NGD '13 Guild S-100 Polara

So I've already had a rant about this guitar on the other MIK s-100 thread, but as I was asked for pictures, here we are:






I've been playing it now for a week most evenings and I'm having a whale of a time with it. The neck is comfortable and fast, the nut is now sorted out (filed the sharp edges off today after taking these photos) and after laborious trial and error the pickups are now adjusted.

On that last part, these minihums really need to be dialled in. The bridge pickup is particularly nice sounding - not brittle at all, almost Filtertron like in ways. Twangy. The slightly woolly base register seems less prominent in the bridge - I found myself leaving the bridge pickups alone (other than adjusting down relative to the lowering of the action).

The neck pickup took about an hour to get where it sounds best. Too low and you lose all bass response ... too high and its boomy as hell. I've found that leaving the poles radius matched (should come that way) and having a slight height increase on the bass side works best. Once you hit that sweet spot you'll have reasonably tight bass notes when playing lead, but there's still some slight mush on the low E when playing chords. However, I've found that adjusting my picking style to strike the E string stronger on a chord gets around this ...

These are all minor concerns - I'd take these over most stock humbuckers in this price range ... and they're closer to Guild humbuckers than any current aftermarket option.

Went to see Grizzly Bear on Thursday night - their guitar player rolled out a natural s-100 and a single pickup guild arch top (not sure what type - single dynasonic no cutaway) - nice!

Congratulations Despot!!! She's a beauty!! Keep playing!! :biggrin-new:

Welcome to the club!

Looks just like mine. A beaut.

How about a pic of the back? On mine there's a squiggle on one side that makes it obvious it's a two-piece body.

I'll stick a pick up as soon as I get a chance - there are no marks on the back of mine but if you angle it to the light you can see the dead centre join line. There is a similar (though less prominent) line on the front if mine by the low E horn.

Another thing - having the S-100 finally led me to identify the 'problem' with my old Starfire ... I'd thought it was the neck radius that was leading to me finding the feel weird, but it has the same 12'' radius as the S-100 ... then I spotted that the string spacing was all over the place on the Starfire (with the old 'wheel' saddles that can be adjusted for spacing) compared to the S-100.

So I took a sheet of paper, stuck it under the S-100 strings and marked the spacing replicating the spacing on the Starfire ... problem solved!! It's funny how something so small can make such a huge difference in feel. I was finding myself tripping over my fingers while playing ... but now I know it was because of only a small irregularity in the spacing between the D, G and B strings.

End result - two great playing Guilds!!

Cool, Thanks for the report Despot. Glad you like it.

Good to hear that you solved the issue with the string spacing.

Cheers. Rob

Despot said:

Went to see Grizzly Bear on Thursday night - their guitar player rolled out a natural s-100 and a single pickup guild arch top (not sure what type - single dynasonic no cutaway) - nice!

Click to expand...

Here's a picture of Daniel Rossen with that Guild T-50. It has the original Guild "Mickey Mouse" pickup in it, but is missing the original pickguard.
And an older video where you see it a bit better: http://youtu.be/CxinSS5KJNg




Ralf

That's the one alright.

Some fantastic sounds on Thursday night - most coming from that T-50! Great setting too ... for those here who don't know Dublin, the gig was in the Iveagh Gardens, which is a small walled garden right in the centre of Dublin (the old Georgian part). Add to that the fact that the sun has been shining non-stop here for over three weeks (with temperatures going up to 80 F plus most days!) and the evenings have been nice and warm and it was the perfect atmosphere for a gig like Grizzly Bear.

Another slightly related note (having read the thread about QC issues with the Newark Street Starfire Bass on the bass sub forum here) about Korean/Chinese guitars and QC.

My first non-Fender guitar was a 2002 Epiphone Sheraton made by Samick in Korea. It had weak pickups and a crappy switch, so I replaced those with Gibson parts. To do so cost me 200 euro on top of the purchase price of 500 euro. At the time these were expensive even though Epiphones due to a monopoly on the part of the local distributor and no real/reliable online ordering options.

But that guitar killed. It had one of the nicest necks I've ever played, flawless fret work and solid construction. There were some minor flaws with the binding in the cutaway arches, but I've similar cosmetic issues on my Waverly Starfire, so who's keeping score on that. It was as loud as a cannon and everyone who ever played it was stunned by how nice it sounded - usually the response was "seriously, this is an Asian guitar, not one of those US made limited runs?!"

I only sold it when I bought THE guitar last year, my beloved 1976 ES355 and shortly afterwards my first Guild - the '74 Starfire IV.

Lately I picked up a Chinese made 1961 reissue Casino - with Gibson P90s and proper pots/switch. It sounded so good when I tried it out in the store I straight away told the owner I'd take it ... and he then spent half an hour trying to talk me out if buying it because he was thinking about keeping it. Eventually he sold it to me on the understanding that I'd sell it back to him first if I ever thought of parting with it (he has said he'd pay me what I paid him for it). It's that nice.

Both are inexpensive guitars that sound unreasonably good.

My S-100 has zero issues in terms of build, construction, finishing, fret work or electronics. It's rock solid in every respect and worthy of the Guild headstock logo. It is a very good guitar, but not in the same league as those two Epis I've mentioned. I'll happily play it and keep an eye out for an original S-100 and even then I'd happily rock the Newark Street.

I'm not slagging off these Korean made guitars. There are extremes to every scale. Mine is on the good/nice end of that spectrum, and no doubt there are others that might be awful - I'd like to hope not many. But equally there are chances that you could find one like those two Epis that's really great - the outlier, the fluke.

If you order one sight unseen chances are 90% at least that it'll be a good one, like mine. But I'd love to have been in a larger city where I could have tried more than one, because I'm sure there are going to be some stunners out there - ones with lighter wood (through happy accident) that really sing.

That's some very interesting and excellent information Despot. Thanks!

SFIV1967 said:

Here's a picture of that Guild T-50. First I thought it's a X-50, but it looks thinner, so I guess T-50 is right. It has the original Guild "Mickey Mouse" pickup in it:

Ralf

Click to expand...

The guy from the lumineers plays the same model.

Los Angeles said:

The guy from the lumineers plays the same model.

Click to expand...

Since we always like to veer...(Sorry to Despot!)
Here is Wesley Shultz of the Lumineers. His Cordoba T-50 "Slim" has a bit more Mojo. It is also older (I think) compared to the one from Daniel Rossen, looking at the color of the headstock veneer (black vs. brown).
Here's a video as well: http://youtu.be/yZlqiZimyZI



Ralf

Guys - veer away all you like if you're going to post pictures of stunning guitars like those!

I now have unreasonable GAS for a T-50!!

Despot said:

I now have unreasonable GAS for a T-50!!

Click to expand...

Oh, we can help you with that! http://youtu.be/PCeygJn09_Y
Ralf

Ralf ... that's not helping ...
Kevin

I should point out that I've a love of all oddball guitars. Here in Ireland it has traditionally been the Land of the Holy Trinity - Strat, Tele, Les Paul. And naturally these are all priced at a premium (and always have been).

I remember the first time I played a Gretsch - it was a 6120 I believe but at the time I'd no clue about model types, I just knew it was a Gretsch because that's what the headstock said. It was a decidedly unfashionable guitar at the time (mid 90s) and flew in the face of the established order. One of my friends from school had bought it with money he'd saved over the course of two summers working terrible student jobs and my fellow guitar playing buddies couldn't understand why he'd bought this instead of a shiny new Les Paul.

I thought it looked weird, but loved how it played and sounded - I realised that there were other options out there off the beaten track. That's the same thinking that led me to my Starfire (always wanted to try one ... and then one turned up in a store here and I was hooked).

I think I've now gone completely the other way now - I'll deliberately go out of my way to find unusual guitars to buy instead of buying more conventional guitars (see my recent GAS for old 60s Mustangs which has led me to Duo Sonic IIs, which I prefer to 'stangs now).

I think I'm going to need to track down a T-50 - it ticks all the right boxes...

Despot said:

I should point out that I've a love of all oddball guitars.

Click to expand...

I hope you have Hans' book ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guild-Guitar-Book-1952-1977-Moust/dp/0634009664 ) to get some more ideas!
How about a nice Guild S-200 Thunderbird? Dan Auerbach of "The Black Keys" plays one, as did the famous Muddy Waters and Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful.







I mean you just have to love that headstock!

Ralf

Ralf - I remember first seeing one of those a few years ago in London and thinking "what the hell is that - it looks awesome!".

As cool as these are I think I'd still go for the original Polara ahead of one of these.

@Kevin: To follow up on the original S-100 topic, here are the pictures of Daniel Rossen from Grizzly Bear with the S-100! (Guild posted those pictures on their Facebook page)





Ralf