Stale NGDs: Guild and Vox w/ mods

[Debaser]

I've mostly stayed away from new guitars and gear for a couple years, it's been great. However, the Vox blowout appeared, my birthday was coming up and things got out of hand. Woke up with a Guild Surfliner Deluxe and Vox Bobcat at my door

Both are staying, and nothing has been a disappointment! Mods are always my thing, of which I'm planning a modicum:

Guild
-Roller bridge
-Upgrade trem
-Freeway switch with split coils
-TV Jones Zoom'tron
- Tort guard w/ matched truss cover

Vox
-Bigsby B12 with wenge insert
-roller bridge
-Freeway switch with new wiring scheme

[kamillebidan]

How's the Vox? I tried a black one with the Faux-90's and it didn't really impress me. How are these pickups?

[Pacafeliz]

....still GASing for a Surfliner just like that!
Tell me, pros, cons...?

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Nice! Looking good!

How are the Guild Vibrato units? What don‘t you like?
Has anyone dismounted one yet (60 cycle hum-Ryan talked about doing so, but has he yet?) to see what‘s going on under the hood?

The Zoom Tron looks fitting too!

[Debaser]

Like the 60 cycle vid, my Guild vibrato had a clunk on deeper dives. I dropped in an AV trem into the Guild body plate, it was a direct fit. I compared the fulcrum plate to the AV, the Guild plate was thin and the point wasn’t bent as far down as the AV. All other dimensions were pretty much the same. When I strung it up, the problem was clear: the string holes dropped too low and it bottomed out before any significant dive . What made the problem worse was the fact the Guild plate is 0.03” thicker than the AV’s. The slot width was about the same between the two.

I tried keeping the pivot, but same issue. In the end I drilled out the Guild spacer plate to accept the AV spring and left it at that. I sanded the pivot point and now it’s smooth af, no click. Working the Guild vibe revealed very little hardening, it was easy to both hand sand the pivot edge and drill the 3/8” bore for the spring.

The trem/vibrato was hardly a con, but I had to see if I could improve it. TBH as soon as I found out about the Deluxe version I was already sold. The HB-2 was the only negative for me: my previous Guild had Cordoba HB-1s and I was constantly trying to make it a Filtertron, but not actually use a Filterton. The HB-2 balances pretty well with the other pickups, but it’s obviously darker.

The Strat-ish pickups do exactly what I wanted them to do. Quack. Shave heads off with brightness. Twang. I don’t want to touch them, they do it for me. Finish was great, no bad frets. Locking tuners, love ‘em. Neck is skinny for me, but it’s average C. I don’t like the scarf joint but I’m not gonna stare at it—I knew what I was in for

[Debaser]

How's the Vox? I tried a black one with the Faux-90's and it didn't really impress me. How are these pickups?

The Vox is excellent finish-wise, on par with the Starfire V I owned. I wanted it for the trashy vibes (and deep discount—$499) and so it had to be the non-typical 3-pickup version. The V90 appealed to me as I saw the pickups like P90 Staples—I’m a DeArmond 2000/Dynasonic guy, so not too far in build. With the S66, think Jag pickups with no claw, and that’s pretty much how it rolls. Bridge is 6.85k, middle was the lowest at 6.34k. Little or no wax potting, 500k pots all around.

[Steadyriot.]

Ooh those Vox’s have caught my eyes a few times before (I’m a sucker for black guitars…). How do you like it? What’s the build quality like?

[Debaser]

Ooh those Vox’s have caught my eyes a few times before (I’m a sucker for black guitars…). How do you like it? What’s the build quality like?

These are being blown out on Reverb rn, $499 for non-Bigsby versions, includes a case. I’m floored for the price of course, but these can command 1k otherwise. I’m comparing to my Cordoba Guild Starfire V and numerous Korean and Japanese Gretsch guitars. The all black version is sold out, unfortunately. Last I checked the black and white versions are still up.

[Steadyriot.]

Ooh those Vox’s have caught my eyes a few times before (I’m a sucker for black guitars…). How do you like it? What’s the build quality like?

These are being blown out on Reverb rn, $499 for non-Bigsby versions, includes a case. I’m floored for the price of course, but these can command 1k otherwise. I’m comparing to my Cordoba Guild Starfire V and numerous Korean and Japanese Gretsch guitars. The all black version is sold out, unfortunately. Last I checked the black and white versions are still up.

Damn that’s a really good deal! Over here they still run about 1500 Euro’s I think.
Does it do the Strat thing with those three single coils?

[Debaser]

Ooh those Vox’s have caught my eyes a few times before (I’m a sucker for black guitars…). How do you like it? What’s the build quality like?

These are being blown out on Reverb rn, $499 for non-Bigsby versions, includes a case. I’m floored for the price of course, but these can command 1k otherwise. I’m comparing to my Cordoba Guild Starfire V and numerous Korean and Japanese Gretsch guitars. The all black version is sold out, unfortunately. Last I checked the black and white versions are still up.

Damn that’s a really good deal! Over here they still run about 1500 Euro’s I think.
Does it do the Strat thing with those three single coils?

Yeah, I wouldn't consider it at 1500 Euros, but the quality is on par for that price I think. The Strat thing is there, slightly different but I'm not a tone-chaser anymore. In fact, I don't do Strats either lol. These two guitars were my attempt to get the single coil quack thing, which both do just fine.