1971 Guild S-100

I've recently added a 1971 Guild S-100 to my ever growing collection of electric guitars. I have to say I really enjoy playing this somewhat vintage guitar and at the $500 price tag it ended up being a steal.

The Guild Guitar Company started production of the S-100's in 1971. Guild had been making acoustic guitars here in the U.S. since 1952. They entered into the solid body electric guitar market in the late 1960's with the S-200's, Starfire's, and Bluesbirds.

The S-100's were produced through the late 70's. I've seen conflicting articles on the web. Some say 1977 was the last year. I've heard that they made them through the early 80's, but I personally haven't seen an S-100 from the original run that dated past 1977.

When grunge was big, Kim Thayil guitarist from Sound Garden played an S-100 and brought back the popularity of the guitar. Guild decided to start production up again in 1997. Guild called them the S-100 Polara's and produced them until 1999 when Fender bought Guild Guitars. Fender stopped production after the acquisition.

The s-100 was made with a one piece solid mahogany body and one piece mahogany neck. Set neck design. It's very similar to a Gibson SG, but with a few minor differences. First, the Guild had an offset body. The lower treble horn is shorter than the top base horn unlike the SG where both horns are pretty much the same length. The body is also considerably thicker which is something that really attracted me to the S-100. I love Gibson SG's, but always felt like it had a dinky little body. The neck on the S-100 is a nice chunky gibson style shape with medium jumbo frets and a rosewood fretboard.

The craftsmanship on this american made guitar is terrific. Just as good as a Gibson from that period in my opinion. In 1972 Guild added a coil tapping switch to the guitar which stayed as a permanant feature throughout the remainder of the S-100's production. My 71 doesn't have that, but I'm not really losing any sleep over it.

The original dual humbuckers have a fantastic tone. The neck pickup is nice and warm, clear and articulate. The bridge pickup is gritty & punchy. They have fairly significant output, but are not too hot.

A 30+ year old guitar with great vintage tone just like an aged solid body should have. At the time of posting this article, there were 3 for sale on eBay right around $1,000. Sure beats the $3,000 - $4,000 you'd pay for a 71 SG.