review Guild S-200 T-Bird & Hagstrom H-III 108 Guitarist november 2016 GIT413.rev_guild.
GUILD S-200 T-BIRD & HAGSTROM H-III review GUILD S-200 T-BIRD & HAGSTROM H-III £745 & £589 Our obsession with all things 60s continues as we check out two switchladen blasts from yesteryear to discover whether they’re still valid today… Words Dave Burrluck Photography Joseph Branston What You Need To Know 1 Another new Guild? Yes, the brand is on a roll this year.
review GUILD S-200 T-BIRD & HAGSTROM H-III 1 2 3 and with it the height of the arm in playing position. The spring itself sits under the baseplate in the body. The arm pushes into a tubular rod that’s connected to a sizeable collar with a large slot-head screw. You then have to get the thread of that screw to locate into a hole in the arm and then screw it down. Actual travel is pretty limited and it feels rather industrial. Which, finally, brings us to the pickups and switching systems.
GUILD S-200 T-BIRD & HAGSTROM H-III 1. The two smaller knobbed controls are a volume and tone for the neck-pickuponly ‘rhythm’ mode. The larger knobbed controls are volume and tone for the twin pickup ‘lead’ circuit 2. Hey, it was the 60s! But this short-lived headstock design doesn’t help the tuning stability of that vibrato… review 4. Pickups here are two Guild LB-1 chrome-covered humbuckers, which feature on a number of other models in the Newark St range 5.
review GUILD S-200 T-BIRD & HAGSTROM H-III 6. The Fender-inspired straight string-pull over the nut helps the tuning stability. The neck also includes a modern repro of the Hagstrom Expander truss rod – a well regarded design that lovers of original Hagstroms believe has helped to keep their vintage guitar necks straight 7. Back in the day, this was a much-used vibrato by Hagstrom and other brands, including Guild. By today’s standards, it’s pretty basic 8.
GUILD S-200 T-BIRD & HAGSTROM H-III 9. Simple rollers in this tune-o-matic help to keep tuning stability superior to the S-200. Guild, take note! review 8 10.
