NGD: I won't make you guess. It's a Guild T-bird.

[JSett]

I love these guitars. The shape is insanely cool and looks like something from The Jetsons. I've never played one and I doubt I'll ever own one as there's no way I'd ever have use for 1/10th of those controls

Congratulations

[Mechanical Birds]

Oh my god so glad you went for the neck too! I’ve seen pics of old British imported fenders where the headstock was painted to match in sunburst… always thought it was so cool. Not reallly relevant to this but yeah my god doing it on the neck too was absolutely the right call

[Embenny]

Radioshop Pickups in the UK will rewind and sort out the balance issues of the LB-1 pickups although you mentioned you may put single coils in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQL3lKUd718

Same pickups in a Starfire after being rewound to original specs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5OZJdxHtVI

Thanks for posting that, I had seen the first video back when I was doing my deep dive on these guitars, but they hadn't posted the one with the actual playing demo yet! Took them a few years for some reason. Those sound lovely, though. Something to consider, for sure, especially since I have a pair of them that are already disembodied and in the parts drawer.

I love these guitars. The shape is insanely cool and looks like something from The Jetsons. I've never played one and I doubt I'll ever own one as there's no way I'd ever have use for 1/10th of those controls

Congratulations

Thanks man. We seem to be in the minority, but something about the shape just works for me. Very 60's retro-futuristic for sure.

FYI, if you don't want or need the controls, they do make these:





Before I found this sunburst one locally, I had been considering the blue P90 model, since I was thinking about getting a second one to put single coils into anyway. I'd want to change the tort guard immediately for looks alone, so it would be easy to rout it for noiseless singles of any shape.

But I can't argue with fate. This was a "bird in the hand" scenario, so if I ever want to do all that, I'll just get a new guard cut for this sunburst one.

Oh my god so glad you went for the neck too! I’ve seen pics of old British imported fenders where the headstock was painted to match in sunburst… always thought it was so cool. Not reallly relevant to this but yeah my god doing it on the neck too was absolutely the right call

Thanks, I agree completely that it was the right call, especially now that I've got it in my hands and know that there was no detrimental impact to the feel of the neck.

I've always felt that sunburst Fenders would have looked better with black headstocks. Yamaha did that on the SG-2 and it worked so well. The sunburst Coronados also had a sunburst back of the neck and a black headstock, which was an amazing look.

I almost snagged one of those at an insane price a few years ago. I regret letting it slip through my fingers. It would have been worth it just for the neck tbh, like for a sunburst vintage parts Jazzmaster. That's probably why I was so happy with the burst on this neck - I spent way too much time thinking about that potential project back in the day. I ended up with a regular Coronado neck, which is going on the world's slowest parts build...I really need to go finish that now, haha.

[JSett]

FYI, if you don't want or need the controls, they do make these:

Damn you, Mike, I did NOT need to see those what's the model called?

[Larry Mal]

I like the way these guitars look and would buy one, so it's not quite all that much of a minority.

[Embenny]

Damn you, Mike, I did NOT need to see those what's the model called?

They're called the Guild T-Bird ST (for "stop tail") and ST P90.

The ST was made in white and a translucent cherry finish, and the ST P90 was only made in Pelham Blue (with tort for some reason I literally cannot fathom).

This is the cherry version. It was discontinued fairly early on, but you can still probably find one somewhere. The white and blue ones were made for much longer and are more easily found, though.



Looks like there's a white one in Germany on Reverb listed for £476, but a couple have sold recently for as low as £295.

Absurdly good guitar for that price.

I like the way these guitars look and would buy one, so it's not quite all that much of a minority.

I think we're a decently-sized minority, but very few non-OSG people seem to like them at all, and even OSGers are pretty polarized by the shape.

[JSett]

Damn you, Mike, I did NOT need to see those what's the model called?

They're called the Guild T-Bird ST (for "stop tail") and ST P90.

The ST was made in white and a translucent cherry finish, and the ST P90 was only made in Pelham Blue (with tort for some reason I literally cannot fathom).

This is the cherry version. It was discontinued fairly early on, but you can still probably find one somewhere. The white and blue ones were made for much longer and are more easily found, though.

Yeah, I just found them, and a white one for sale here in the UK. Pelham is cool, and I'd prefer P90s, but I have a bit of blue already at home and love white Guilds. Tort on white would be the dream.

A pickup swap would be easy too.

Goddamn GAS. If I buy one of these I'm putting the blame squarely on you.

[Embenny]

Yeah, I just found them, and a white one for sale here in the UK. Pelham is cool, and I'd prefer P90s, but I have a bit of blue already at home and love white Guilds. Tort on white would be the dream.

A pickup swap would be easy too.

Goddamn GAS. If I buy one of these I'm putting the blame squarely on you.

Hah, I edited my post to include a bit about the one in Germany but it looks like you've already scoped things out.

Because these were unpopular guitars, you can sometimes find one that's been sitting on the market for a while whose seller is becoming very flexible on price.

The P90 guard fits the humbucker model, and you can still get new/NOS tort P90 guards from Guild, so that would be an easy swap if you get a white one. The tort itself looks surprisingly decent, I just don't understand why they put it on the blue one instead of the white.

If I found a white one locally for the kind of deal I got on the sunburst one, I'd go the tort route on it for sure. That would be a killer look, especially with white P90s.

You could also stick the simplified LB or P90 pickguard on one of the black or sunburst models, FYI. The only difference on the body itself is the Tremar instead of the stop tail, and a Tremar without the bar in it is just a pretty stop tailpiece.

[barrycreed]

hmmm, wonder if you could fit mini humbuckers in the p90 model…

[Embenny]

hmmm, wonder if you could fit mini humbuckers in the p90 model…

Yep, you can fit any mini-humbucker within a P90 rout, either with a new pickguard or a pair of these, which I've used in guitars before:

[Mechanical Birds]

Damn you, Mike, I did NOT need to see those what's the model called?

They're called the Guild T-Bird ST (for "stop tail") and ST P90.

The ST was made in white and a translucent cherry finish, and the ST P90 was only made in Pelham Blue (with tort for some reason I literally cannot fathom).

This is the cherry version. It was discontinued fairly early on, but you can still probably find one somewhere. The white and blue ones were made for much longer and are more easily found, though.



Looks like there's a white one in Germany on Reverb listed for £476, but a couple have sold recently for as low as £295.

Absurdly good guitar for that price.

I like the way these guitars look and would buy one, so it's not quite all that much of a minority.

I think we're a decently-sized minority, but very few non-OSG people seem to like them at all, and even OSGers are pretty polarized by the shape.

My god that looks good in an SG suit. I loved the blue one and really wish they did it with a trem. I found some southern rock young pro guitarist on Instagram who was one of the prototype testers for them and he has one with an import offset tremolo, which is what I’d find to be ideal, but he swears by the Tremar. He was really generous in taking time to talk about it and showing me pictures and stuff. If I still have them I’ll post them

[Sweetfinger]

I had been considering the blue P90 model, since I was thinking about getting a second one to put single coils into anyway. I'd want to change the tort guard immediately for looks alone, so it would be easy to rout it for noiseless singles of any shape.

I can cut the pickguard for that model, if anyone needs to know.

[barrycreed]

There's also a Dearmond model which has the slanted tailpiece similar to the Polara

[gutter rock]

I had a dearmond version for years. Probably shouldn’t have sold it but I knew I could replace it with a Guild reissue if I missed it too much. Would prefer the Guild anyway. These guitars look way better in playing position on a strap that on a guitar stand or in stock photos. The body shape really is comfortable to play in standing position and really doesn’t look that odd in that context.

[barrycreed]

Also forgot about the Puresalem Tom Cat model.