GGJaguar's Guitarium and Ampeteria 1976 Guild X-175

All images and text copyrighted and property of Greg Gagliano.

FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

Although it lost its "Manhattan" moniker during the great Guild name purge of the 1970s, the X-175 continued to be offered through the early 1980s as a moderately priced alternative to the fancier X-500 jazzbox. Around 1970 it was updated with Guild's new HB-1 humbucking pickups. One interesting change was made in 1973-74 when the pickup selector switch was moved from the cutaway horn to the upper bass bout. The selector switch was moved back to its original location in 1975 and a master volume control was added at the same time. Two pickguards were fitted during this period - an acrylic stairstep piece with gold Guild logo from 1972 to early 1978 and a 5-ply black/white plastic stairstep guard from 1978 to 1983. The Grover Rotomatic tuners that carried over from the 1960s were changed to Guild-labeled Schaller M6 tuners by 1975 and then to Guild-labeled Gotoh tuners in 1981-82 and finally to Guild-labeled Schaller mini-tuners in 1983. The cast, hinged harp tailpiece was replaced by stamped, non-hinged harp tail sometime in 1975. The mahogany neck was changed to maple by 1977 and the guitar shown here is one of the last to be fitted with a mahogany neck. Last, but not least, the truss rod cover was engraved with "X-175" sometime in 1976. The X-175 was discontinued in 1984, but was re-introduced to the catalog in 2013 as a Korean-made model based on 1960-ish features.

GUILD X-175 (1976)

Body: Hollow; laminated 2-piece spruce top, laminated 1-piece figured maple back, and laminated maple sides; triple bound top and back