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Anyone have experience with the 60s Guild guitars? Like the Starfire? You can buy them vintage for great prices and just curious if they’re any good.
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10-23-2023 05:56 AM
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They are great guitars with great tone….I’ve had early 60’s x150,x175, ce100 and AA. Every single one, excellent.
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Ah, of course you mean electric. My bad.
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And furthermore, out of all the expensive Gibson and custom guitars I’ve owned, I’d still contend an early 60’s X-175 was easily the best sounding instrument! It was magical.
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I like'em.....
I've played a fair number of Guild electric archtops from the 50's into the early 60's and all have satisfied.
I'm now using three from 1961.....a Starfire II, CE-100 and CE-100DP.
I particularly like the DeArmond 210 "beveled" variants of the Dynasonic on my Starfire II and the Franz single coils on the CE-100's.Last edited by zizala; 10-24-2023 at 08:45 AM.
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Guild made good guitars and they all tend to work and play fine. However, myself I have never been completely taken by them as playing guitars other than they work. I owned 2 guild Artist Awards, an early 70's Sunburst and a 1988 Blond example. They were fine but never felt they quite lived up to the looks, at least regarding the sound. As acoustic archtops they were less than any I had already owned but again quite fine.
The other electric examples just never add up to a Gibson. The reason the price on them is good is for this reason entirely I believe. They just do not add up to a Gibson and the resell is never going to be what a Gibson is going to have. In my younger years a fine Guild x500 or 175 would be fine, but now I think different and basically for a few dollars more I can get a Gibson and the "out clause" is much easier for me.
Let me give a real example although in a carved top. I have a Heritage Johnny Smith. It completely blows away the 2 Guild AA I owed, and I way prefer the guitar to any guild I have played. Acoustically it smokes a guild and plays better too. In regard to the electrics, again a Gibson 175 cannot really be beat, they are available and affordable. If one has a taste for a Guild and liking I don't find that bad at all, but for me they just don't add up.
I now have a bit of a different approach in the sense I want a guitar that is fun to play. That is hard to pin down exactly but it is just a feeling I get with certain guitars. I played a very nice Stromberg G300 cutaway that was a great guitar and sounded great, however it was not fun to play. For whatever reason seem like it was bit more work to play. Probably the combination of neck feel, shape, and fingerboard the reason. It is hard to say exactly it is like eating grandma's fried chicken, she did not have an exact recipe, so you don't know the reason, but damn it tasted great.
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I disagree about Guild don't add up to Gibson. It's just a different sound, Guilds are more on a twangier spectrum, closer to Gretsch maybe, but not quite there. To me it's more fun to play than any Gibson, and I owned a few Guilds.
The best part of 50's and 60's Guild guitars for me is the neck. It's really kinda narrow, with 9.5 radius, not like Gibson at all. Never played a Gibson that felt comfortable anyway, so Guild is a great alternative.
Well, just sharing my experience, that's all.
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You probably know that Fender offered a few Guild designs under the DeArmond brand from 1997 to 2004. They were terrific value then and have fared well on the used market. I was drawn to a Korean-made semi-hollow Starfire IV. They also offered a hollow-body X-155, which today sells for over 1,000 $ used.
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I’ve owned Gibsons and Guilds and although Mark Deacon is no doubt correct in what he says, my experience is the opposite
Guilds without doubt play far better than Gibson’s. A Guild is like playing an Ibanez; they literally play themselves and the action can be had extremely low.
The overwhelming majority of Gibson’s I’ve played had some sort of issue with the necks; either ramping, twisting, etc.. (I’ve turned down countless 175’s with these issues) and as such, they can almost never be set up to play like a Guild. A Guild neck of any age, is almost always as straight as an arrow.
The majority of 335’s I’ve played are sonically dead, whilst the GSF4 is ime, more acoustically interesting and easier to play. Of course none of these are hard rules.
There is a reason why Johnny Smith and George Benson chose Guild guitars before any endorsement.
look at one of Johnny Smiths best era’s playing a 1953/54 Guild X500.
All that aside, when a Gibson is good, it is unbeatable but 9 x out of 10, a Guild is better made, plays better and sounds just as good although slightly different.
ES-175’s are cool but they’re a total pig to play. Half of the neck is a whoping ugly heal.
Regarding the AA, many feel it is as good, if not better than the Gibson L5C, which is it’s closest competitor, so it’s personal preference.
Although the AA (pre mid 80’s) is a better looking guitar imo.Last edited by Archie; 10-24-2023 at 05:52 AM.
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Last Saturday I finally, after owning it for 9 years, played my Guild (X175 Newark St Manhattan ca.2013, it has that same neck radius) out of the house for a church function. We had our quarterly free meal for the community in the gym, I played the guitar through a Superchamp XD and it sounded wonderful. I loved it, can't wait to bring her out again Haha!
Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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While I’ve played some very nice Guilds, I can’t say that I’m in agreement with everything here based on my personal experience. I’ve played several vintage Guilds that required fretboard planing to correct unevenness. I’ve also never played any Artist Awards that were as good or better acoustically than any but the worst L-5Cs I’ve played. Originally Posted by Archie
On the lower end examples, in contrast, such as A-150, CA-100, or T-50, I’ve found them to be able to stand up to comparable era Gibson L-50s.
Lastly, the HB-1 is an excellent pickup, and the LB-1 is pretty good too. I’ve never met a Franz pickup that appealed to me.
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Franz pickups can be absolutely amazing.
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Is it luck of the draw with just an occasional amazing one, have I just been unlucky, or are they just not to my taste? They always sound too muddy to me, especially for single coil pickups. I’ve even tried to optimize them with pots and caps that might compensate and tried wiring them direct with no other circuitry. All of the results I’ve gotten have been exceptionally disappointing. Originally Posted by Chris236
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Ultimate archtop tone I’ve heard has been from a Franz. Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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With that in mind, I have a set I need to put up for sale. Originally Posted by Chris236
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you should do fine, I’m not the only fan. Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
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I had a '67 Starfire V for decades. I bought it cheap when I was a teenager in the late 70's. It had serious buckle rash, finish checking, some worn frets, a case that had been through hell. Even back then Guild's weren't as desirable as Gibsons. I had an Ampeg Gemini amp, that in retrospect probably had something wrong with it, it was so distorted if you turned it up at all.
I never did get a good jazz tone out of that setup, but that was probably my own ignorance. Later in life I had a buddy who was a blues player, one day he turned a few knobs, cranked it up....and I went Holy Shit, it can do that? that's what this thing is for!
If you like a 335-style guitar it's a good option, but not if you want a more acoustic sound.
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I played a ghost label X500 that sill haunts me to this day. Sounded amazing. Originally Posted by Chris236
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They are great guitars - the Franz pickups on my 62’ X-175 were slightly microphonic….the acoustic sound of the guitar was stellar to boot. Originally Posted by Archie
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I have a 1965 X-500 and it's a great guitar but ir needed significant work in order to be what I wanted - removing Franz pickups and putting regular PAFs, changing tuners and it had a neck angle issue that made that the tailpiece touch the body. Those were not cheap fixes, but in the end it's a killer guitar, very different from a 175.
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Right, closer to an es350. Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
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It might be, never had the pleasure to play one Originally Posted by Chris236
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no need with your x500 Originally Posted by jorgemg1984
It might be, never had the pleasure to play one
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Great reading here. I am a Guild fan, since my 1968 Studio 302 - completely hollow Thinline with a super fast neck. Played a thousand gigs with it. And when I got home at 2am, I would sit down and play it some more (unplugged). Later on, as the music got heavier and jazzier, I installed Gibson T tops. But it did not rise to the criteria I now fell victim to. So I succumbed to the Gibson sound profile and bought a Gibson ES 150 TDW. I wanted an L5 but I woulda had to wait for it, and it woulda cost me $850. I guess I shoulda back in '72.
MY '61 STARFIRE II is just an AMAZING instrument. Those DeArmonds just scream TONE.
Anyway, Guilds are great instruments. You may have to change the pickups to get a fatter tone, I did on several Guilds. And I wish I could be more positive, but the HB's from Guild (GUILD X170) just lacked something essential. They can be great, but you must decide for yourself.
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I love my 1976 X-175, might not be considered vintage but is has fantastic playability and a deep tone. The pickups had been changed to Ibanez Super 70's when I bought it, and these actually sound great.
They are fairly low output and are not potted which may help to amplify some of the acoustic tone.
Here's a little video with the guitar:
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Gibson L-5 or L-7 acoustic archtop
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