Product: Guilford Guitars Atlas Blues
Price Paid: USD 2000
Submitted
10/26/2008
at
03:08pm
by
toomuchstuff
Features
:
9
Body: Select American Black Walnut Cream Binding - Top Side Hollow Chambers
Neck: Quarter Sawn Rock Maple
Imoli-set neck joint
22 frets
12" radius
43mm nut width
25.5" scale length
Quarter Sawn Rock Maple Fingerboard
Black Dot Inlay
Premium dual action truss rod
Speedy-C Neck Carve
Jescar jumbo Fret wire
Hardware: Tone Pros AVT II adjustable stoptail bridge
Sperzel locking mini tuning machines 3X3
Electronics: Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB model bridge pickup
Seymour Duncan STK-P1 P-90 Stacked Neck Pickup
Volume (push/pull), 3 way Toggle
Finish: Nitrocellulose Gloss Lacquer Body
Nitrocellulose Gloss Lacquer Headstock face
Color: Balderdash Brown, Natural
Sound
:
9
The guitar is a great blues instrument. The Walnut has turned out to be a very good tone wood. Surprisingly, it is also produces a great country (tele) styled sound and will "quack" like a strat in certain positions. It has turned out to be much more versatile than I originally thought, which is always nice.
I play the guitar through a 1957 Fender Deluxe amp (I bought from the original owner) as well as a Tube Works RT-2100. I also play it through a Clyde Fulltone Wah; a tiny orange phaser, and a Tube Works Tube Driver. There is a litte hum from the P-90 when cranked, but I would expect that from a single coil pickup.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
The guitar came setup with .009s and the Buzz Feiten tuning system. The most interesting feature is the single volume push - pull control and the pickup selector - no tone control. The pickups are setup to play in both serial and parallel. I wasn't sure that I would like having only 2 controls, but once I got use to the fact that I didn't have the tone nob, it really made changing settings around really easy and I have grown to like it (I have plenty of other guitars, as most of us do to compare to)
The action is as good as any guitar I have. The neck is solid maple and the connection to the body is a set neck. The body is solid walnut - not a fancy top - chambered body. All of the fit and finish is excellent. Playability is second to none (again, I have more guitars than my wife knows about to compare to!).
The Duncans perform well, but I may swap them out for some Lollars at some point, but I am content for now.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This guitar sits on my stand more than any of my other guitars at home. It maintains its tuning better than most and I have not had to do any fine adjustments on it after 6 months of playing. So far, I have had no signs of any wear on the guitar. The strap locks work great and it has really been a "goto" guitar. I would clearly use the guitar without a backup at this point.
The all around finish on the body and neck are excellent.
Customer Support
:
10
Working with John Guilford is a pleasure. He is a consumate professional in his building and dealings. I can estimate that the customer service would be excellent, but I have not needed to use any!
Overall Rating
:
10
How long I have been playing - like my age - is a well guarded secret! Suffice it to say that I bought a 1961 strat new.... I have LPs, Strats, Teles, and customs. If the guitar were lost or stolen, I would have it replaced as soon as I could. It plays as well as my other customs that cost 2x and 3x the cost of this guitar. The price /quality ratio of this guitar is second to none. If I replace this one, I would probably go with a fancier walnut or maple top. I like the one I have, but most of my other guitars have very "stand out" tops on them. I bought the guitar with the idea of taking it out more than my older Fenders as I can create both Strat and Tele sounds without changing plus the Fenders are worth a small fortune, so I leave them at home.
