Guild Duane Eddy DE-400 Model Thinline Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1966), Hoboken, NJ, serial # EH-216.
The DE-400 Duane Eddy Standard is one of Guild's less common 1960's offerings, a serious professional grade guitar with most of the design features of the high-end DE-500 at a somewhat lower price. The Duane Eddy was inaugurated by Guild in the early 1960's, as they jumped at the chance to create an instrument endorsed by the then-top instrumental artist of the time. The original signature model was the DE-500, a very high-end thinline hollowbody introduced in 1962 featuring DeArmond pickups, a Bigsby vibrato and a master volume knob on the cutaway, features found on his Gretsch 6120. The DE-400-briefly called the "Duane Eddy Junior"-was added to the line as a more affordable option with the same construction features but less fancy cosmetics in early 1963. Both models are among Guild's most sought-after electric guitars today but were not good sellers at the time-the DE-400 sold only about 200 units from 1965-1970.
This DE-400 from 1966 is built on a thin-line 17" single-cutaway body, finished in Guild's typical 1960's sunburst on all surfaces. It is made of laminated maple with a spruce top, triple-bound top and back. The pickups are Guild's standard 1960's humbuckers as used on most of their line after 1963, which replaced the DeArmonds at that time. The tailpiece is the standard Guild Bigsby unit paired with the aluminum Bigsby adjustable bridge, stamped "Guild spec." under the saddle. The bound mahogany neck has a block-inlaid rosewood fingerboard and the headstock has the standard mid-60's Guild plastic overlay with "Chesterfield" column inlay. This guitar has a slightly livelier acoustic sound than the familiar Humbucker equipped Starfires-mostly due to the spruce top- and is quite a versatile instrument, excellent for everything from jazz to country to garage-band rock-and of course Duane Eddy songs! An excellent player and a very good value in a fairly fancy 1960's vintage hollowbody guitar.
Overall length is 42 in. (106.7 cm.), 17 in. (43.2 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.). This guitar is relatively clean overall, with some small finish dings and chips but a nice vibrant color with little fade and some light checking. It remains all original with no alterations. It has had a neck set and there are some signs of this around the heel, with some small areas of touchup to the finish. The only notable issue is an odd finish disturbance inside the cutaway on the sides and treble side of the heel-as far as we can tell it looks like someone left an old vinyl strap rolled up there for a long time while the guitar was stored in the case, and it caused some typical melt marks to the lacquer. The plastic headstock overlay shows some typical shrinkage, but nothing serious. This is a very good playing and great sounding Guild, an unusual find in a 1960's thinline hollow body. Comes with a period Gibson 17" case. Overall Excellent - Condition.
