Rebel Rouser!

This "Duane Eddy Standard DE-400 Rock 'n Roll Guitar" weighs just 6.70 lbs. and has a nice fat nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Curly maple back and sides, laminated spruce top, three-piece mahogany/maple/mahogany neck, bound rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. The top and back edges have triple-ply (white/black/white) binding. "Lip top" headstock with inlaid pearl "Guild" logo and pearl "Chesterfield" inlay and "Duane Eddy Model" on black plastic truss rod cover. Individual 'floral engraved' nickel Kolb-made machineheads with diamond-shaped pearloid buttons. Two hot DeArmond pickups with outputs of 8.86k and 11.43k. Earliest style 'rounded' transparent acrylic (or Lucite) pickguard painted black from the back after a gold silk-screened "Star" and "Guild" logo and "Duane Eddy" signature have been applied. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus master volume control on cutaway (treble) bout and three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. Guild black plastic knobs with G-logo on a silver disc. Guild aluminium bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and Guild Bigsby Vibrato tailpiece. Serial number "24425" on oval label inside bass f-hole and also stamped on the back of the headstock. Minimal wear to the back of the neck, a few tiny marks to the back of the body, otherwise this guitar is in near mint condition and is complete with its original hang tag with matching serial number. Housed in the original Guild brown hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (8.75).

A rare opportunity to own one of the earliest "Duane Eddy" guitars with a special factory ordered 'spruce-top' and DeArmond pickups.

"Duane Eddy's 'twangy' guitar sound, which he got from a Gretsch Chet Atkins Hollow Body, made him the most popular solo guitarist of the late 1950s. In 1961 he sought his own endorsement deal, and Guild was the first company to show interest. The Duane Eddy model was based on Guild's T-500, a limited-run thinbody version of the Stuart 500 archtop. Eddy specified two features from his Gretsch: Bigsby vibrato and master volume control on the cutaway bout. Examples from 1962 and 1963 have single-coil DeArmond pickups; mini-humbucking pickups appeared in 1964… Guild DE-400… In 1963 Guild introduced this cheaper version of the DE-500. All the differences are cosmetic, including chrome-plated parts, a different peghead logo, and less binding. As is usually the case, the cheaper model was the more successful…" (George Gruhn and Walter Carter, Electric Guitars and Basses: A Photographic History, pp. 235-237).

"Shortly after the introduction of the Duane Eddy Model, which was called the "Duane Eddy DE-500 Rock 'n Roll Guitar" in the 1963 catalog, Guild came out with the Duane Eddy Standard DE-400. It had the same body shape and electonics as the DE-500, but with plainer ornamentation. The earliest Duane Eddy Standards were labeled "Duane Eddy Jr." but most people who worked at the factory can't remember the "Duane Eddy Jr." designation. At least one instrument is known to exist, with serial #22163, which dates it to the end of 1962. It had a sunburst finish, spruce top, and "Made in U.S.A." ink-stamped on the oval label… As was the case with the DE-500, the earliest DE-400s had DeArmond pickups. By the end of 1963 the DeArmonds on the DE-400 were replaced by Guilds "new" Anti-Hum pickups. The catalog specifies a spruce top and maple back and sides, but the majority of DE-400s that have been reported had a maple top. And similar to the DE-500, the DE-400 was available in sunburst or blonde. Between 1963 and 1968 the DE-400 was also available in cherry-red, in which case the body would be all mahogany. The instrument shown is a '65 DE-400 with a maple top, humbucking pickups and Grover RotoMatics." (Moust, Hans. The Guild Guitar Book, p.85).