GUILD SURFLINER

Badge Of Honour
A classic USA heritage
brand that never quite
scaled the heights of
Gibson
G
uild didn’t enter the
solidbody market until
the early 60s, and despite
a heritage in jazz-style
hollowbodies that had been
produced during the previous
decade, the Thunderbird S-200
was an odd looker with a built
in stand! A slightly more
conventional Polara S-100 laid
the foundations for Guild’s
best-known model that
appeared from the early-70s
and later found fame with
Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil.
Today, the Guild and
DeArmond brands are owned by
the Córdoba Music Group. The
Newark Street Collection sits
alongside an extensive range
of acoustics and also includes
many repros of past Guild
glories like the Starfi re range of
Gibson ES-335-style thinlines.
the only thing letting our sample
down was a little set-up work and a
fi nal fret polish. If you can’t do that
yourselves we’d recommend you
get it done because this is a really
vibey sounding guitar.
The LB-1 at bridge sits nicely
between a Fender single coil and
wider-sounding PAF-style
humbucker, there’s bright attack
but a little more oomph than
a standard single coil. It sits really
well in terms of output and balance
with those Aerosonic single coils
which are crisp with a slightly
trimmed low-end but work really
well for garage rock, trashier tones
not least with a dollop of fuzz. This
is about as far from a modern HSS
‘rock’ guitar as you can get. It’s like
a 60s Fender with a bit of attitude
and, had it been conceived in time,
might well have become a grunge-
rock staple.
The problem lies with
those on/off switches which
are nowhere near as fast in
use as an industry standard
fi ve-way selector switch.
That said, not everyone
wants to swiftly change from
neck and middle to bridge.
But be warned: you can also
mute the entire guitar, never
something you want in the
heat of battle.
Dave Burrluck
HARLEY BENTON
MR-MODERN
This reverse-body offset apes
the classic style of Mosrite
guitars and boasts
a pucker Wilkinson VS-50
II vibrato and a pair of
hum-cancelling Artec
AHC-90 soapbars
which can be split
to single coil.
SQUIER
CONTEMPORARY
JAGUAR HH ST
Squier doesn’t make a HSS
hard-tail offset but this
Jag swaps out its single
coils for a pair of
Squier SQR Atomic
humbuckers with
coil-split a option.
RAPIER 33
Designed by Alan Entwhistle
and based on the sixties Brit
classic, the Watkins Rapier,
this new guitar has a very
retro vibe and is powered
by three Entwistle
low-noise EWR64
mini-humbuckers.
ALSO TRY...
£295
£419
£479
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
THE SURFLINER IS ABOUT AS
FAR FROM A MODERN HSS ‘ROCK’
GUITAR AS YOU CAN GET
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TOTAL GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2022
82
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