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Man oh man, what a cool guitar! Direct from the Great American Guitar Show, I present this ultra cool Guild X-350! I was told that this guitar was owned by Eddie Weil, guitar player for rockabilly wild man Art Adams. Listen to Art here. Check out the cool engraved truss rod cover! I've seen this engraving style before and suspect that it may have been a custom Guild factory item. The X-350 is reminiscent of a Gibson ES-5 or Epiphone Zephyr Emperor Regent archtop. Laminated maple single cutaway body. Two piece maple neck featuring a bound rosewood fingerboard with pearloid block inlays. A trio of Franz P-90s are hooked to a unique push button selector switch set up. It reminds me of the pushbutton transmission on my 64 Plymouth! Unique Kolb tuners keep everything solid. This one has an early Guild Bigsby added along with a Gibson Tuneomatic bridge. Very cool look. The finish is a gorgeous sunburst lacquer. What an incredible looking and sounding guitar!
This Guild plays and sounds great. The neck is straight and the action is low. The frets show wear but it still plays fine. A great range of tones are available. Guild Franz pickups are well known for their P-90 like bottom and clear mids. One of my favorite pickups of all time. Hooked to the crazy selector switch contraption, you get a bunch of tones. The Bigsby handle is a bit loose and could use a washer. Gretsch strap buttons have been added. Condition wise, this one is nice and solid for its age. It shows average wear, checking, scratches and chips. A little binding separation on the headstock. Nothing major and still a good looking instrument. Very cool vibe. Comes in original brown hardshell case.
I love archtops and this one really rings my bell. Cool rockabilly heritage and incredible looks. Three pickups and a Bigsby certainly do help it in the hep cat department as well. These guitars are sleepers on the vintage market. An ES-5 would cost you 2-3 times as much and really wouldn't be that much better (I know firsthand, I own a 49 ES-5). Great value, cool vibe and great tone. What more could you ask for?
