FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

After being bounced around from Westerly to Corona to Tacoma, FMIC moved the Guild brand to its last home in New Hartford, CT before it was sold off to Cordoba in 2014. But before being sold off, Guild built a limited edition of 25 GSR T-500 models in 2012 and were based on the early 1960s thinline models, the S-300 and T-500. The S-300 was not a cataloged model and was a thin body (2 inch depth) version of the 1950s X-500 (narrow waist). Very few are known to exist. The T-500 was a thinline version that had the body shape of the 1960s X-500 (wide waist). The T-500 was a short-lived model that was also the basis for the DE-500 Duane Eddy Deluxe model. The GSR T-500 pretty much follows the same recipe, but with modern parts and materials. It uses the 1950's X-500 body shape as found on the S-300 and "peaked" headstock found on post-1963 Guild guitars. The bodies are of unknown origin, but after close inspection of the internals, the workmanship seems to be less than the quality associated with Guild's production in Westerly, Corona, Tacoma and New Hartford. The bodies may have been imported, possibly from Korea, and fitted with American-made necks in the New Hartford facility. This is just speculation and hopefully the facts about the origins of the GSR-series bodies will be revealed someday. The T-500's pickups were made by Seymour Duncan's custom shop and voiced to emulate the original Franz pickups. They are bright and chimey which makes them great for power pop, surf and rockabilly.

  Body: Hollow; multi-ply bound laminated 2-piece spruce top, double bound laminated 2-piece flame maple back and sides

  Finish: Natural, nitrocellulose lacquer

  Neck: 5-piece maple/walnut, set-in; double bound ebony headstock overlay with pearloid logo and G Shield inlay

  Fingerboard: Ebony, bound; mother of pearl block markers with abalone inserts

  Number of Frets: 20

  Pickguard:  4-ply black/white plastic

  Bridge: Gold Graph Tech ResoMax tune-o-matic style on ebony base, gold Guild/Bigsby B-2 tailpiece

  Nut: Bone

  Tuners: Gotoh 301, gold

  Pickups: Two, Seymour Duncan Custom Shop "Franz" P-90 single coil with adjustable pole pieces

  Controls: Tone and volume controls for each pickup, 3-way pickup selector

  Scale Length: 25 1/2 inches

  Neck Width at Nut: 1 11/16 inches

  Body Width at Lower Bout: 17 inches

  Body Depth: 2 inches

  Weight: 6.9 lb