Category: Reviews

I scored this little amp from a new shop in Nazareth, PA which allowed me to drive there and save not only the Paypal fees, but shipping as well. I kind of went in blind having never played a Guild acoustic amp before, but he let me try it and all the knobs appeared to work so I walked out with a good deal on this circa 1993 Guild G300 Tamarack acoustic amplifier.

I tore it apart, gave it a look, fixed the fiddly bits, cleaned up the enclosure and put it through the review process. Let’s see what I was able to learn about this cool little acoustic amp from Guild.

Guild G300 Tamarack Acoustic Amplifier

The subject of this review is a guitar that I’ve lusted after for years, namely the Guild Liberator Elite. You see, one of my favorite guitars is a Jackson Archtop that I’ve played so much that I want another arched top super-Strat, but that’s a pretty rare thing to come by (at least for US-made Jacksons) so when I discovered that Guild made one, I had to have it. The only problem was that they didn’t make very many of them and they don’t come up for sale very often, so I had to wait. I don’t wait well, but waiting was my only option so after a couple of years of doing so I finally scored one of these rare beauties and had a chance to run it through its paces.

Guild Liberator Elite

I have forever been curious about these Guild X-88 Crüe Flying Star guitars, and when the opportunity arose to grab one for a good price I jumped on it, eager to get my spandex out of storage in order to put it through its paces. The guitar I mean, not the spandex.

Sadly, my wife had thrown all my stretchy neon out years ago so I had to settle for a technical review devoid of any photos of me trying to reclaim my day-glo youth in style. I’m sure your disappointment is profound.

Let’s see how this, one of the pointiest of guitars of all time, holds up to the critical observations of someone who lived through the time when guitars like this were more popular in hot pink.

Guild Flying Star X-88 Crüe

This review is for a Guild X170T Mars from 1999. To be completely up front from the start, there is no part number X170T Marsthat I’m aware of, but that’s what I call these for reasons that will become obvious in the review.

I scored this guitar in mint condition on eBay for the right price and have put it through my normal review process (and then some).  Read on to see what I like and dislike about this very orange Guild guitar.

Guild X170T Mars

Today’s review is for ngle 1985 Guild S284 Aviator with EMG pickups. I bought this from Guitar Center’s used website that contained a single terrible picture in the hopes that it would pay off like some of my other Guild purchases have.

The S284 is from the higher end of the Guild New Aviation line from the 1980s and came with a list price much higher than some of the other guitars such as the S270 or S281 Flyer. Is it worth the increased price? Let’s find out.

Guild S284 Aviator with EMGs

It’s no secret that Brian Setzer is one of my favorite guitarists, and when I learned that he had a signature (sort of) Guild Bluesbird, well, I had to have one.

This 1986 Guild Bluesbird (which, though I call it a Setzer, doesn’t say Setzer anywhere on it) is a pretty unique instrument in the annals of Guild guitar history.

Let’s dig in and see why.

Guild Brian Setzer Bluesbird

Today we’re going to take a look at the Guild Nightbird I. Not the Nightbird or the Nightbird Custom or The Nightbird GG, or… You know what? We’ll talk about the crazy number of Nightbird models later. For now just accept that this is a Nightbird I.

This isn’t really a model that I lusted after so there’s no cool story about me wanting one since I was born (20 years before the guitar was even made). Nope – I bought this one just to write it up, so lets see if it’s worthy of the Guild Nightbird name by evaluating all its details in a completely impartial and unbiased way. Well, as impartial as unbiased as an unabashed Guild fanboy can be.

Guild Nightbird I

In a departure from my normal Guild reviews, today’s writeup is about the Burnside Lance, model BE100R.

While not strictly speaking a Guild, Burnside was a company that operated under the Guild umbrella so that Guild could sell less expensive import guitars along with their US-made brethren. Some companies (Jackson comes to mind) managed to produce some stellar import guitars, so let’s see if this Burnside Lance can compare with the US-made Guilds from the 1980s.

One of the benefits of writing about vintage Guild guitars is the fact that I get emails about vintage Guild guitars. In this case, I got an email from someone asking if I’d help identify a Guild for sale in a local New Jersey store. I said “sure”, and the person sent me a picture asking if the guitar was a Guild S285 Aviator.

In my years of collecting and writing about Guilds I had never seen a Guild S285 Aviator and only read descriptions of them in books, but even though it wasn’t a perfect match, this guitar seemed like it might be one of those rare beasts. When the potential buyer informed me that he was passing on the guitar he gave me the store information and I made arrangements to pickup the guitar since it was in a store that was less than an hour from my house. My journey of discovery had begun. Was this really a rare S285? Let’s take a look and see what I’ve learned about this guitar and why I call it an S284+.

Today’s review is of a Guild S270 Flyer from 1985.  I picked up this ’80s Guild shredder at a great price because they seem to often get picked over by people looking for vintage Strats, Charvels, Jacksons, and the like. That’s a shame because any Guild from the Westerly plant should be taken seriously and this model is no exception.

As you might have guessed by looking at the picture, this is a very simple instrument so let’s see if it can hold up against the impossibly high standards that I have for Guild electric guitars.