Guild M75 "Aristocrat"

**PB+J** · 01-18-2024, 07:09 AM

I had been interested in this model for years but was never able to play one. Also Guild's marketing on these reissues was never clear. Are they fully hollow? Or semi hollow? Recently one came up used nearby and I tried it and liked it.

The one I bought was made in Korea in 2013. I can report it is fully hollow, no bridge block. It has bent sides and kerfed linings top and bottom, with two parallel braces. It has a floating bridge--I think some of them have a pinned bridge.

Pic: The inside, looking towards the tailblock from the bridge pickup cavity and towards the neckblock from the neck hole

The pickups are mounted directly to the parallel braces via 4 screws.

There's no height adjustment possible. On mine the bridge pickup was too high. There was a spruce shim under the pickup, which I carefully chiseled away. That brought the bridge pickup down about 1/8 inch which enabled me to get the action down

I did various other mods--replaced the tune-o-matic bridge with a wooden bridge, removed the pickguard, changed the knobs to look more like the knobs used on vintage m75s, and swapped out the tuner buttons for cream plastic. I added two "inlay stickers" at the 19th and 21st fret. If I decide I like it I'll inlay actual pearloid

The guitar was prone to rattling--from the TOM bridge, from the bridge covers, and from the switch when in the center position. I put a little bit of blu-tak poster putty between the pickups and the cover. That stopped the rattling from the covers. I'm planning to replace the switch eventually.

Here it is. it has the heavier poly finish I associate with Korean instruments. Durable and shiny but I may dull it down a bit

You get some of the attack profile of a big archtop, but not as you would expect exactly the same. I have a1978 Guild Artist Award which has the glorious thunk on the front of the note. This doesn’t get you there, but at the sometime it’s different from a solid body or a semi hollow. The reproduction Franz pickups sound very good, maybe a little bright and I may switch to 250k pots, but it’s a very versatile guitar as it is, and that’s what tone knobs are for.

**Stefan Eff** · 01-19-2024, 10:13 AM

Congrats, M-75s are superb and unique guitars. Idiotically I‘ve sold my golden Aristocrat in a stupid moment:

Guild M-75 Aristocrat

I need another one!

**PB+J** · 01-19-2024, 10:33 AM

Thank your I read your posts about it with pleasure. The gold finish is my favorite but they are rare.

It's a very cool and unique guitar

**jads57** · 01-19-2024, 10:15 PM

Always loved the look and idea of these Guilds. Played a couple of old ones over the years, and remember the pickups being different sounding from Gibson P90’s.

**PB+J** · 01-20-2024, 01:59 AM

They are little brighter, like underwound P-90s. As tome point I might try installing 250k pots in place of 500s

**Stefan Eff** · 01-20-2024, 04:04 AM

These Franzpickups were developed in the 1950s as a simple P-90 copy. They are great but rough, something inbetween a P-90 and a Dynasonic. And yes, the reissue M75 got a too close bridge pickup. They use a lower neck angle on this model afaik.

Edit: the more I read here the more I want one back. Too bad, they‘re hard to get and the new ones are made in china.