What kind of Guild is this?

I don't know a lot about guitars but I have recently acquired this Guild. I tried to use the serial number to try to date it but I cannot find anything like it I am afraid. I am hoping someone here will be able to tell me something.

Lucky672 said:

I don't know a lot about guitars but I have recently acquired this Guild. I tried to use the serial number to try to date it but I cannot find anything like it I am afraid. I am hoping someone here will be able to tell me something.

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Hello Lucky672,

Welcome! From what I can see in the photos, I'm not sure we're dealing with an actual Guild guitar here.
Best case scenario, you have a Japanese guitar that somebody put a Guild guitar neck on, but I'm not even sure about that.
Can you show us a close up shot of the back of the headstock?

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Well, I don't know much about Guild but from the people I have talked to I don't think that is correct. The neck and the body match up too perfectly for that to be the case. We took it to a small guitar shop in the text town over and they were in awe by it. They said it is definitely a guild but as far as they could tell nothing that they had ever seen before.

Lucky672 said:

Well, I don't know much about Guild

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Hans Moust is the author of The Guild Guitar Book so his opinions carry a lot of weight. The serial on that back does make it look like a genuine Guild neck. The body shape is consistent with several '70's models, of which S-100 is the only number I recall. Can't say I've ever seen a three piece body but that says more about my experience. The knobs are not what I would expect from the factory. If there are two mini-toggles then I've never seen more than one. If one of them is the jack then the side/edge mounted jack is unusual. I doubt that the neck pickup is a Guild although the bridge pickup may be.

Is there a plate on the back that gives access to the electronics? If so there is sometimes a Guild label with the serial number on the back of the plate. The neck and body shape suggest a Guild to me but everything else suggests modifications from the factory standard.

It does have the plate on the back but there is no serial number. What are the chances of it being a pre-70s custom?

Lucky672 said:

Well, I don't know much about Guild...

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Yeah, but Hans does.

GAD said:

Yeah, but Hans does.

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Yes, he wrote the book on Guild. Literally.

Inspite of the three piece body and the quality of the woods used, the lack of beveling suggests that it's a Frankenstein.


Sorry dude!

Is it a set neck? Neck Thru? Bolt on? A full pic from the back might help.

Body certainly looks like something that could have come from the Matsumoku factory...or someone's foray into custom guitar building.

Hans will figure it out...he knows everything.:applause:

Default said:

Inspite of the three piece body and the quality of the woods used, the lack of beveling suggests that it's a Frankenstein.

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Yeah, not to belabor the point to the OP but that's the first thing that popped out at me too, but I figured Hans would expand on his initial appraisal if/when appropriate.
I'm also wondering where did the 12th fret block inlay go? And the neck pickup mounting is skewed, that just ain't factory craftsmanship.
Still, I get an impression that someone valued a Guild neck enough to craft a guitar around it and that workmanship is "fairly decent".
Not "excellent" or even "very good", but who knows what the original goal was in making it?
@ Lucky672 : Just so you understand how much knowledge is stored and being shared here, and what folks are basing their feedback on, take a look at this pic:



From this thread:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...s-roster/page61&highlight=s-100+owners+roster
and you'll start to understand the high degree of doubt about your instrument's origins.

All things considered, it looks neat. How's it play?

@Lucky672: Hans said it all...unfortunately...
But you should let us/him know the exact serial number you see on the headstock (82852, can't read it) as Hans has the factory ledgers and can tell you from which guitar that neck came.
The body is 100% not a Guild body. I think all of us who answered your post know that.
Also please post a picture showing the full back of the guitar from headstock to body as Toni requested.
You should have asked us before you bought it, hope you didn't pay too much.
It certainly looks cool and as GFooChombey said, if it sounds great, who cares if it is a real Guild or a FrankenGuild. Guitars are there to play them!
Keep us informed.
The celluloid headstock veneer seems to be original, that means maybe even the full neck is a Guild neck. The serial number looks a bit odd. Now there is only a limited number of models with one piece necks (no center strip) with block inlays and which are round on the end of the fretboard towards the pickup. Sure, a 1973 S-100 neck looks like that. But I can't remember a S-100 neck with block inlays and with 3 in line tuners? As you can see also the tuners are changed, it looks like that neck had original 3 in line tuners on each side.
The bridge humbucker (a HB-1) looks also original, but not the mounting ring or the mounting screws.
All other hardware is not original.
Those are just thoughts so far, Hans is the authority for Guild.
Ralf

The number on the back of the headstock looks like 282614

Guild neck, guild pickups, but the rest is home made and/or pieced together from random parts.

Doesn't mean it's not a great guitar - those are some fantastic pickups. But it's not an original guild.

I'm reading the serial as 82452, but it's hard to make out.

GuildFS4612CE said:

The number on the back of the headstock looks like 282614

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Well, that would not be a Guild serial number. I don't think there is this 2 in front, but hard to see. LA might be right with 82452, which would be a 1973 serial number.

Los Angeles said:

Guild neck, guild pickups,...

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Kent: The neck pup is not a Guild pup, at least not any that I remember, or?

Ralf

Wasn't sure about a 2 in the front...could just have been shadow...hopefully the OP will chime in with what he sees as the number.

SFIV1967 said:

Well, that would not be a Guild serial number. I don't think there is this 2 in front, but hard to see. LA might be right with 82452, which would be a 1973 serial number.

Kent: The neck pup is not a Guild pup, at least not any that I remember, or?

Ralf

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Didn't notice that. Good eye, Ralf!

Lucky672 said:

It does have the plate on the back but there is no serial number. What are the chances of it being a pre-70s custom?

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Thanks for posting the pictures of the back. The Guild label was applied to those kind of guitars to the inside of the lid.
See one example from a 1972 S-100:



But the lid you got has a different shape.
Anyway, chances for a "Guild custom" are zero. Hans knows all those guitars, he has the complete factory ledgers, as soon as he knows what serial number is on your headstock he knows what it was originally (assuming the neck is a Guild neck and the serial number is valid).

If the serial number on the back of the headstock is indeed 82452 (?) it would be a 1973 made neck, and a 1973 S-100 looked like this: http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/30U-15135.htm

Ralf

SFIV1967 said:

Hans knows all those guitars, he has the complete factory ledgers, as soon as he knows what serial number is on your headstock he knows what it was originally (assuming the neck is a Guild neck and the serial number is valid).

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That's not entirely true. I have the information for some periods, but not for this one.

But as far as this case is concerned, I can tell you that to me it looks like a neck from the 1970-1971 period.
The neck has been refinished, which is the reason why the serial number looks the way it does.

Without holding the instrument I can't say if we're looking at a factory made or a homemade body, but if we could take a look at the pickup routings and/or the routing for the controls, it would most likely give us a clue. Either way, the lay-out of the controls is so different from the usual Guild practice that we can safely assume that the body was not made by Guild.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Pretty neat Frankenstein!!