GUILD: THE "X" FILES by Jay Pilzer and Alan McDonald
This month we look at one of Guild's great guitar series and a sweet-as-cream little Guild amp. Both add to the cacophony of Guildomania by screaming "tone, tone, tone" and "bargain, bargain, bargain."
The guitars are the notable Guild "X" series. Like most guitar makers, Guild was not anywhere near anal when lettering, numbering, and naming guitars. The "X" is attached to a variety of Guild guitars that have but one thing in common: all of the "X" guitars are hollow-body, archtop electrics, but here consistency comes to a screeching halt. There is, however, a subset within the "X" designation which actually makes sense.
These are the X-175, X-350, and X-500. These Jazz boxes are all 17" at the lower bout, 3 3/8" deep, with a scale length of 24 3/4". The also are all made with spruce tops and maple back and sides.
The X-500 is at the top of this line. It has two pickups, elaborate binding, fancy inlays on an ebony board, and gold hardware. The X-175 is simply a plainer version of this guitar with block inlays on a rosewood board and chrome hardware, but the basic construction and electronics are identical. They both came with soapbars until the 60's when both went to humbuckers. In either configuration, these are quality instruments with great necks and a beautiful Jazz tone. These have also become favorites among some of the less than play-so-loud-that-your-liver-melts blues players.
The hipper-than-hip X-350 is a world unto itself. (OK, a world unto itself and the Epiphone model from which it is derived). The one pictured here is a 1954 New York made beauty. It is all original and all of its myriad switches work.
The push buttons deserve a paragraph of their own. They allow a choice of each pickup individually or a combination of bridge/middle, bridge/neck, or neck/middle. And, what's more, you got yourself a tone pot to work with. Let's face it, with all this to choose from, you can't miss.
In addition to those listed above, there are several other 17" "X" Guilds that are less commonly seen. The X-375 is a blond version of the X-350 and we have heard of an X-400 and an X-440 both of which are variants on the basic X-175/500 design.
Outside of this subset, there are also some guitars with the "X" prefix that are not the same size or materials as 175, 350, and 500. The X-50 "Granada" is, in the '50's a 16" wide 3" deep guitar. This early X-50 has a soapbar and is, perhaps, the cheapest way to get a handful of mellow. By the '70s it has gotten much thinner and has a thin single coil pickup like those on the same vintage T-100's.
The X-170, a more recent guitar, is similar to the other X guitars but is only 2" deep. It has gold hardware and is a truly lovely guitar.
If you have a chance to try one of the Guild "X" series guitars, do so at once. You will not be disappointed.
Our trip to amptown leads us to an ultra-clean tan Thunder 1 from 1966. We know what you're thinking; yes this is indeed the third 1966 Guild amp to be featured. The addition of this piece gives us a matched set of '66 Guild tone magnets. Nothing special right? Well, considering that the combined cost of these sonic siblings stripped our pockets of less than the price of a single blackface Deluxe, we're darned proud parents.
The Thunder 1 shares the styling of its bigger brother Thunder 1 Reverb (Sept. TCG): fawn tolex and a two tone grill cloth. This amp is near mint. You amp freaks know the tell-tale signs of an amp that has been cleaned up. You just can't get all the gunk from the interior creases. Aside from a missing upper back panel. this baby is showroom new--no grease, no gunk, no rust.
Circuit-wise (as in the Thunder 1 Reverb) we have two 6GW8 output tubes in a class-A fixed bias design. This tube is a nine-pin bottle similar in appearance to an EL-84. (Pin-outs are not the same.) The tone is also similar to our ears--very dynamic and very fat.
Some aficionados will claim that these amps are clean because they don't sound good enough to have been beaten to death in the process of being dragged in and out of Moe's House of Suds. Not true--we have had some of these that had the proper amount of battle scars to prove that they were used and abused. But why show photographs and describe amps that require archaeological-like reconstruction? More important in explaining the relative quiet that surrounds Guild amps is the nitch that Guild held in the amp market.
Guild was and is a guitar company. The amp R&D was never at the top of the list. Leo Fender's bread and butter came from solid-body electric guitars and their amplification from day one. He had to tweak amp designs to achieve his vision of tone. Guild was more like Gibson--they built fine guitars and wanted a piece of the amp market that Leo had come to dominate. Ever see a Marshall of Ampeg guitar? The point being that against the big three amp makers of the time, Guild amps were a virtually unnoticed also-ran.
But by the time Guild was building amps in-house, the circuit designs had evolved. Guild began to design amps that offered unique approaches to problems associated with amplification of instruments. These amps came to equal the quality of Guild guitars.
Some design features are identical to Fender. The Thunder series, for example, uses the same basic vibrato circuit as the highly desired tan Fenders. But the Guild reverb system in the Thunder 1 Reverb and several other models uses a more complex and costly design than Fender with a separate power amp and speaker dedicated to reverb.
Leo Fender understood that speaker vibration wreak havoc on nearby tubes and with Sylvania designed the STR6L6 which is meant to be hung upside down next to a speaker. He also solved the heat problem by opening up his cabinets for ventilation. Guild used the same solutions in some amps but in others tried different approaches to good effect.
The Thunderstar from 1969 had the pre amp, power amp, and speaker all mounted in separate compartments thus isolating each component from the damaging effects of the others. Sure Guild, like everybody else, was competing with Fender et al, and that competition drove them to design a line of amps that have great tone and require only normal maintenance to enjoy.
No, they don't sound like their ampversaries. That's our point. They are different, affordable, and good. That, fellow gear heads, is all anyone can ask for.
At a recent guitar show a we were approached by a fellow who argued that our applause for Guild Amps is driven from one of two reasons:
2. we were somehow deprived of oxygen at birth and have no idea what good tone is.
First off, we are not concerned with resale because we don't intend to part with our amps. And, since we are looking for more we certainly would want the price to stay moderate. Secondly, leave our mom's out of this--they did the best they could.
Next time we'll look at the flip side of the big Jazz boxes and play with some little screamer guitars and turn up the volume to play on a Thunderbird amp.
Jay Pilzer has played Guild guitars since 1964. He lives in Tennessee where he teaches history and he and his wife operate New Hope Guitar Traders. (A proud advertiser in the "Vintage Instrument Shopper.")
Alan McDonald is a long-time guitar player, song writer and amp fanatic. In the daylight hours he hangs out around some really big cows and real clean green machines.