Guild S-200 Thunderbird Solid Body Electric Guitar (1964)

Guild  S-200 Thunderbird Solid Body Electric Guitar  (1964)
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Item # 9122
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Guild S-200 Thunderbird Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1964), made in Hoboken, NJ, serial # 29735, sunburst lacquer finish, alder body, mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, original black hard shell case.

Guild's top-drawer 1960s solid-body was the utterly distinctive S-200 Thunderbird, one of the all-time "love it or hate it" guitar designs. Its unique body has been described as "melted" or "misshapen," but is actually perfectly functional and more ergonomic than many, with a distinctive concave upper bass bout giving it what had been describes as a "shark fin" look. The shape is basically the Fender offset body with two "feet" added for a perhaps ill-advised addition: a built-in stand (Patent pending). This cheerfully optimistic device (offered "at no extra cost!") is a metal bar hinged out from the back; extended, it supports the guitar upright at a rakish angle!

Another eccentricity of this model is that the body wood varied with the finish...cherry S-200s were mahogany, but sunburst models like this one are alder like a Fender, which definitely affects the sound. The neck is always mahogany with a bound, block-inlaid rosewood fingerboard. It is topped with an oddball fluted headstock originally designed for a stillborn Merle Travis model, here adorned with an inset pearloid bird in flight under the Guild logo. The subtly blended, amber-y sunburst finish on this one is quite different from later more "target burst" examples.

The elaborate wiring scheme was "inspired" by the Fender Jaguar. The large knobs are tone and volume controls for the "lead" circuit, with double-pickup selection controlled by the bank of switches near the cutaway. The single switch under the lead pickup selects that set of controls OR a separate "rhythm circuit": the neck pickup, controlled by two smaller knobs above the first set. The 3 switches on the lower panel include the Jaguar-inspired "strangle" switch marked with a little white dot to distinguish it from the pickup selectors. Early S-200s like this one have Guild's unique humbucking pickups; around early 1965 the model switched to more Fender-like "Mickey Mouse" single-coil units giving the guitar a thinner more Fender-y tone. The S-200 also carries a Hagstrom-made "Tremar" vibrato and "Adjusto-Matic" bridge.

Thunderbirds are rather rare guitars. It's impossible to say how many were produced prior to Guild's mid-1965 change-over to model-specific serial numbers, but there are not many of them out there! After that point, 52 were sold in 1966, another 13 in 1966, and the final 25 shipped in 1968. In 1964 when this one was built the model may have been a bit more popular...but not much!

The Thunderbird saw some high-profile use in the 1960s, the most visible devotee being Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin' Spoonful. During the band's 1965-6 heyday he was nearly always seen with a sunburst '64 that is an exact ringer like this one, which he bought new at Manny's on New York's 48th Street. The only difference is Zal's guitar was almost immediately fitted with a set of Gibson (probably PAF) pickups. He stayed true to it throughout his stint in the band, and the Thunderbird has been identified as the "Lovin' Spoonful Guitar" ever since.

This particular instrument is as close in every detail to Zal's personal guitar as we have ever seen, with small touches like the subtler blended sunburst, earlier vibrato string attachment, and switch configuration being an exact match. Of course it is still fitted with the original Guild pickups, and we don't recommend replacing them unless you have a set of original PAFs hanging around and plan on starting the world's most faithful Lovin' Spoonful cover band! This exact a match is very hard to find, as S-200s were only built in very small batches.

A late-'60s Guild endorsement deal resulted in one other high-visibility gig for the Thunderbird: in the Muddy Waters band, with Muddy himself playing a later model. In the years since the Thunderbird has expanded its devoted cult following; Peter Holsapple of the dB's and Jeff McDonald of Red Kross gave the guitar solid indie cred in the past decades, but Dan Auerbach's more recent use was influential enough that Guild actually re-issued the model. This all-original 1964 S-200 has some minor scars but is from the model's prime year and still sounds and plays excellent, and as always is an unmistakable six-string statement!
 
Overall length is 39 1/2 in. (100.3 cm.), 13 in. (33 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) deep. Scale length is 24 1/2 in. (622 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).

Overall this is a very nice example of this fairly rare Guild, with minor wear and repair but completely original and unaltered. The finish shows some typical wear overall. There is an area of old lacquer touch-up along the upper edge of the body in the dressed-away area; this is fairly inconspicuous, but visible if you look closely. It appears that in trying to get rid of one ding, someone added extra finish over the entire area...folks used to do stuff like that. Other than this the most notable finish flaws are some flaking on the bottom front edge of the upper cutaway horn, a couple of scratches on the back, and some finish worn away on the back of the neck in the lower positions.

There is one other old repair oddity; it looks like the plastic headstock facing was lifting (very common on these) and someone put a small pin in each corner to help hold it down. There are small marks that suggest that there anyway. All hardware is original and complete; the original frets have some wear and crowning work but play fine.

This guitar is not mint but overall is the nicest Thunderbird we have found, and certainly the closest match to the exact "Spoonful standard". It sounds and plays great and still lives in the even harder-to-find original HSC, still fully intact and functional if a bit scruffy with one latch broken. If you believe in this guitar, you believe in the magic that can free your soul! Excellent - Condition.