❌SOLD❌ Guild X-500 Archtop Electric Sunburst, 1979

The Guild X-500 archtop electric was a single-cutaway, fully hollow 17 inch wide archtop electric model built from 1953 to 1995, and again for a year or two until being discontinued in 2015.

This example dates to 1979 and comes from the Westerly, Rhode Island plant. The Guild X-500 archtop is intended as an electric model, and Guild followed the proven pattern of using laminate woods for the body to reduce feedback.

The top of the Guild X-500 archtop is laminate Spruce, the sides and back laminate figured Maple. The neck is built of five pieces of Maple and Walnut, and has an Ebony fingerboard with distinctive V-block position markers of Abalone and Mother of Pearl. The bound headstock uses an crested design that (along with the V-block inlay set) was for a time adopted by Ibanez , following the Gibson lawsuit; since then Ibanez has used a more original shape. The height-adjustable bridge is Ebony. The pickups are Guild full size humbuckers, and are wired with individual volume and tone controls, plus a Master volume and pickup selector by the cutaway. It’s a very versatile setup.

This Guild X-500 Archtop example dates to 1979 and is in all original, good condition, with very little wear to the gold plating.   The frets are in good shape with no real wear but are a bit flat on top;  a simple re-crown and polish could be worthwhile.

Sold with what is likely its original hard shell case.

The Guild Guitar company was formed in New York 1951 by jazz guitarist and musical retailer Alfred Dronge and George Mann, ex-Epiphone executive. Most of the staff were also ex-Epiphone employees who did not follow the company from New York to Philadelphia, a move sparked by a four-month strike. Following Dronge’s interest in Jazz, the new Guild models focused on professional grade archtops. By 1956, growth forced Guild to move to larger premises in nearby Hoboken, New Jersey. Over the years, Guild moved several times and following the death of Alfred Dronge in a plane crash, ownership changed. For a time, Guild was a Fender brand, but is now owned by Cordoba Music Group who hired the highly respected luthier Ren Ferguson for product designs.