This one was kind of a no-brainer, though, because I already knew I liked the model, and because I got it for an amazing price. I've been doing quite a bit of trading/flipping these last couple of years, and a guy I've dealt with before messaged me to basically say, "I need to sell something quick to jump on a guitar I really want, make me a lowball offer on anything I've got listed and I'll accept."
So, I got this for "Squier money," but it's most certainly a cut above. Without further ado, here's a photo with crappy lighting because it's been grey and overcast for days:
The mahogany has actually got quite a bit of quilty chatoyance to it, which I can't really show on a dreary Canadian January day, but this photo from the seller captures it quite well:
I've asked myself whether I actually need this guitar, since I've got a nasty habit of "doubling down" whenever I find something I like, only to realize that owning and liking the one example of that model is all I needed in the first place.
After all, getting it felt like a bit of an anticlimax since my first one was a whole project and one of those real "dream guitars" since I literally daydreamed about it for ages:
But, I've decided that they're different (and lovely) enough to keep both. One of the big reasons is that the original neck pickup in my blue sparkle one spontaneously shorted out and died, so I took a file to the pickguard and crammed some Filtertrons in there. They sound absolutely amazing in that guitar, but it meant that I no longer had that Guild Little Bucker tone available.
This sunburst one is also significantly lighter, like maybe by a full pound. If the two guitars were identical, there would be no impetus to play the stock one over the modded one, so having the different pickups and feeling weightless on a strap are two good enough reasons to pick this one up sometimes instead of the Sparklebird.
Now that I've got a stock T-bird on hand, I'm trying to figure out how well I like the Little Buckers compared to PAFs like the Classic 57s in my Flying V. They're basically the same guitar on paper - all mahogany, 24.75" scale length, TOM bridge, two humbuckers - so the major differences should really come down to the pickups themselves.
I don't feel like I've fully appreciated those differences yet, because this Guild came to me strung with telephone cables, and I haven't yet taken the time to set it up for my preferred 10-46 gauge. I think these must be 13s on it, and I've been enjoying them as-is since they make me play it very differently than I would otherwise.
It's been discussed quite a bit regarding these Newark St. Guilds, but the neck pickup is quite differently wound from the bridge one. They allegedly modeled them off of a vintage guitar, but Guild experts are quite confident that one of those pickups must have been rewound, because the neck pickup uses a thinner wire gauge and has a much higher DC resistance than the bridge pickup.
Apparently that wasn't a thing on the originals, so nobody really knows what the hell they copied or why they did that without referencing at least a second guitar. Now, a higher resistance doesn't mean a higher inductance/output; that comes down to the number of turns of wire. But in the case of these pickups, I don't think the number of turns was properly balanced for the difference in wire gauge, because the neck pickup is FAT and the bridge pickup is very bright and sharp, almost in a Telecaster Custom kind of way.
When I get this guitar on the bench for the string gauge swap, I'm debating what to do about the pickups. I happen to have the spare working bridge pickup, so I could swap that into the neck position and have a matching pair, albeit of the two thinner sounding bridge pickups. The other option would be what most people end up doing, which is a simple swap of the neck and bridge in order to get it "calibrated" like a modern guitar with a hotter bridge than neck.
I'm not totally sure what to try first. For now, I've lowered the neck pickup and raised its polepieces, which makes the imbalance manageable. I like the character of the bridge pickup more out of the two, so I'm leaning toward using the two bridge pickups. I don't know if the guitar will lose the kinda bright but midrangey snarl it has in the bridge position if I put the neck pickup in there. Hopefully the old low pickup/high polepieces trick gets them balanced enough for my liking.
Overall, I'm quite enamored with it, even as-is. These Guilds are just absurdly well made for their price point. The binding is as nice or nicer than the bound Gibsons I've owned, the fretwork is superb, and the finish is very consistently applied. The woods are gorgeous, too, which is not something I could appreciate on the Sparklebird. Someone put a decently large crater of a ding into the top, which is impressive, because the finish on this is super durable. It's the kind of guitar I could easily have kept in mint condition forever, but for the price I paid I'll accept it.
Also, someone lost the trem arm and the little chrome thumb wheel that adjusts the tightness of the trem arm. Not a big deal, since the Sparklebird has all its parts if I'm dying to struggle with the Tremar. These come with a Tuneomatic, though, so I've not used it at all. Some day, I'll get around to putting a roller bridge on it so I can get a sense of whether the Tremar is a usable or enjoyable unit, but for now it's functioning as a funky looking stop tailpiece on both guitars.
Overall, it's a light and super comfortable guitar to play, with an excellent neck and okay pickups. I'll give the double-bridge-pickup configuration a fair shake, but there's a decent chance I order a new pickguard and just put Firebirds into it, which was my plan for the Sparklebird before I tested out the Filtertrons and kinda fell in love with them.
The T-Bird is one of those guitars, like the Meteora, that turned out to be way more comfortable to play than I expected. It's the combination of the aggressive forearm bevel and the very smooth finish, it's just very ergonomic (or at least, it is for me).
Also, the sunburst continues onto the back of the neck and the headstock, which is the kind of detail I really like in a guitar. I spend more time seeing the back of the neck than the top of a guitar as a player, so over the years I've come to appreciate a bit of eye candy there. I had Stike continue the blue sparkleburst onto the neck for that reason, and specced a walnut/mahogany/maple laminate for my custom 12-string acoustic as well. It's really nice to catch glimpses of something pretty when I look over at my fretting hand. It adds something to the playing experience, even if it has absolutely no bearing on playability or tone.
I know the Gumby look isn't for everyone, but I love it. And the electronics are instantly familiar to a lifelong Jaguar player like me. Other than putting the strangle switch on the "wrong" side of the pickup switches, it's literally just the Jaguar circuit, which frankly makes a lot more sense on this kind of guitar, since the pickups are fat enough to make the bass cut pronounced, but bright enough that you can still get use out of a tone knob and rhythm circuit. It really just feels like what would have happened if Gibson had made the Jaguar instead of Fender. It just feels like a cohesive design too, which of course it was, much more so than the various "Gibsony" Jaguars with TOMs and humbuckers that I've owned over the years. Those hybrids feel like they stamp out the Jag's quirkiness, while the T-Bird cranks the quirkiness to 11.
If you ever find one of these for a good price, jump on it. I'm 2/2 with them being great guitars. I kind of can't believe how much I got for that price. They remind me most of my Japanese Fenders in that they've got amazing bones (especially the necks) and kinda 'meh' pickups, all under a perfect but thick poly finish. Even brand new at retail price, these are a lot of guitar for the money.
Also: yes, I consider this an Offset, since it's a true reverse offset waist, and not just an asymmetrical body. Reverse Offsets feel like they belong here more than in the "non-Offset" category, since you certainly can't accuse this shape of having a symmetrical waist.
