FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

Introduced at the Summer NAMM show in 1998, the re-boot of the Guild X-150 Savoy was completely different from its 17-inch namesake of the 1950s and early 1960s. However, it did represent the first full-depth 16-inch archtop in the Guild catalog since the discontinuation of the CE-100D in 1984. Compared to the CE-100D, the X-150 had an all-new silhouette with a wider waist, shallower depth and Venetian cutaway. It was offered in two versions: the single pickup X-150 and the dual pickup X-150D. The X-150 seems to have been the first Guild archtop to use the Fender-made HB-1 humbucker. Moreover, it appears it was the only pickup that was ever fitted during its entire 1998-2004 production run. Other models, such as the Starfires series and X-170, did not change over to the Fender HB-1 until some months later in 1999. According to Guild expert and author, Hans Moust, new jigs and molds were built for the X-150 when production was moved to Fender's Corona, California manufacturing facility in 2002. This new equipment was also used for Guild's other two 16-inch archtop models, the X-160 Rockabilly and X-180 Park Avenue, and resulted in guitars with slightly different dimensions compared to the previous Westerly-made models like the one shown here. One last note of interest - the 2004 catalog describes the X-150 as being available only in the single pickup configuration. But more alarming is that the photo used for the X-150 is actually a photo of an X-700. And the same X-700 photo was used to depict the X-500 in the 2002 and 2003 catalogs. Never trust catalogs!

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

 Finish: Natural, nitrocellulose lacquer

 Neck: 3-piece mahogany/maple/mahogany, set-in; black plastic headstock overlay with pearloid logo and Chesterfield inlay

 Fingerboard: Indian rosewood, bound; pearloid block markers

 Number of Frets: 20

 Pickguard: Acrylic

 Bridge: Compensated rosewood on rosewood base with Guild harp tailpiece, chrome

 Nut: Plastic

 Tuners: Grover Rotomatic, chrome

 Pickups: Two, Seymour Duncan/Guild SD-1 with adjustable pole pieces, chrome

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

 Scale Length: 24 3/4 inches

 Neck Width at Nut: 1 11/16 inches

 Body Width at Lower Bout: 16 9/16 inches

 Body Depth: 3 3/8 inches

 Weight: 7.5 lb