I’m not really much of a jazz player, but there’s something about a nice jazz box guitar that intrigues me. Perhaps it’s the generally high-end appointments, or maybe it’s the lure of an instrument that begs to be mastered. Whatever the reason, over the years I’ve found myself in possession of various Guild jazz guitars all of which have been either X-500s or X-170s. I covered a couple of 1980s X-500s in this article, and for this write-up I’ll be focusing on X-170s, all of which are from 1994 or later. I’ll spend a lot of this post reviewing this beautiful sunburst X-170 from 1994 because, well, just look at it!
Introduction
Guild made a guitar called the X175 from the ’50s until about 1984 when it was retired. I reviewed its 2016 reissue, the X175B (B for Blonde) in this post. The pic to the right, a 1970s sunburst X175 shows a guitar similar to the X500 in depth, bound f-holes and the inclusion of a master volume, but with more modest appointments such as block inlays, a rosewood fretboard, and silver-plated parts with the less ornate simple Guild harp tailpiece.
The Guild X-170 Manhattan was introduced in 1988 and was made until 2002. It is a thinner guitar at 2 1/2″ at the edge than the X-175 and X-500, both of which are full-depth jazz boxes measuring 3 3/8″ at the edge. These deeper jazz box guitars are big instruments and my X-500s weigh in at over nine pounds, especially when they include an under-bridge sound block. The X170 is a much more nimble instrument, though it’s not a lightweight like the Starfire III.
Most of the X-170s I see in the wild are blonde, and my first X-170 was just such a beast. This guitar was made during the Fender era of Guild and included the less desirable Fender HB1 pickups which made it a bit woofy for my tastes. I loved the way it played, though, due largely to the larger 1 11/16″ neck found on these later Guild electric guitars. Note the difference in the bridge on the Fender-era Westerly-made X-170 (likely from 1999 or 2000) which is a tune-o-matic type on a rosewood base. My 1994 Westerly-made X-170 has an all-rosewood bridge while the bridge on my Corona-made X170T was all metal, likely due to the Bigsby and brighter tone desired for Rockabilly.
As stated, the Guild X-170 Manhattan is not a full-depth jazz box like the X-500 but it’s not a slimline guitar like a Starfire, either. The X-170 rests right in the middle being 2 1/2″ thick at the edge which is its main design point having being advertised as more comfortable to play and hold over the thicker X-500 and other more traditionally sized jazz guitars. The X-170 has less of the high-end features found on guitars like the X-500s and X-700s though it’s generally a step up from the regular Starfires when it comes to things like inlays and hardware plating.
It’s tempting to say that the X170 is a straight-up jazz guitar, and that’s all well and good until you come across a Guild X170T in Tennessee Orange. The “T” in the model number means “tremolo” which is a throwback to the epic misuse of the term by Leo Fender back in the ’50s when he confused it with “vibrato” resulting in decades of semantic abuse by guitarists the world over.
I’ve owned three different X-170s over the years, the first being a 2001 blonde, the second a 2001 MARS X-170T, and the last being the beautiful 1994 sunburst model shown on the majority of this page. The X-170T was released in Blonde, but probably the most common version of the X-170T I see for sale is the MARS model shown to the right. Built as a limited run for MARS music in the early 2000s, this guitar included a coil-split switch that increased tonal versatility by allowing a single coil sound in addition to the regular humbucker tones. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this guitar was hampered by the Fender HB1 pickups in use by Guild at the time which is a shame because it was an otherwise fabulous guitar.
The rest of this post will focus on the beautiful sunburst X-170 from 1994 because of the ones I’ve owned, that’s the one that’s perfect for me. Well, almost perfect. Read on.
Finish
This guitar is positively stunning in any light due not only to the impeccable finish, but to the color of that finish. Most Guild sunburst guitars I’ve come across have more of a tobacco burst finish that is not my favorite look for a guitar. I tend to favor a more Brockburst reddish hue to my sunburst guitars and this guitar delivers the goods with aplomb.
There isn’t an imperfection anywhere on this guitar, and I must say that the same was true of both of the other X-170s I’ve owned as well. Is it lacquer or poly? The way I see it, if it doesn’t distract me from playing and I can’t really tell, does it really matter? I think this guitar has a lacquer finish. It doesn’t feel candy-coated like some of my known poly guitars, but it also doesn’t have any dings, and finish checking, or any of the other signs of wear commonly exhibited on lacquer guitars, probably because it was so well cared for.
So far that I’m aware, the standard colors for X170s were blonde, sunburst, and sometimes Tennessee Orange. This is the only X170 I’ve seen with this beautiful red sunburst finish. I usually only see this finish on late-80s to mid-90s Guilds but of course that’s no indication of anything other than me noticing patterns on the thousands of guitar-for-sale ads I peruse.
Fretboard and Neck
I bought this guitar for a couple of reasons. First, the reddish sunburst finish is possibly my favorite finish on any guitar I’ve ever seen. Second, this is a 1994 Guild and based on previous experience I expected that this would have the last of the vintage Guild HB1 pickups (it does), and finally since I had bought a Starfire from 1994 that had a 1 11/16″ neck, I had hoped that this one would as well. Sadly, the neck on this guitar is 1 5/8″ at the nut, though all my other hopes were fulfilled. That was almost a crushing blow for me because the guitar is absolute perfection in every other way. Alas, I was born with large hands and must suffer the abject misery of a perfect guitar with an almost perfect fretboard. The struggle may be too much for to bear but I will seek solace by replying to the many comments by readers devoid of the hyperbole discrimination gene.
The fretboard is rosewood and while I normally prefer very plain dark rosewood, this guitar has a faint streak in it that so perfectly matches the finish that I think it really ads to the overall look of the instrument. The fretboard is bound and the inlays are simple blocks that add a bit of class without being over the top.
From my measurements the frets appear to be about 1/32″ high 5/64″ wide; roughly the dimensions of 6230 fret wire which is small compared to many modern guitars. The fretboard radius measured a relatively flat 16″
Build Quality
Like most Guilds, this is an incredibly well-made instrument that feels very solid in the hand. The only place I see even a hint of anything other than perfection is the pickup routes as seen from inside the guitar, and let’s be honest, who cares what the pickup routes look like from inside the guitar? I’m the guy that takes pictures of the insides of guitars and even I don’t care, though I’ll admit to being surprised at the rough edges since I’ve seen so many professionally smoothed edges on pickup routes that it came as a shock to see these in such a nice guitar.
The neck joint on this guitar is absolute perfection with no seems, bumps, or any other signs of shenanigans.
This guitar does have a wide sound block underneath the bridge, as did all of the other Guild X170s I’ve owned. The sound block helps to deaden feedback while also adding structural integrity to the guitar. If you read my post about my 1980s Guid X500s, then you saw the large block in one of those guitars. The block in the X170s is smaller no doubt due to the fact that the guitar body is thinner. As a result, this guitar is much lighter than either of those X500s.
This X170 weighs in at 7 lbs 6 oz which makes it a full pound lighter than my fully hollow X500 and almost two pounds lighter than the X500 with the sound block! Again, this guitar is designed to be a lighter and more comfortable alternative to the big jazz guitars, and it is absolutely that.
The pic of the sound block was taken by cramming my iPhone into the neck pickup route. This block is a bit thinner than the ones found in the X500s, but the guitar is smaller, so a larger block is not needed. In this pic you can see the rough edges of the pickup route that I wrote about earlier. Again, you can’t see this from the outside of the guitar with the pickups installed and it doesn’t affect the playability at all. It’s just one of those nit-picky things that a guy with severe attention to detail disease notices.
This guitar is fully laminate, and the top has subtle grain that comes and goes depending on the light. The flash from my camera tends to accentuate flame given the right angle, and as you can see in the pics, at some angles the flame seems to disappear altogether. My Blonde X170 was a flame monster but this one is a bit more subdued which I think works well with the finish.
X-170s have binding on the neck and the body (front and back), but not on the f-holes. The binding is simple and is not of the decorative 5-layer type found on the fancier X500s. I think that the simpler binding adds just the right amount of elegance to the X170s.
Pickups
The pickups in this guitar are Guild HB1 pickups that may look different than you might expect if you pull them out. 1994 was about the end of the Guild HB1 pickups, and one of the great things about these later HB1s is the fact that they have four hookup wires which means that they can be wired for inverse phase and/or coil split. Sadly, these capabilities are not being used on this guitar.
This guitar has a very bright sound which surprised me when I first plugged it in. While Guild HB1s tend to be bright pickups, the thick hollow body of the guitar tends to accentuate the lower frequencies. Since my first two X170s had the Fender HB1 pickups that I disliked due to them being muddy, I was hoping for a more balanced sound with this guitar and pickup combination. I was floored at how great of a combination they make! The bridge pickup will rock with the best solid-body and the neck pickup delivers all the smooth woody character of the guitar. I swear it sounds as good (if not better) than my ’80s X500s.
Electronics
There is something special about this guitar. I’ve owned a lot of guitars and I’ve owned a lot of Guilds, and to my ears this one produces tones in the top 1% of them all. Why? This may be the only electric guitar I’ve owned where the tone controls don’t turn the guitar into a muddy mess as soon as you touch them.
This is one of the only guitars I’ve ever played where the tone knobs make useful sounds. To my ears, most guitars have two settings on the tone knobs: good, and mud, with varying degrees of mud ranging from the 1-9 settings. As a result, I never use the tone setting on my guitars instead favoring the usually more versatile settings on the amp.
This guitar, though, ranges from mellow to almost too bright while never sounding brittle. The only time I hear “mud” is when the tone knob is at zero. The range of tone is sublime, and I don’t know why. I hate a mystery, so the engineering part of my brain may need to pull all of the electronics to see if something is different. Does it have 1K pots? Different tapers? Does it have a different circuit installed? Are the HB1s somehow even lower wind than normal? I need to know, but right now the guitar sounds so damn good and I just put new strings on it so I’m not going through the pain of dismantling a hollow body guitar. I might just have to buy a bore scope to see if I can discover any secrets without having to tear it apart. Or, you know, just play it instead.
Hardware
The hardware is all gold on Guild X170s, and though Guild is famous for gold hardware that wears off just by looking at it too hard, the gold on this guitar is all intact, reinforcing the idea that it sat largely unplayed since it was built. Probably the biggest piece of “bling” on an X170 is the elaborate harp tailpiece which adds just the right amount of class to this guitar, especially given the beautiful red-tinged sunburst finish.
The tuners are Grovers, typical of this era of Guild electrics, and they too have no gold missing from them. This guitar could easily have been sold to me as new old stock and I would have believe it. The strap pegs are typical screw-in pegs and are nothing special aside from the fact that they have no wear evident.
The bridge appears to be made from rosewood and is compensated with the only adjustment being height via two thumbwheels. Of course, you can always adjust intonation on a guitar like this by simply moving the bridge since it “floats” on the top which simply means that it is not pinned or attached in any way. Normally I find wooden bridges to be a bit dark since I’m used to metal bridges, but this is one of the brightest guitars I’ve ever owned for reasons that I can’t quite quantify. I’ve mentioned that already in the electronics section and I’ll cover that more in the Sound section where you can hear for yourself what I mean.
The pick guard is a rather plain affair, also typical of mid-90s Guild electrics with the annoying design quality of laying on top of the pickup rings. On Starfires this bothers me so much that I pull the pick guard right off, but on this guitar it doesn’t seem to get in my way. I imagine that this may have something to do with the design geometry of the guitar, but when it comes to pick guards my first rule is, “if it’s in the way, take it off.” The second rule is, “if it’s ugly, take it off.” The pick guard on this X170 has not offended me by way of either usability or aesthetics so it has remained on except when I took pictures because the top is just so damn beautiful that it’s a shame to hide it with a slab of black plastic.
Sound
This is a very bright guitar, but the tone controls are so useable that it’s an amazingly versatile instrument as well. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that I was able to truly capture the nuance and complexity of the tone that the guitar produces and I’m not sure why. It could be that the differences are subtle, or that there’s something else going on that I haven’t yet figured out, but differences that sound huge to me in the room don’t seem to translate to the recordings. Still, the recordings are here and I encourage you to listen for yourself.
As usual, all recordings in this section were recorded with an Olympus LS-10. The amp is an Axe-FX Ultra set to “Tiny Tweed” which was left stock. The speaker is a QSC K12. All guitar knobs are on 10 for all recordings unless otherwise indicated.
Note that due to the aforementioned difficulties in recording what may be subtle changes in tone and timber, you will likely get the best results listening to these recordings using headphones. And use nice headphones – none of that crap from <insert popular but overrated headphone manufacturer here>.
All Pickup Settings
The first recording is the guitar with all knobs on ten and a simple three-chord progression strummed on each of the three pickup settings (neck, both, bridge). You can hear the native chime from the HB1s on all three settings and to my delight the neck pickup is not so woofy as to be completely useless. Though I know some people like that sound, I do not which is why I love this guitar so much. What even better is that you can dial all the treble out if you want.
Open E on All 3
Next I play a simple open E chord on the neck pickup and roll the treble off with the tone knob at roughly 10, 6, 3, and 0. I then repeat the process on the bridge pickup. I should add here that the guitar has a fair bit of complexity possible in the middle position but given the possible combinations of volume and tone with both pickups active, I felt that if I planned out all my options this article would never be finished. Your welcome.
Neck Pickup Tone Rolloff
I find the useable tone controls to be absolutely wonderful on the neck pickup so I recorded another little progression moving the open D chord shape up the neck, again rolling the tone down from 10 to 6, 3, and finally 0. This recording is only the neck pickup and I can tell you that if all guitars had neck pickups that sounded this good I would more readily understand why so many people never use the bridge pickup. This is one of the recordings that frustrated me because the differences sound huge in real life but over my speakers they seem to be lost. It’s a bit better with headphones.
Barre B on All 3
Moving up the fretboard, I recorded a simple B barre chord at the 7th fret using all three pickups. There’s nothing magical here; I just really like the timbre of the guitar with chords and notes fretted around this position on the fretboard, especially with guitars that have a great woody tone on the neck pickup, as is the case here.
Fingerstyle on 3
For my next trick I pulled out the lame jazzy fingerstyle nonsense that I used on the 1980s X500 article and played that on all three pickups with all knobs on 10. Note that this guitar is strung up with Ernie Ball Regular Slinky strings which are round-wound so you’re gonna get some finger noise in there. Hey, it couldn’t sound any worse than my attempts at finger style.
Neck Riff Rolloff
Lastly I played the closing riff to the Stray Cat Strut which is one of the riffs I use on every guitar I pick up. I played this only on the neck pickup using the tone rolloff to show once again the variety of tones possible from just one pickup. Again the volume is on 10 and the tone was set to roughly 10, 6, 3, and 0.
Playability
This guitar is perfection all around with the sole exception for me that the neck is 1 5/8″ at the nut. It’s easy to play, the frets are great, and the guitar sits well both sitting and standing due to its thinner body than that of a big jazz box. This guitar plays so damn well that I almost wish that it had a Guildsby on it because that’s more the style of guitar that I’m used to, but I think it would be a shame to do any conversion on this guitar because it is just so damn perfect as-is. You know, except for the fretboard being 1 5/8″ at the nut.
Of course, the neck width thing is a huge personal preference issue and is no way a reflection of the quality of playability of the guitar. It’s my own damn fault for being disappointed since I had set up the unrealistic expectation that all Guild electrics from 1994 have 1 11/16″ necks. This is how I learn.
Conclusion
I have owned a lot of guitars, most of them Guilds, so when I say that this is one of the best, that means something. OK, it doesn’t really mean anything since i’m a raving Guild fanatic most of the time, but dammit, this is a really nice guitar! It plays great, it goes from thick, saucy, jazz tones to biting rock and roll, it sounds amazing, it freaking looks amazing, and it’s got the coveted Guild HB1 4-wire pickups in it. It’s almost a shame that it didn’t ship with a coil-split push/pull pot! What’s crazy to me is that the tone controls are so great that I don’t even feel the need to make that mod, and I mod everything.
Here’s a bonus pic without the pick guard. Why? Because look at that top! Here’s the deal: All Guilds are great, but some of them are just amazing, and this is one of them. The Guild X170T that I used to have was a great guitar but it had those terrible Fender HB1 pickups in it and it just never sounded right even if it did have a nice 1 11/16″ neck. And no, I just can’t let the neck thing go.
Many of the guitars I’ve reviewed on this page have been sold for no other reason than I needed the room for more Guilds to write about. This one, though. I think this one has made it into the permanent collection.
If you happen across a mid-late ’90s Guild X170 with the original Guild HB1 pickups, or even one with the SD1 pickups, my advice is to buy it. Just have the seller actually measure the fretboard if that neck width is important to you, because many of the online resources that show specs for guitars don’t include the fact that many specs changed based on the year of production.
If you’re interested in buying this guitar let me know. I’ll sell it for $48,000. Paypal fees are on you.
I had a 1991 X170 with the same sunburst of reds and browns a magnificent guitar, which I sold last year. While it was a great guitar in finish quality and construction I couldn’t get around the sound post dampening effect. I appreciate it limits feedback and I could never get it to feedback short of complete recklessness. The reason I ended up parting with it was I really had my heart set on a starfire. So this is a good new story I found a candy apple starfire III from 2004 and while it is technically a fender era (some call reissue) I have found it to be excellent in all manner. These are first rate guitars. Enjoy your Guilds and keep writing there are some really important differences and details you are providing.
The Corona-made Starfires are still the same great guitars as the Westerly models IMO. I’ve owned many of both and aside from the subtle difference only someone like me would notice, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart blindfolded, with the only exception being the pickups. You can see the difference in these two posts: 1998 Starfire and 2000 Starfire.
Wondering what knowledge you might be able to share regarding wound versus unwound G string on a 1997 X-170 which has a floating wood bridge with 2 thumb-wheel style height adjusters ?? I am wondering if this model might ever have been setup and shipped from the factory with an UN-wound G string ?? Since this has wood bridge rather than a metal tune-o-matic type of bridge would it not be a simple matter to simply swap out the current Un-wound with a seemingly more conventional Wound string to accommodate a players personal preference and/or playing style ?? Or would swapping G string back and forth require modification of notch depth and/or replacing wood saddle (or even the neck nut) completely due to possible intonation or buzzing problems ?? Any reason not to simply swap out the Un-wound to a Wound just to observe how that might work out ?? Highly Appreciate your thoughts or opinion regarding this concern !!
Yes, it’s likely that your X170 left the factory set up for a wound 3rd and I don’t think I’ve seen an X170 with a plain 3rd wooden bridge. Many of the X170Ts, however, came with plain 3rd bridges, so they do exist, but the bridges on the X170Ts are metal so they will alter the tone of the guitar a great deal.
For a perfect setup, yes, you’d want to have the nut and bridge cut (or replaced) to the perfect string gauge, but for a quick test it certainly wouldn’t hurt anything, IMO.
I’ve owned a X170 since 1995 and have only good things to say about it.
Mine has a particular issue that I’d never looked for an explanation: it has two different serial numbers! The one behind the headstock says AK170085 and the one in the table inside the instrument says AK170086. Don’t know why, but I had never cared about this. I had picked it used from the wall at the store, played it for a week or so during a lot of visits on the store, compared it to other guitars and bought it, because I felt it was the best instrument for me at this point.
Serial numbers aside, I’m having trouble this days to find replacement parts for it. I need to get a new bridge and nut for it and wish to know if is there any place that sells original parts? Or if is there some place that made good new parts?
Also, what is the wrench size for the truss rod?
Thanks and once again congratulations for the article!
THE place to go for Guild parts is Hans Moust at https://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/. I would also ask Hans about the serial numbers as he wrote the book on Guilds (literally) and would likely know the answer.
Thank you for this.
I have a question which maybe you can help me with.
I have a x 160 savoy from the early 90s which I believe shares some similarities with the x170 such as the guild hb1 pickups.
The guitar feels wonderful in the hand and to play unplugged but somehow it’s a bit of a disappointment once you plug it in. Hard to explain why. Maybe lacking in low end and top end?
The pots on the guitar feel pretty shot so I thought I might make some experiments with the wiring and see if I can improve the sound plugged in.
Did you ever open up your x170 to look at the electronics? You mention how useful the tone control is on the guitar but on mine it’s the opposite. Any movement of the volume or tone turn the sound to mud.
I’d be very interested to know what value pots and capacitors are used in your guitar.
Sadly, that guitar was reviewed before I made it standard to remove and inspect the wiring and electronics. It’s been on my list forever, but I have no idea when that might happen.
A great guitar. Your post about Polara made me bring out mine from the closet and now I got inspired to start using my -98 X-170 too. It’s sunburst but not quite as red as your beautiful guitar, more brown/yellow but still nice.
If you mean an X170 made in Westerly with HB1s, then possibly. Be advised that it will have the smaller neck. HB1s routinely sell for over $300 a pair.
Thanks for the reply, I found one that was made in the 80’s in pretty minty condition and was told that it is rare to find one for the year, asking something like $1,700; and there is one made in late 90’s with all the Fender case candies as new asking for $1,200.
Probably I can do some negotiation with the seller.
He’s right – it is rare to find an ‘80s X170 in minty condition. I would haggle that price though.
Oh, one last question, do you find any difference in the neck angle between the ’94 and 2001 angle you have?
I heard the newer ones have shallower neck angle which can be problematic for setup, especially tune-o-matic.
own a near mint X-170 made in July 1996. Bought as a heirloom with monies left me by my father. I have owned it 20 years and have hardly touched it till recently. I bought it sight unseen, used from Gruhn guitars. I have recently begun playing it because it plays so amazingly easy. My old arthritic hands struggle with my acoustics. I have no reason t think that the guitar has been altered in any way which makes me wonder about the supposed factory fret work. They appear to have been leveled and no real effort to crown the frets has been made. I have questions. 1) Would this guitar have left the factory with fret work so poorly done? 2) Fret wire looks very narrow but measures .083 wide, does this match the OEM wire that would have been used by Guild? Flawed as the fret work is I still love playing it and am quite happy with the acoustic sound playing quietly on the couch. I have some low level skills and think I’ll invest in a quality fret crowning file and give it a go. I paid $1050.00 for it 20 years ago. Would a current value of $2000.00 seem reasonable?
Digging between here and LTG to find the changeover date from the guild HB-1s to the fenders. I’m gathering from here that it was late ’94, early ’95. And I seem to remember something I read here or elsewhere about the fender p/u’s not swapping so nicely with the guild versions?
Curious what you think is about the “get your money back” price on a ’97 X-170 about now.
The Guild HB1s are larger than the Fender versions. See here for details. I don’t know what “get your money back” price means, but I’d expect to pay $1200-1500 for a ’97 X170 in mint condition here in early 2021.
hello Gad,
I own a x-170 that I bought for myself as a wedding gift, not telling my wife of the purchase. Just after i got married, i heard the news that Guild was being sold to fender, so my x-170 is a pre-fender one. I made a lucky investiment, I guess.
I got it in a small shop in my town (Turin, Italy), and loved it the way it was. But, with time, I discovered some strange things: it had no “harp” tail piece, but an ordinary (cheap) one. Looking to photos I could find on that-time internet I decided my guitar had to have a bisgsby vibrato, so I got one. I’m very happy with this solution, even if I can’t be sure that this was its original set-up.
Now I think the pickups got old and microphonics, and started looking for replacements – but i can’t find no HB1 here in Europe. So the choice is: should I have to order new humbucker form guild parts (which quite obviously are NOT the same as my vintage pre-fender HB1 – they come at 60$ each), or should I try to find a good artesan that is capable to rewind them? or -god forbid- will I have to replace them with ordinary humbuckers? what is yor opinion? and thanks for your attention.
Your best bet for real Guild US-Made Humbuckers in Europe is Hans Moust: http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/ Hans is in The Netherlands and knows more about Guilds than anyone. He also sells original parts, though they may be expensive since they’re so hard to get. If he doesn’t have any you can try Ken Nash in the US, though he may be even more expensive if he has any left: http://www.theguitarmechanic.com/HB1.html
hope so! I’ll have to find some good luthier nearby to tell me what the real problem is. thank you so much!
by the way, dismounting the pickups I saw they have four wires, so they could be splitted (you confirm that in your article): that gives me some weird ideas… at the same time I don’t want to spoil this beauty. we’ll see. maybe just a push/pull volume pot can be the right solution. thanks again.
I own a ’97 X170 and it is, too, a near perfect guitar! It has the SD1 pu’s which sound very good. I’ve read many places that they compare very favorably with the HB1’S and are miles better than the Fender pu’s.
But the nut!!! 1-5/8″, what is this, a 1960’s Tele?! Come on, Guild! Even my ’64 T-100 made in Hoboken has a 1-11/16″ nut! Seriously I would have sold this guitar already due to this horribly narrow nut, save for the fact that it is in visually and playably new condition! Alas, mine has a maddening cigarette smoke/stale beer/musty AC unit aroma to it, undoubtedly from being played in an authentic jazz/blues bar for a good amount of time. It’s soaked into the unlaminated interior wood as well as the case soft lining,and will probably never abate. It’s actually kind of cool at first, until it starts to make you feel naseous.
I rarely play it due to the narrow nut (!), but I keep it thinking one day I might learn to overcome that. I might. But I vastly prefer 1-11/16″.
The tone of this guitar is exactly as you say, from woody rich syrup to biting treble, it’s remarkable.
Mine too weighs exactly 7lb 8oz, which is about 1-1/2 lbs heavier than I’d like! What can you do?!
I play my Sadowsky Semi-hollow far far more than the Guild. Alas, if only it sounded like the Guild! It has not a bad tone, but needs so much more active playing to get it, otherwise that guitar can get away from you. It’s a real pro guitar, it doesn’t just play itself like a Guild or Gibson will. It’s warming up now after a year or so, however.
I still love my narrow-necked bar-smelling X170 though! Tons of flamed maple! Gorgeous tobacco sunburst! Wes, Tal, Joe, and Grant tones on command! But that nut!!!!
Great article and comments, thank you. I now have a ‘97. Love it. What strings are most folks using on theirs? I’ve been playing TI swing 13s on some of my other guitars, but I want to get the warmest tone possible on the X-170. Suggestions? Thanks.
J just wanted to drop you a line to led you know that your Guild ramblings have always been a fun good read for me. But more importantly, I was so impressed with this particular review, and other statements you made on the Guild forum, that I started chasing down a Guild X170. As a matter of fact you actually made statements about the actual guitar I bought in this post here (the case fits fine)… https://letstalkguild.com/ltg/index.php?threads/1987-guild-x-170.203166/
After receiving the guitar (from a guy in Greece), I immediately set it up and plugged it in. And I can say
without a doubt, that your review hit the nail on the head. The original HB1 pickups sound killer and the tone controls work perfectly. I’m a pro musician, with thousands of gigs under my belt, and I’ve owned and still own many very good guitars, and, I don’t really get impressed easily, but this X170 impresses me all across the board. And fortunately I have medium sized hands so the 1 5/8″ nut width is fine.
So thanks for the great review, as I was having a hard time deciding which old Guild to buy. And also thanks for the timeline information about HB1 pickups in some of your other posts because I was definitely looking for the original era pickups.
Hi Gad really great article on a lovely looking and sounding guitar. Is it still with you?
A shop near me here in the UK has a 1989 amberburst x160 Savoy in their New Year sale. I think it was overpriced pre sale but now is somewhat more reasonable. It looks mint and I’m going to give it a try out. Am I right in thinking that year would be pre Fender and the x160 is essentially an x170 minus the gold bling?
You would be correct! Fender bought Guild in 1995 and so a 1989 would be a nice Westerly Guild with HB1 pickups, and yes that year’s X160 is basically a no-bling X170. Later on the guitar named the X160 would actually be a hot-rodded X150.
Thanks GAD, much appreciated. I tried out the x160 and it certainly plays well and is in excellent condition. As a long-term Gibson player (135 mainly but also SG and Les Paul JR), the one thing I found hard to adapt to was the 20-fret neck. Have you ever found this an issue?
The shop has taken 200GBP off in their January sale making it a 1800GBP guitar. I think that is top of the market price, even if it is in lovely condition and a relatively rare guitar. 2285 USD at the current rate. That’s the only reason why I’m hesitating! Any thoughts? Thanks
In the US here in early 2024 I think that’s expensive. They are, however; uncommon (probably more-so in the UK), and prices post-Covid have increased, so it’s difficult to put an accurate price on that guitar.
Avrei necessità di sostituire la cordiera di una x 170 come e dove potrei comprarla. Grazie
I had a 1991 X170 with the same sunburst of reds and browns a magnificent guitar, which I sold last year. While it was a great guitar in finish quality and construction I couldn’t get around the sound post dampening effect. I appreciate it limits feedback and I could never get it to feedback short of complete recklessness. The reason I ended up parting with it was I really had my heart set on a starfire. So this is a good new story I found a candy apple starfire III from 2004 and while it is technically a fender era (some call reissue) I have found it to be excellent in all manner. These are first rate guitars. Enjoy your Guilds and keep writing there are some really important differences and details you are providing.
Thanks for the kind words!
The Corona-made Starfires are still the same great guitars as the Westerly models IMO. I’ve owned many of both and aside from the subtle difference only someone like me would notice, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell them apart blindfolded, with the only exception being the pickups. You can see the difference in these two posts: 1998 Starfire and 2000 Starfire.
Wondering what knowledge you might be able to share regarding wound versus unwound G string on a 1997 X-170 which has a floating wood bridge with 2 thumb-wheel style height adjusters ?? I am wondering if this model might ever have been setup and shipped from the factory with an UN-wound G string ?? Since this has wood bridge rather than a metal tune-o-matic type of bridge would it not be a simple matter to simply swap out the current Un-wound with a seemingly more conventional Wound string to accommodate a players personal preference and/or playing style ?? Or would swapping G string back and forth require modification of notch depth and/or replacing wood saddle (or even the neck nut) completely due to possible intonation or buzzing problems ?? Any reason not to simply swap out the Un-wound to a Wound just to observe how that might work out ?? Highly Appreciate your thoughts or opinion regarding this concern !!
Yes, it’s likely that your X170 left the factory set up for a wound 3rd and I don’t think I’ve seen an X170 with a plain 3rd wooden bridge. Many of the X170Ts, however, came with plain 3rd bridges, so they do exist, but the bridges on the X170Ts are metal so they will alter the tone of the guitar a great deal.
For a perfect setup, yes, you’d want to have the nut and bridge cut (or replaced) to the perfect string gauge, but for a quick test it certainly wouldn’t hurt anything, IMO.
Hi, great article on this amazing instrument!
I’ve owned a X170 since 1995 and have only good things to say about it.
Mine has a particular issue that I’d never looked for an explanation: it has two different serial numbers! The one behind the headstock says AK170085 and the one in the table inside the instrument says AK170086. Don’t know why, but I had never cared about this. I had picked it used from the wall at the store, played it for a week or so during a lot of visits on the store, compared it to other guitars and bought it, because I felt it was the best instrument for me at this point.
Serial numbers aside, I’m having trouble this days to find replacement parts for it. I need to get a new bridge and nut for it and wish to know if is there any place that sells original parts? Or if is there some place that made good new parts?
Also, what is the wrench size for the truss rod?
Thanks and once again congratulations for the article!
Alê de Morais
THE place to go for Guild parts is Hans Moust at https://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/. I would also ask Hans about the serial numbers as he wrote the book on Guilds (literally) and would likely know the answer.
Thank you for this.
I have a question which maybe you can help me with.
I have a x 160 savoy from the early 90s which I believe shares some similarities with the x170 such as the guild hb1 pickups.
The guitar feels wonderful in the hand and to play unplugged but somehow it’s a bit of a disappointment once you plug it in. Hard to explain why. Maybe lacking in low end and top end?
The pots on the guitar feel pretty shot so I thought I might make some experiments with the wiring and see if I can improve the sound plugged in.
Did you ever open up your x170 to look at the electronics? You mention how useful the tone control is on the guitar but on mine it’s the opposite. Any movement of the volume or tone turn the sound to mud.
I’d be very interested to know what value pots and capacitors are used in your guitar.
Many thanks again.
Sadly, that guitar was reviewed before I made it standard to remove and inspect the wiring and electronics. It’s been on my list forever, but I have no idea when that might happen.
A great guitar. Your post about Polara made me bring out mine from the closet and now I got inspired to start using my -98 X-170 too. It’s sunburst but not quite as red as your beautiful guitar, more brown/yellow but still nice.
Do you think the pre-Fender X170 worth $400-500 premium over the ones made in Westerly still but with the SD pickups?
If you mean an X170 made in Westerly with HB1s, then possibly. Be advised that it will have the smaller neck. HB1s routinely sell for over $300 a pair.
Thanks for the reply, I found one that was made in the 80’s in pretty minty condition and was told that it is rare to find one for the year, asking something like $1,700; and there is one made in late 90’s with all the Fender case candies as new asking for $1,200.
Probably I can do some negotiation with the seller.
He’s right – it is rare to find an ‘80s X170 in minty condition. I would haggle that price though.
Oh, one last question, do you find any difference in the neck angle between the ’94 and 2001 angle you have?
I heard the newer ones have shallower neck angle which can be problematic for setup, especially tune-o-matic.
own a near mint X-170 made in July 1996. Bought as a heirloom with monies left me by my father. I have owned it 20 years and have hardly touched it till recently. I bought it sight unseen, used from Gruhn guitars. I have recently begun playing it because it plays so amazingly easy. My old arthritic hands struggle with my acoustics. I have no reason t think that the guitar has been altered in any way which makes me wonder about the supposed factory fret work. They appear to have been leveled and no real effort to crown the frets has been made. I have questions. 1) Would this guitar have left the factory with fret work so poorly done? 2) Fret wire looks very narrow but measures .083 wide, does this match the OEM wire that would have been used by Guild? Flawed as the fret work is I still love playing it and am quite happy with the acoustic sound playing quietly on the couch. I have some low level skills and think I’ll invest in a quality fret crowning file and give it a go. I paid $1050.00 for it 20 years ago. Would a current value of $2000.00 seem reasonable?
I can’t speak to that year’s frets, but very low frets were common on some Guilds for many years.
Personally I would not pay $2000 for a mid-90s X170.
Digging between here and LTG to find the changeover date from the guild HB-1s to the fenders. I’m gathering from here that it was late ’94, early ’95. And I seem to remember something I read here or elsewhere about the fender p/u’s not swapping so nicely with the guild versions?
Curious what you think is about the “get your money back” price on a ’97 X-170 about now.
The Guild HB1s are larger than the Fender versions. See here for details. I don’t know what “get your money back” price means, but I’d expect to pay $1200-1500 for a ’97 X170 in mint condition here in early 2021.
hello Gad,
I own a x-170 that I bought for myself as a wedding gift, not telling my wife of the purchase. Just after i got married, i heard the news that Guild was being sold to fender, so my x-170 is a pre-fender one. I made a lucky investiment, I guess.
I got it in a small shop in my town (Turin, Italy), and loved it the way it was. But, with time, I discovered some strange things: it had no “harp” tail piece, but an ordinary (cheap) one. Looking to photos I could find on that-time internet I decided my guitar had to have a bisgsby vibrato, so I got one. I’m very happy with this solution, even if I can’t be sure that this was its original set-up.
Now I think the pickups got old and microphonics, and started looking for replacements – but i can’t find no HB1 here in Europe. So the choice is: should I have to order new humbucker form guild parts (which quite obviously are NOT the same as my vintage pre-fender HB1 – they come at 60$ each), or should I try to find a good artesan that is capable to rewind them? or -god forbid- will I have to replace them with ordinary humbuckers? what is yor opinion? and thanks for your attention.
Your best bet for real Guild US-Made Humbuckers in Europe is Hans Moust: http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/ Hans is in The Netherlands and knows more about Guilds than anyone. He also sells original parts, though they may be expensive since they’re so hard to get. If he doesn’t have any you can try Ken Nash in the US, though he may be even more expensive if he has any left: http://www.theguitarmechanic.com/HB1.html
Also if the only problem is microphonics, wax potting the pickups may solve the problem.
hope so! I’ll have to find some good luthier nearby to tell me what the real problem is. thank you so much!
by the way, dismounting the pickups I saw they have four wires, so they could be splitted (you confirm that in your article): that gives me some weird ideas… at the same time I don’t want to spoil this beauty. we’ll see. maybe just a push/pull volume pot can be the right solution. thanks again.
I own a ’97 X170 and it is, too, a near perfect guitar! It has the SD1 pu’s which sound very good. I’ve read many places that they compare very favorably with the HB1’S and are miles better than the Fender pu’s.
But the nut!!! 1-5/8″, what is this, a 1960’s Tele?! Come on, Guild! Even my ’64 T-100 made in Hoboken has a 1-11/16″ nut! Seriously I would have sold this guitar already due to this horribly narrow nut, save for the fact that it is in visually and playably new condition! Alas, mine has a maddening cigarette smoke/stale beer/musty AC unit aroma to it, undoubtedly from being played in an authentic jazz/blues bar for a good amount of time. It’s soaked into the unlaminated interior wood as well as the case soft lining,and will probably never abate. It’s actually kind of cool at first, until it starts to make you feel naseous.
I rarely play it due to the narrow nut (!), but I keep it thinking one day I might learn to overcome that. I might. But I vastly prefer 1-11/16″.
The tone of this guitar is exactly as you say, from woody rich syrup to biting treble, it’s remarkable.
Mine too weighs exactly 7lb 8oz, which is about 1-1/2 lbs heavier than I’d like! What can you do?!
I play my Sadowsky Semi-hollow far far more than the Guild. Alas, if only it sounded like the Guild! It has not a bad tone, but needs so much more active playing to get it, otherwise that guitar can get away from you. It’s a real pro guitar, it doesn’t just play itself like a Guild or Gibson will. It’s warming up now after a year or so, however.
I still love my narrow-necked bar-smelling X170 though! Tons of flamed maple! Gorgeous tobacco sunburst! Wes, Tal, Joe, and Grant tones on command! But that nut!!!!
Great article and comments, thank you. I now have a ‘97. Love it. What strings are most folks using on theirs? I’ve been playing TI swing 13s on some of my other guitars, but I want to get the warmest tone possible on the X-170. Suggestions? Thanks.
J just wanted to drop you a line to led you know that your Guild ramblings have always been a fun good read for me. But more importantly, I was so impressed with this particular review, and other statements you made on the Guild forum, that I started chasing down a Guild X170. As a matter of fact you actually made statements about the actual guitar I bought in this post here (the case fits fine)…
https://letstalkguild.com/ltg/index.php?threads/1987-guild-x-170.203166/
After receiving the guitar (from a guy in Greece), I immediately set it up and plugged it in. And I can say
without a doubt, that your review hit the nail on the head. The original HB1 pickups sound killer and the tone controls work perfectly. I’m a pro musician, with thousands of gigs under my belt, and I’ve owned and still own many very good guitars, and, I don’t really get impressed easily, but this X170 impresses me all across the board. And fortunately I have medium sized hands so the 1 5/8″ nut width is fine.
So thanks for the great review, as I was having a hard time deciding which old Guild to buy. And also thanks for the timeline information about HB1 pickups in some of your other posts because I was definitely looking for the original era pickups.
Congrats! I’m glad my writings could help and I’m glad you ended up with a great Guild!
Hi Gad really great article on a lovely looking and sounding guitar. Is it still with you?
A shop near me here in the UK has a 1989 amberburst x160 Savoy in their New Year sale. I think it was overpriced pre sale but now is somewhat more reasonable. It looks mint and I’m going to give it a try out. Am I right in thinking that year would be pre Fender and the x160 is essentially an x170 minus the gold bling?
Thanks and keep up the good work!
You would be correct! Fender bought Guild in 1995 and so a 1989 would be a nice Westerly Guild with HB1 pickups, and yes that year’s X160 is basically a no-bling X170. Later on the guitar named the X160 would actually be a hot-rodded X150.
Thanks GAD, much appreciated. I tried out the x160 and it certainly plays well and is in excellent condition. As a long-term Gibson player (135 mainly but also SG and Les Paul JR), the one thing I found hard to adapt to was the 20-fret neck. Have you ever found this an issue?
The shop has taken 200GBP off in their January sale making it a 1800GBP guitar. I think that is top of the market price, even if it is in lovely condition and a relatively rare guitar. 2285 USD at the current rate. That’s the only reason why I’m hesitating! Any thoughts? Thanks
In the US here in early 2024 I think that’s expensive. They are, however; uncommon (probably more-so in the UK), and prices post-Covid have increased, so it’s difficult to put an accurate price on that guitar.
Avrei necessità di sostituire la cordiera di una x 170 come e dove potrei comprarla. Grazie