An Early Sixties Guild Capri CE-100DP

This lightweight 16 3/8-inch-wide guitar weighs just 6.00 lbs. and has a body thickness of 2 3/4 inches, a nice fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. The top of the guitar has triple binding (white/black/white) and the neck has single white binding. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Guild" logo and pearl "Chesterfield" inlay. Serial number ("15321") impressed into the back of the headstock Individual Grover Sta-Tite open-back tuners with petal-shaped metal buttons. Two single-coil P-90-style pickups with white plastic covers and balanced outputs of 5.15k and 5.01k. 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) on lower treble bout plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. 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." Apart from some very minor age checking, this guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) and totally original condition. Housed in the original Guild brown hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (9.00).

"The CE-100 was of the same laminated construction as the other deep-bodied models in the line, but it was the first model to have a florentine (sharp) cutaway, which was described in the '56 catalog with the words: 'Old World' cutaway design enables player to reach highest positions with ease" (Hans Moust, The Guild Guitar Book, p. 59). In 1959 the CE-100D was listed with two pickups "(on some labels the model designation would be CE-100DP)."

This popular guitar, which was manufactured between 1959 and 1962. According to official Guild records, the last serial number used on a Guild guitar in 1960 was "14713," and the last serial number used in 1961 was "18419" -- therefore it is fairly safe to assume that this guitar, with serial number "15321," was shipped somewhere around late February or early March of 1961 (see Hans Moust, The Guild Guitar Book, p. 46).