The First Guild Thinline

This featherweight guitar weighs just 6.00 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck single-bound in white, and rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Triple binding (white/black/white) on the top. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Guild" logo and pearl "Chesterfield" inlay. Individual Waverly open-back tuners with oval metal buttons. Two single-coil P-90-style pickups with white plastic covers and balanced outputs of 5.30k and 5.38k. Transparent acrylic (or Lucite) rounded pickguard painted black from the back after a gold silk-screened "Chevron" and "Guild" logo have been applied. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Guild transparent plastic knobs with G-logo on a silver disc. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and Guild "harp" tailpiece with cut-out "G." A rare and early example, with the scarce white "ghost" label. Apart from some shrinkage on the binding in two places, and some very minor age checking, this guitar is in exceptionally fine and totally original condition. Housed in the original Guild brown hardshell case (8.50).

"The T-100 was patterned after the CE-100 and it was the first Guild model with a 2-inch deep 'thinline' body. The T-100D was the same instrument, but with double pickups, a pickup selector switch and individual volume and tone controls for each pickup" (Hans Moust, The Guild Guitar Book, p. 60).

This popular guitar, which was manufactured between 1958 and 1973, was played by Duane Eddy, Bert Weedon, Paul Simon, Buddy Guy, John Sebastian, and many others. According to official Guild records, the last serial number used on a Guild guitar in 1959 was "12035," and the last serial number used in 1960 was "14713" -- therefore it is safe to assume that this guitar, with serial number "12136," is a very early Slim Jim T-100D, probably produced in January of 1960 (see Hans Moust, The Guild Guitar Book, p. 46).

The "ghost" label is a black and white rectangular label showing a ghost-type figure playing the guitar against a fretboard-like background. Introduced in 1959 and used until the end of 1960, it was the second type of label used by the Guild Company.