A NGD and a NAD all in one.

[JohnW63]

I got the Guild Newark St. X-175 Manhattan from a fellow Guild forum guy today. As seen in my other thread...

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=354102

Yay!

When we got back from dinner and other things, I had one of these on my porch.



The guitar, being rather new looks it. Ready to play. The amp, being from the late 70s is a bit dinged up and dirty, but it all seems to work, except it's missing all it's casters. Not that big of a deal. For 100 bucks shipped, I'm not sweating it.

Now... time to learn how to make it all sound NICE when put together with a simple patch cord !

[Steve DeRosa]

Casters are replaceable - you might even want to go with the rubber feet I suggested - and FWIW it looks a whole lot cleaner than the original photo you posted; assuming it all works as you said, it's an unbeatable deal for ~$100. Shouldn't have any problem whatsoever making it sound nice, either; the tone circuit has a very wide range for passive controls (when I bought my RB-120 I thought they were active controls until the shop owner set me straight), and you've got an excellent guitar there - I'd just start by installing a set of 12-52 strings (preferably flatwounds), plugging in, and enjoying the vibe...

[JohnW63]

Steve,

It looks cleaner because that's a random photo I snatched from the web !

I found old can of "The Tannery" that I'm using to start cleaning. To clean the face properly, the knobs will have to come off. There are a few sticky bits that will need a tooth brush. The amp showed up with NO feet, but it looks like they WERE on there, very recently, since it's got three shiny corners on the bottom. Maybe GC took them off to ship and forgot to put them back on the box. Who knows. Based on the other metal corners, they were probably rusty anyway. I don't think it will take too much work to fix up. The one corner that did have a missing foot is puckered out, so I may have to do some gluing and clamping on that before feet are installed.

The one thing I had to figure out is that if you turn the tone controls all the way down, they are OFF. No sound out of the amp until you get at lease 1 of them off the lowest setting.

[Steve DeRosa]

These should be similar to the original casters:

http://peavey.com/products/index.cfm...peSwivelCaster

- these could save you a whole lot of time with the steel wool and polish:

http://www.reliablehardware.com/cabinetcorners.aspx

- and a Sharpie marker and some contact cement can take care of any visible rips/tears in the Tolex after you fill and patch that corner...

Let us know how it looks/sounds when you're done...

[JohnW63]

Here are 2 quick snap shots of the amp and guitar. I still need to pull all the knobs to give the face a proper cleaning, but it already looks better than when I got it.







I've learned that you can NOT have a banjo on the wall, in the room with this amp and much volume dialed in at all. Lots of sound transfer and vibration.

[Steve DeRosa]

Why in the world would you want a banjo...?

BTW, the amp looks great - IMO I'd just put a set of rubber feet on it and skip the casters - how does it sound...?

[JohnW63]

How does it sound ?

Well, given I have little experience with amps, especially specific tones, I don't know if I can be a good reviewer. What I can say is that it has LOTS of low end. It can get LOUD without trying. I am still learning what settings of volume and tone on the guitar to use with a given setup on the amp. My Carvin seems to sound more fundamental ( Dry ? ) and less bassy. Turning down the volume on the Guild gives me more room to experiment on the amp knobs, I learned. Given just a little goofing around with the "distortion" settings on the amp, I am not sure I like it as much as the overdrive on the Carvin. Solid state vs tubes ? Not sure. But, I really only have spent the initial goofing around stage with it. If you have a good starting point for me.. feel free to suggest.

This is what I would like to get out of this rig...( This guy has LOTS of guitars ! ) I know his stuff is nicer than mine on all counts, but.. it's a goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMdTl1EWsjs


As for the banjo.... ever since listening to the Steve Martin albums and hearing him play Foggy Mountain Breakdown! In any case, I like to try all sorts of stringed instruments. I've got electric and acoustic guitars. I got a free uke from Ted at LA guitars. I have my mom's cello I want to learn to play.

[T. Sphere]

Originally Posted by JohnW63

I've learned that you can NOT have a banjo on the wall...

Sage advice.

[JohnW63]

Hey now !

That's just anti twangy/jangly biased on your part.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by JohnW63

How does it sound?...What I can say is that it has LOTS of low end. It can get LOUD without trying. I am still learning what settings of volume and tone on the guitar to use with a given setup on the amp. My Carvin seems to sound more fundamental (Dry?) and less bassy. Turning down the volume on the Guild gives me more room to experiment on the amp knobs, I learned. Given just a little goofing around with the "distortion" settings on the amp, I am not sure I like it as much as the overdrive on the Carvin. Solid state vs tubes? Not sure. But, I really only have spent the initial goofing around stage with it. If you have a good starting point for me...feel free to suggest...

Consider yourself "suggested"...

As I said in previous posts the Randalls from this time period drew heavily upon their Fender heritage, so your comments about low-end response and volume are right on the money for what this amp is supposed to be producing - Blackstar's present ad campaign notwithstanding, these amps were designed to be fully competitive with (and occasionally superior to) their Fullerton counterparts; you're getting an honest 120 watts of true-blue American "big-clean" tone here, with none of the maintenance associated with tubes - and I'd take it on its own merits. As far as your evaluation vis-a-vis the Carvin Vintage 16, in spite of the tweed cosmetics their products tend to be biased (pun intended) toward British-inspired tones - you've got a Celestion-clone speaker driven by a trio of 12AX7's and a pair of EL84's (the building blocks of just about every low-power UK amp for the last 50+ years) as well as a Brit-voiced tone stack - so it's no surprise that you're getting less bottom and more fundamental; could be an interesting combination with that Guild, though - dime the master and roll up the mids a bit, and you should be able to get some nice early George Harrison/Brian Jones tones - but I digress...

If you're looking for something that'll give you tons of smooth cleans, with a wide range of tone control and all the volume you'll ever need for anything short of a stadium gig, this is your amp. If you're in search of something raunchier, however, bear in mind that this is still 45-year-old solid-state technology; while it was cutting-edge in its day, it would be another decade or more before manufacturers finally cracked the secret of capturing usable OD without using hot little glass bottles. The good news is that the very characteristics that make them questionable at best as hard-rock amps also make them the ideal platform for stompboxes - take it down to your local guitar shop and stick a TS-808 in front, and I think you'll see why Ibanez developed those iconic pedals in the first place. FYI, the high-gain inputs really are +6dB TMK - plug in that G&L and I think you'll see their raison d'etre - so you might want to use the 0dB input for jazz/country tones from your Guild; in addition, the tone controls have a very broad sweep as previously stated - take some time to get acquainted and I'm sure you'll find your signature tone in there...

Good luck...

[bohemian]

"Why in the world would you want a banjo...?"


'Cause he wants to be.... me. : )


Banjo Impaired.

[JohnW63]

Steve,

I am finding that how much volume I have dialed in to the guitar and how much the channel volume is set for can get me just enough "fuzz" to sound more electric than acoustic. I may be finding the start of the cool zone on the amp.