- Joined
- Feb 11, 2009
- Messages
- 22,883
- Reaction score
- 18,464
- Location
- NJ (The nice part)
- Guild Total
- 112
Spent a good part of this evening playing around with this thing, and I have to say that I'm also very impressed with this one.
And yes, this is another case of me taking a pic or three before I restrung it and oiled the board. :wink-new:
First the dislikes, because they are few:
I don't like the smaller open-gear tuners because I really love the late-70s era Guild tuners. This guitar is targeted for my 15-yo daughter, though, and she loves them because she has small hands. That makes this dislike moot.
The guitar is heavy. I haven't weighed it because I can't find my postal scale due to recent home renovations, but I'm mentally comparing this with a Gibson SG-P90 that I used to have (GOTW model) and this one is much heavier. Still, it's a smallish guitar, so the weight is not concerning - just noticeable. Hell, I think the weight being centered in the body will prevent it from doing the neck-dive thing when standing with a strap. Again - no biggie.
What I love:
Playability is superb. Nice action, nice modern neck width, and a nice neck depth that isn't a baseball bat and isn't shredder-thin either. Very nice.
It sounds *great*. I think these new HB1s are damn-near a home run. I haven't A/B'd the guitar against my vintage HB1 Guilds, but I'll tell you that if I didn't have one of those, I wouldn't worry about it. My daughter and I spent the evening playing around with the guitar plugged into my Axe-FX Deluxe which even my tube-snob self likes a whole lot. We set the rig to sound like a Marshall JCM800 and went to town. All I can say is, "wow!"
My daughter is a huge Green Day fan, and she was pumping out Green Day riffs left and right, and they sounded *good*! The problem is that not only did she fall in love with the guitar, but she also fell in love with my Axe-FX! Now she wants me to build her a Marshall clone. That's my girl. :applause: We cranked up the gain and played some Muse riffs and they sounded spot-on. With a nice drop-D this guitar makes that absolutely filthy (in a good way) sound that we were chasing.
The pickups sound great. I may need to adjust the height a bit on them because I think they could do with a bit of tweaking. We'll see how that goes. They're surprisingly articulate which is a big deal for me. Usually when I pick up an electric guitar I play it unplugged for an hour or so, then plug it in at which point I often decide within seconds to replace the pickups and/or electronics. I did not get that feeling with this guitar, and let me tell you, that's a big deal.
The frets are great. The neck is straight. It's got new strings on it so no idea if it stays in tune yet, though I have no reason to think that this will be a problem.
Things to notice, but don't matter to me:
The fretboard isn't what I'd call high-end, but with some bore oil it darkened a bit. The edges of the inlays aren't the best, but the big deal to me is that I can't feel those edges, so they don't bother me.
The bridge is a tune-o-matic piece of... let's just say that I'm not a fan of tune-o-matic style bridges. Still, as of right now there are no problems with it so no complaints aside from my own prejudices.
I dislike the yellow plastic switch tip, but I understand this to be period correct. I'll likely replace it with a chrome one unless my daughter likes it as-is.
I don't like the goofy Guild logo on the pick guard.
Required pic:
This and the X175B I wrote about in the other section are my first forays into the world of NS Guilds, and I have to say that I'm very impressed.
I bought them both used here on LTG, and as I wrote about the X175B, these import Guilds absolutely crush the competition in the same price range.
And yes, this is another case of me taking a pic or three before I restrung it and oiled the board. :wink-new:
First the dislikes, because they are few:
I don't like the smaller open-gear tuners because I really love the late-70s era Guild tuners. This guitar is targeted for my 15-yo daughter, though, and she loves them because she has small hands. That makes this dislike moot.
The guitar is heavy. I haven't weighed it because I can't find my postal scale due to recent home renovations, but I'm mentally comparing this with a Gibson SG-P90 that I used to have (GOTW model) and this one is much heavier. Still, it's a smallish guitar, so the weight is not concerning - just noticeable. Hell, I think the weight being centered in the body will prevent it from doing the neck-dive thing when standing with a strap. Again - no biggie.
What I love:
Playability is superb. Nice action, nice modern neck width, and a nice neck depth that isn't a baseball bat and isn't shredder-thin either. Very nice.
It sounds *great*. I think these new HB1s are damn-near a home run. I haven't A/B'd the guitar against my vintage HB1 Guilds, but I'll tell you that if I didn't have one of those, I wouldn't worry about it. My daughter and I spent the evening playing around with the guitar plugged into my Axe-FX Deluxe which even my tube-snob self likes a whole lot. We set the rig to sound like a Marshall JCM800 and went to town. All I can say is, "wow!"
My daughter is a huge Green Day fan, and she was pumping out Green Day riffs left and right, and they sounded *good*! The problem is that not only did she fall in love with the guitar, but she also fell in love with my Axe-FX! Now she wants me to build her a Marshall clone. That's my girl. :applause: We cranked up the gain and played some Muse riffs and they sounded spot-on. With a nice drop-D this guitar makes that absolutely filthy (in a good way) sound that we were chasing.
The pickups sound great. I may need to adjust the height a bit on them because I think they could do with a bit of tweaking. We'll see how that goes. They're surprisingly articulate which is a big deal for me. Usually when I pick up an electric guitar I play it unplugged for an hour or so, then plug it in at which point I often decide within seconds to replace the pickups and/or electronics. I did not get that feeling with this guitar, and let me tell you, that's a big deal.
The frets are great. The neck is straight. It's got new strings on it so no idea if it stays in tune yet, though I have no reason to think that this will be a problem.
Things to notice, but don't matter to me:
The fretboard isn't what I'd call high-end, but with some bore oil it darkened a bit. The edges of the inlays aren't the best, but the big deal to me is that I can't feel those edges, so they don't bother me.
The bridge is a tune-o-matic piece of... let's just say that I'm not a fan of tune-o-matic style bridges. Still, as of right now there are no problems with it so no complaints aside from my own prejudices.
I dislike the yellow plastic switch tip, but I understand this to be period correct. I'll likely replace it with a chrome one unless my daughter likes it as-is.
I don't like the goofy Guild logo on the pick guard.
Required pic:
This and the X175B I wrote about in the other section are my first forays into the world of NS Guilds, and I have to say that I'm very impressed.
I bought them both used here on LTG, and as I wrote about the X175B, these import Guilds absolutely crush the competition in the same price range.