1969 Guild M-75G Bluesbird
Nope, I didn’t post the same guitar twice. While it bears
a strong resemblance to my 1972 Bluesbird, this
specimen from three years earlier has some substantial differences. The pickups
on this guitar are the smaller “anti-hum” units used through much of the 1960s;
they have lower output and a brighter sound than the later HB-1s. Another major
difference is obvious when the two guitars are lifted: this one is noticeably
lighter because it lacks the partial center block that was introduced in the
early 1970s. Since there is no internal structure into which posts can be
anchored, this guitar features the same floating bridge as the original
Aristocrat design of 15 years earlier.
Between the pickups and the internal construction, this
guitar has a very different sound than its later counterpart. It has less
sustain and bass available, but the neck pickup is less muddy. The guitar
retains its original factory wiring, so the pickups are blended out of phase;
this gives a strange “quack” to the sound as various frequencies are canceled
out.