Guild S-100 Polara

review
GUILD JETSTAR & S-100 POLARA
92
Guitarist september 2018
4. These larger HB-1
humbuckers have an
extra tilt screw on the
bass side. Unlike the
Alnico 5 magnets of the
LB-1, these use Alnico 2
and, like the LB-1s,
are made in Korea
by BooHeung
access to the top fret, not least with those
off-set cutaways. Played seated, the Polara
feels like its inspiration, the Gibson SG,
in that the neck seems very long. The
difference in feel is compounded by the
upper strap button position: the Polara’s is
on the back of the heel so the guitar tips the
fingerboard away from you more than the
more conventional bass-side horn button
placement of the Jetstar.
Again there are differences in terms
of the necks: the Jetstar’s is very slightly
wider (but has the same string spacing of
35.5mm at the nut, 51.5mm at the bridge)
and is a little deeper, too. Profile-wise the
Jetstar has a little more shoulder, the Polara
a more relaxed classic C. Measuring the
fingerboard radius reveals a slightly tighter
254mm (10-inch) camber on both the
Jetstar and the Polara (the latter is spec’d as
305mm/12 inches) but, more importantly,
the Polara uses a narrow tall wire (2.24 x
1.35-1.4mm) compared to the wider and
flatter wire on the Jetstar (2.74 x 1.1-1.8mm).
Differences aside both ’boards are nicely
done with slightly rounded edges, the frets
of the Polara sitting over the binding, while
the ends of the fret tangs on the Jetstar are
cleanly filed.
Interesting, too, are the acoustic voices:
the S-100 has a little more vibrancy, the
Jetstar’s slightly more hollowed sounding
with a subtly slower attack. The open-
backed Grover three-a-side tuners on the
Polara also feel a little more positive than
the marginally softer feeling six-in-a line
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GIT437.rev_guild.indd 92 09/08/2018 18:42