Guild Starfire IV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 Electrics The City & Guilds From a couple of floors of the brownstone Neumann Leathers factory in Hoboken, New Jersey, Alfred Dronge’s Guild Guitar Company planted a significant marker in the musical landscape of the 1960s. But how do the company’s first production electrics in a decade fare today? Words Chris Vinnicombe Photography Adam Gasson 96 Guitarist October 2013 GIT373.rev_guild.
Guild Starfire IV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 Electrics October 2013 Guitarist 97 GIT373.rev_guild.
Guild Starfire iV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 ElEctrics Guild Starfire IV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 What We Want To Know 1 Didn’t Guild stop making electric guitars a while back? Guild was bought by Fender nearly 20 years ago, but now the company’s electric models are back with a bang after a decade in the wilderness, thanks to Fender’s Mike Lewis. 2 are they slavish reissues, then? Well, yes and no.
Guild Starfire iV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 ElEctrics http://vault.guitarist.co.uk The Rivals Gibson’s ES-335 (from £1,699) is the king of centreblocked electric guitars, but is in danger of looking pricey next to the very reasonable Starfire IV. Meanwhile, Godin’s 5th avenue is the happening place to be for great value hollowbody thrills. The composer GT (£999) has a single humbucker and is from the old school.
Guild Starfire iV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 ElEctrics http://vault.guitarist.co.uk Heavy-handers beware: that bridge isn’t pinned, so you’ll have to be careful… centre of the top in order to denote the guitar’s high-end status. A slightly softened version of this headstock shape was rolled out across other models in 1962 and became the standard within two years, and it’s that shape that you see here.
Guild Starfire iV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 ElEctrics http://vault.guitarist.co.uk Collect them all the rest of the Newark st Collection from Guild A-150 Savoy £958 With a DeArmond 1000 floating pickup this is about as old-school as the electric guitar gets. X-175B Manhattan w/Bigsby £958 Like our review X-175, but with a Bigsby and an adjust-o-matic bridge. Less jazz, more rockabilly.
Guild Starfire iV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 ElEctrics Guild X-175 Manhattan Both guitars use Guild’s ‘raised section’ headstock design, first seen in 1956 they sound like minihumbuckers. There’s plenty of brightness and airy top-end zing, but it’s no eyeball-slicer; for instance, where the GordonSmith Ghostrider reviewed elsewhere in this issue had the capacity to make us wince, with the same amp settings, the Starfire IV’s bridge pickup does a fantastic Revolver-era Beatles impression.
Guild Starfire IV & X-175 Manhattan £1,006 & £862 Electrics The Lewis Method Fender’s VP of product marketing, Mike Lewis, was instrumental in reviving Guild’s electric guitar line. Here’s his take on things… Back in January, we caught up with an enthused Mike Lewis who talked and played us through the new 2013 Guild instruments. Here’s what he had to say: “There are two different families,” Mike explained. “The Patriarchs are US-made in the Guild Custom Shop in Connecticut, and are built to order.
