1953 Guild X-350

This Guild X-350 was made in the original Guild factory in Manhattan, largely by craftsman who had come over from Epiphone following a strike at the factory there. Guild was founded near the end of 1952 and this guitar was made in 1953, the first year of this model. This was so early in production that it comes before some of the custom logo parts were in place which is why the original pickgard on this guitar consists of multi-ply black-white plastic rather than the solid black Guild logo version later used. This is also the style of plastic used on the original truss rod cover.  These early versions have the super cool ice cube control knobs shown here and typically white plastics, although some have some black plastics.  The gold Kluson tuners w/plastic buttons are in excellent shape & its still sports its very early production super ornate Gold Tailpiece w/mini F holes cut thru it. We’ve never had one this old & this is a 100% original 1st year X-350 w/tons of patina in a cool factor way ! Its complete w/its Brown Tolex Hard Case.

The X-350 has some obvious similarities to some late (pre-Gibson) Epiphone models that were made to compete with Gibson’s ES-350, having three pickups with master volume and tone controls, as well as 6 push-button selector switches. This bank of switches occasionally sticks a little, but is fully functional. The Franz pickups in this example sound beautiful, giving a wide range of tones from full and warm to downright twangy, depending on the pickup selection chosen.  Like those late Epiphones and the ES-350, this is a laminate construction, parallel braced archtop.