Guild X-500 Stuart Model Arch Top Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1979), made in Westerly, RI, serial # 202390, sunburst lacquer finish, laminated maple body and neck; spruce top, ebony fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
This is a delightfully clean example of Guild's high-end X-500 from 1979, some years after the company's operations ceased in Hoboken and moved to Westerly Rhode Island. It features an arched spruce top over elegantly figured maple back and sides, multi-bound with a 5-piece laminated maple neck and ebony fingerboard. This X-500 is sturdy, heavyweight, and exemplary of the best of what this later era of Guild had to offer. Just shy of Guild's highest honors this X-500 would have cost a whopping $1175 when new plus $115 for the plush-lined hardshell case it still resides in.
The X-500 was quite a fancy model for Guild, surpassed in the line only by the carved acoustic-electric Johnny Smith/Artist Award. It was roughly equivalent to the Gibson L-5CES although built with laminated woods instead of the Gibson's carved top. The X-500 was intended to compete directly with Gibson and Gretsch's best offerings, with enough distinctive Guild touches to set it apart. While not quite as showy as some Gretsch and Gibson offerings in its class, it is a very player-friendly instrument aside from perhaps its noticeable weight!
The X-500 has the typical hallmarks of a high-end archtop electric, as top pro players would have expected. The 17" body is made of laminated curly maple with a spruce top, while the neck shows its Epiphone ancestry with a 5-piece lamination down the back. There is multiple binding on the body, neck and headstock. The f-holes are triple bound as well. The single-bound ebony fingerboard has the elaborate split block Epiphone style inlay with multiple inset lines just inside the outer edge. All hardware is gold plated including the beautifully engraved deluxe Guild harp tailpiece.
The headstock is multi-bound on the face with an inlaid pearl Guild logo and G-shield centerpiece. The fittings are typical for Guild in 1979, with two of their larger 1970s in-house humbucking pickups, metal-capped plastic knobs and metal switch tip, adjustable ebony bridge and back-painted Lucite pickguard. The tuners are Schaller-esque proprietary Guild "deluxe machines." The electronics include a handy small 5th knob below the pickguard acting as a master volume, something Gibson never bothered with.
The X-500 represents Guild's finest fully electric arch top electric guitar and ranks with the best acoustic/electric guitars of the period. The sound is a bit brighter and less "electric" than some similar Gibson instruments, due mostly to the comparatively underwound humbucking pickups. This classy Guild plays and handles extremely well, other than the Artist Award Guild's most prestigious electric offering since it first hit the catalogue in the 50's.
Overall length is 42 in. (106.7 cm.), 17 in. (43.2 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 1/8 in. (7.9 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 is a very well-preserved guitar showing only a little wear overall and really not appearing to have been played very much over the last 45 years. There's a smattering of light checking and a couple dings here and there around the guitar, all consistent with a well-kept guitar of this age from this era of Guild. All the original gold plated hardware (often quickly subject to wear) still shines; particularly eye-catching is the engraved harp tailpiece. The electronics are undisturbed.
The frets and fingerboard show trace amounts of wear and the original frets may have been crowned down a touch but are still plenty healthy nestled in their undisturbed 5-ply binding. It is a wonderful playing instrument, with a unique tone and distinctive character. While often pigeonholed as a "jazz" guitar this X-500 is a handsome piece that would look and sound great in just about any context; well probably not through a 100 watt Marshall, but at reasonable volume levels anyway!
This blonde beauty still rests in the original Guild HSC with a page taken from a somewhat earlier Guild catalogue; while the serial and pots squarely date this guitar to 1979 aside from the larger humbucking pickups there aren't a tremendous amount of aesthetic changes that differentiate this one from the X-500s of the later 1960s. Overall Excellent Condition.
