The last of the Solidbody x00 series guitars that I acquired, this one, just before I moved to Florida in 1990. Serial Number 168822 places it around 1977. I believe it came from the factory with the DiMarzio Humbuckers (hence the 'D') & Mosrite Tremolo bar (they weren't called whammy bars then). I think it cost me $125 with the original Hard-Shell Case, yes there's a few dings, but it's in very good shape for a player guitar.

The first thing I did was rewire the Bridge Pick-up for separate output for each coil, more on that later. Then I covered the cavities with copper foil I had left over from a Stained Glass project. This includes the back-plate and back of the pick-up rings. Since the Guitar is a beautiful Mahogany, I thought it would be nice to take the wood theme to the extreme (see the S-200 for Mother-of-Pearl to the extreme). I got some plywood only 3/32" thick, shaped by hand with my dremel, and put some veneer on it. Then I shaped new pick-up rings and veneered them too; they offset the creme colored pick-ups nicely.

I'm gonna rewire the whole thing using some ideas I picked up along the way and at GuitarNuts. The Neck Pick-up (might) be a standard Humbucker (but it's split right now...) wired to a Phase Reversal switch and then to the 3-way Pick-up selector.(Something new I discovered - I contacted DiMarzio, and they couldn't say for sure what kind of pickups they were, they guessed Super Distortion for the bridge (12 adjustable allen pole pieces). They did help me remember how the pickups were situated; it's been a long time since this guitar was wired. I found some info on Guitar Galaxy and from Will Collins (I used Guild S300 in the search engine) about the Pickups and fretboard. The Neck pickup is a DiMarzio PAF and the Bridge is an SDHT Super Distortion, the fretboard is Ebony (I thought so, one day I was looking at it and comparing it to the rosewood). Finally, I did decide to leave the Neck pickup split and wire it to a 3-position mini-toggle to replace the phase reversal switch. See the Work in Progress for more detailed info!) The Bridge Pick-up will be wired to a 6 position rotary switch. I can choose single-coil, series, and parallel in and out of phase, and then to the 3 Way. Since I rarely use all four knobs usually found on a dual humbucker design, I will replace the lower Volume knob with the rotary switch. I'll have a master Volume and Tone control, the Tone being a standard High cut. I'm not 100% sure what I'll do with the fourth hole yet, I'll be wiring with jumpers and trying things till I find something I like. Maybe a Notch Tone Control (an LC design to cut a mid-range Notch), or instead of a Master Volume, a separate Neck and Bridge Volume.

I want to get this one done fairly soon, I think it'll look fantastic next to my F4CE with the Mahogany stained Spruce top. And I want that strong sound of a couple of Humbuckers, and I can't wait to see if I can get that thin sound from the single coil-tap. I like the body shape, no Fender/Gibson look alike here! The Tremolo bar is just gonna hang there, even the Kramer Locking Whammy on the Strat-a-like doesn't get used much.

Click Here to check WORK IN PROGRESS! ~New Pictures!~

Keep checking back, when it's done there'll be the 'After' pictures, schematic for what I finally decided, and what's next. I haven't decided yet, but it would be nice to get a Baritone guitar done, then again it would be nice to have the S100(?) up and running again too.