FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

Like all early Guild archtops, the X-175 Manhattan has bloodlines to Epiphone, namely the Broadway Zephyr Regent. The X-175 was in the middle of Guild's jazz archtop lineup during it's entire production life (1954 to 1984). During the company’s tenure in New York City, Al Dronge personally inspected most of the instruments coming off the line and perhaps this X-175 was among them. In 1956, Guild outgrew it's 5-man loft workshop and moved to a new, larger facility in Hoboken, New Jersey. Within 10 years, Guild outgrew this facility and moved to its current location in Westerly, Rhode Island. This particular guitar has features found only on the early X-175s. These include the plain headstock and bridge, 25 1/2 inch scale neck, Kluson tuners, and Epiphone-style heel. The X-175 was given a headstock inlay, 24 3/4 inch scale, and new pickguard in the late 1950s. In 1963 it received humbucking pickups and in the early 1970s a master volume control was added. It remained unaltered until production ceased in 1984.

Body: Hollow; laminated 2-piece spruce top, laminated 1-piece figured maple back, and laminated maple sides; single bound top and back

Finish: Sunburst, nitrocellulose lacquer

Neck: 3-piece Honduran mahogany/maple, set-in; stained maple headstock overlay with pearloid logo

Fingerboard: Brazilian rosewood, bound; pearloid block markers

Number of Frets: 20

Pickguard: 7-ply black/white celluloid laminate

Bridge: Rosewood on rosewood base with chrome Guild harp tailpiece

Nut: Plastic

Tuners: Kluson Deluxe, enclosed, nickel

Pickups: Two, Guild single coil with adjustable pole pieces

Controls: Master tone, master volume, 3-way pickup selector

Scale Length: 25 1/2 inches

Neck Width at Nut: 1 11/16 inches

Body Width at Lower Bout: 16 5/8 inches

Body Depth: 3 1/8 inches

Weight: 6.9 lbs.