GGJaguar's Guitarium and Ampeteria 2002 Guild X-160 Rockabilly

All images and text copyrighted and property of Greg Gagliano.

FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

Introduced at the Summer NAMM show in 1999, the Guild X-160 Rockabilly was based on the X-150 Savoy platform. However, the Westerly and Corona-built models are really different guitars. The Westerly-built X-150 and X-160 guitars were large at 16 1/2 inches (or more!) wide and 3 3/8 inches deep, while the Corona-built equivalents were a bit smaller at a nominal width of 16 inches and depth of 3 inches. Another critical difference (to some players) is the neck width of the Westerly guitars was smaller (1 5/8 inch nut) compared to the wider Corona-build necks (1 11/16 inches). So, to re-cap - Westerly X-160s have big bodies and narrow necks and Corona X-160s have small bodies and wide necks. One more tidbit is that Westerly X-160s were fitted with black knobs and all, but the earliest, Corona X-160s were fitted with amber knobs. The guitar shown below was made in Corona, but you can see an excellent example of a Westerly-made Rockabilly at ChasingGuitars. The X-160 differs from its cousin, the X-150D, by having a Bigsby vibrato and DeArmond 2000 single coil pickups instead of humbucking pickups and a Guild harp tailpiece. In addition, the pickup selector switched was moved from the X-150D's treble bout position to the bass bout on the X-160. As with the Starfire III, Guild fitted the Rockabilly with a Bigsby bridge compensated for a plain G string rather than a wound G string. Compared to the fabulous DeArmond Dynasonic pickups made for Gretsch, the DeArmond 2000 pickups sound brighter with less low end punch. This is not a total surprise as the 2000 pickups have a completely different design and are constructed more like a P-90. The X-160's tone improves when the bridge pickup is shimmed to raise it up another 2-3 millimeters along with using 0.11 or 0.12 gauge strings. If you believe the Guild catalogs, the early production Rockabilly models were finished in nitrocellulose lacquer and later switched to polyurethane. Therefore, the example shown here is finished in polyurethane. The X-160 certainly lives up to its name and is a fine instrument for rockabilly, Brit beat and power pop. For a deeper dive into the X-160, please visit Gary Donahue's excellent review.

GUILD X-160 ROCKABILLY (2002)

Body: Hollow; laminated 1-piece flame maple top, back, and sides; 3-ply bound top and back