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QUIRKY VINTAGE: GUILD X-79-3 SKYHAWK � Bob Cianci
This month, we look at the Guild X-79-3 Skyhawk, an oddity if there ever was one. The Guild Guitar Company has often been regarded as the redheaded stepchild of the American guitar industry. Years ago, Guild garnered a reputation as copyists with few original ideas, and that unfortunate stigma certainly has some truth to it. For years, their modus operandi was to produce a loose imitation of Gibson and occasionally Fender guitars and then make subtle improvements, such as adding coil tap switches or a third screw on a pickup bezel. Even the infamous bell-shaped S series solid body guitars of the late‘ 70s and early‘ 80s were copies of a German Hoyer brand guitar that was never sold in this country.
In the early 1980s, Guild management wanted originality, and that’ s what they got with the X-79, the X-80( a sharp looking reverse image of the X-79), X-83, X-88, the bizarre X-92, and the downright futuristic looking X-100 Bladerunner. Riding the popularity of Big Hair Metal rock at the time, Guild’ s 1980’ s designs were easily the wildest in their history. Bands like Twisted Sister endorsed them for a while. Guitarist Jay Jay French recently told a story about approaching Gibson at the NAMM show, only to have his dreams of an endorsement quickly shot down by a snooty Gibson representative. He then walked into the Guild booth and was welcomed with open arms.
Like almost all Guild electrics, the X-79-3 and its cousin, the X-79, never sold well. Reportedly, only 173 were produced in total, making it an exceedingly rare bird. The X-79 featured the same body and headstock shape as the X-79-3, but with two Guild XR-7 humbuckers. Strangely enough, Allen Collins of Lynyrd Skynyrd was a featured X-79 endorser, as were K. K. Downing of Judas Priest and
Robbie Alter of Ian Hunter’ s band. Finishes were white, solid black, and a very cool black sparkle, metallic red, and metallic blue. When this writer worked for Guild from 1979 to’ 81, convincing management to implement Fender style custom colors on the electric guitars was a doomed proposition. All they wanted was the“ same old same old:” cherry stain, a couple of dark wood tone lacquers, white, black, and natural. The leadership of Guild at that time, President Leon Tell and VP Neil Lilien, were extremely conservative individuals, hesitant to try anything new.
The X-79-3 in question features a mahogany body and neck, and a rosewood fretboard with a 24.75” scale and 24 medium jumbo frets. The neck is a medium C shape, and the tuners are Schallers, or something very similar. The white finish was stock and has faded to a cream color. As you can see, the pickups have been changed to rail humbuckers, perhaps from Seymour Duncan. The previous owner fortunately had the presence of mind to save the original Guild single coil Strat-like pickups and they are available with the guitar. There is one volume and one tone control, and three mini toggle switches that simply activate the pickups or turn them off, giving the player quite a few tonal options. The body is an indescribable asymmetrical star-like shape, and the cleverly designed headstock mimics the body. The earliest X-79s had the familiar Guild Chesterfield headstock, but it looked stodgy and out of place on this wild looking guitar. Guild’ s Adjusto-Matic roller bridge and SP-6 tailpiece complete the picture. This writer estimates this X-79-3 was built around 1986 or‘ 87.
One of the nicest things about this X-79-3 is its light weight. I would estimate it being about six pounds and several ounces. It’ s an extremely comfortable guitar to play, sitting or standing, and it exhibited no neck dive at all. And you have to admit; it looks like nothing else out there. For once, Guild hit it out of the ballpark with an original design, albeit a controversial one.
Back in the day the retail price was $ 599.00, we found this one selling at Lark Street Music for $ 895.00. We have seen others selling for $ 1595.00 and up.
The author would like to thank Buzzy Levine of Lark Street Music, Teaneck, New Jersey, for his assistance in preparing this article.
46 Sep � Oct 2016 CollectibleGuitar. com