What is this beautiful dinosaur?

I saw this on the Guitar Center website, saw that it was local, and went to check it out. It sounded beautiful, so it came home with me. I recognized the cabinet as a Guild, and I knew that other Sonola amps were re-branded Guilds. I figured it would be identical to a 66-J or 99-J aside from the cab, but I was wrong:




The control panel is unlike any other Guild that I can find. It has the controls of a 200-S, the overall features of a 100-J, and a tone similar to the 66-J and 99-J I used to have. Aside from a few caps, it appears to be all original. The tubes are all GE except for one Telefunken 12AX7. The speaker (Jensen P15P) and pots all date to 1957, which seems a bit early for this design but the parts might be older than the whole. I was told that the previous owner bought it second-hand in 1960 or 1961, so perhaps it really is that old.



There is a typewritten label inside proclaiming it to be a Guild 100G. I'm familiar with the 100-J and the "B" series that preceded the "J"s, but haven't heard of any "G"s.



It works perfectly and sounds great - a bit dark and very warm, perfect for accordion. When cranked, the speaker starts to fart out before the amp distorts much (not really surprising since it's a ~40W speaker in a ~35W RMS amp), but there's still a lot of headroom on tap.

Has anyone seen one of these before?

Control panel is different, but the guts look like my 99J.

Can't remember the model number, but there was that piggyback amp that Guild made for one year. Was the control panel the same?

Not 100% sure, but the the only difference between a 99-J and a 100-J may have been the speaker upsize. Matsickma would know for sure. I agree Steve, the inside looks like out 99-J's...some work done around the can cap?

AH! Treble and bass controls for each channel! Beautiful shape, probably would have followed me home too if I were in your place. Good luck with her.

Make sure you bring her to the LMG "petting zoo" =)

I definitely want to see that and I want as many pictures as I can get. Bill, the 100J schematic floating around shows 2x12ax7's paralleled in the phase inverter positions, this one looks like the 99J.

Returned your PM Steve...

nmiller said:

There is a typewritten label inside proclaiming it to be a Guild 100G. I'm familiar with the 100-J and the "B" series that preceded the "J"s, but haven't heard of any "G"s.

Click to expand...

Hello nmiller,

Not exactly my area of expertise but I happen to have the price lists. The 100-G amplifier was listed during 1958 and at that time it retailed for $ 225.00.
It looks like it was discontinued shortly after that because the 1959 price list no longer lists the 100-G, but it does mention the model 100-J at $ 265.00.

That's all I can tell you.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Thanks for the info, Hans!

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to return the amp to GC. The opportunity came up to buy a rare and awesome old lap steel, so I'll need the money back from the amp. On the upside, it will be available if any of you want to buy it.

How much was it, Noah?

BTW, you might ask Kim Keller if he would be interested in this...

$700. A bit more than the average Guild amp, but it was REALLY clean.

Yeah, she's stunning, isn't she?

nmiller...

If you've brought this back to GC, can you tell which one it is?
I'm in CT and not far from Rocky Hill....would love to bring this one home.
Thanks!
z

The Sonola passes through the revolving door!

I'm thankful to nmiller for the help in locating the location of the GC, and especially thankful that he found a lap steel worth letting this go for!

It looks good next to my favorite black guitar.



Sounds quite good too.....I hear the need for some small bit of servicing down the road, but well worth it.
I think those guys in GC thought I was from Venus coming in with that black '45 L-7 to try and buy this amp!
That part was fun.....but a monster accordion would have been even better....

ziz

Don't know which GC you were in, but I can tell you when I was in the GC down the way from where the Red Sox play last year......anyways I had my '60 Aristocrat with me as I was playing with a friend of mine from Berklee at the time...........all of these guys at GC wanted to see my 'Les Paul'............as I opened up the case and told them 'no it ain't a Les Paul'............WHAT IS IT THEN they all asked...........as I told them 'no it is NOT for sale'..............jim in Maine