't expect trebly/brittle PAF lead tones. I was expecting 250k tone pots, but I checked and they're 500k, so it has to be the pickups. To be fair, I get this from stock Gibson pickups as well. I freely admit to being a cork-sniffing pickup snob and usually upgrade to hand-wound boutiques, and I'll no doubt do that here as well.
To sum up, it's a pretty nice guitar, especially at its price point. SGs have better wood choice (shaving 2 pounds off the weight) and nitro finish (which ages better) but they also retail for $200-400 more and play essentially the same.
It's 8.5 pounds, a tad heavier than the Gibson SGs I usually play (they're all around 6.5) but nothing outrageous. Gorgeous, striped mahogany like Qvart's. The fit and finish are excellent: frets are even and without burrs, no dead spots, no chips or cracks anywhere I could see. The binding could use some rolling/sanding but that's not unusual. The inlays were a tiny bit smaller than the route so they filled around the edges with glue, but the fretboard is even and that's all I really care about. I recently returned an import ESP LTD mostly because its fit and finish were terrible, but Guild apparently knows how to do it right. As far as I'm concerned, attention to detail is similar to my Gibson USA SGs.
The neck is rounded, about .8 inches at the 1st fret and .9 at the 12th. I'm used to 50s Gibson necks (about .83-.86 at the 1st and .93-.96 at the 12th) and can't stand their 60s “slim taper” necks, but it was still comfortable. It probably took me longer to get used to the lack of a neck tilt than the neck profile itself. The neck joint is excellent as is access to the upper frets.
The pickups are okay but not great. Notes lack definition and the lower strings especially are boomy. It gets a great “woman tone” if that's what you're looking for, but don't expect trebly/brittle PAF lead tones. I was expecting 250k tone pots, but I checked and they're 500k, so it has to be the pickups. To be fair, I get this from stock Gibson pickups as well. I freely admit to being a cork-sniffing pickup snob and usually upgrade to hand-wound boutiques, and I'll no doubt do that here as well.
To sum up, it's a pretty nice guitar, especially at its price point. SGs have better wood choice (shaving 2 pounds off the weight) and nitro finish (which ages better) but they also retail for $200-400 more and play essentially the same.
