Guild Pilot with Swirl Paint? Info needed!

[EWH]

"Good or hacky"...?

It depends - to me, it serves to prove that the painter was quite thorough and indicates that the swirl paintjob is undoubtably very high quality...

The only downside would be if the paint layer was so thick that it acts as a shim...

 

[franvarin]

I don't disagree, but isn't it weird there is no other paint color in the pocket? Maybe someone else has a picture of their pilot neck pocket for comparison?

My working theory is this is a mutt one-off made by someone who worked at Guild. It's certainly unusual!

Decent theory. Looks to me as though there was something in the neck pocket likely used as a handle. Notice the crisp border where there is no paint. Most neck pockets i've see are bare wood for a similar reason. True also for the refins I've done and the instruments I've built. So not surprised there's no paint.

What I'm puzzled by is the nexk and body config. I see the point made here that they are likely from 2 different pilots. The earlier pilots had the foot style headstock. My pilot is an 88 which is the cake cutter style which I thi k was only done for 2 years. The charvel style came after that.

I learned from the pilot club thread that very few pilots were made with just a P config (in the order of 50 basses since they did not sell well).

And if I followed everything correctly the body does not match the headstock in terms of years available. Could the body have been leftover and sold to an employee at a discount without paint. Seems plausible... might be true for the neck too. Could the employee have done the swirl on their own...yes. but having played in that timeframe I never recall seeing anything with a swirl paint job. It just was not a thing back then it seems.

I came across videos on you tube most recently that introduced the technique. So to me because of the paint job it seems its more recent than earlier.

 

[58kites]

As I said in your original post in the other thread, you have EMG pups in what appears to be an SB-603 body, a Müller roller bridge, and a SB-604 neck...

I cannot tell you for certain if the paint is factory original custom, but offhand, I lean towards saying that it is not...I suspect it was done afterwards and could also be when the 603 body became married to the 604 neck - but this is only my opinion...

Or somebody took an SB-604 and routed out the J hole and filled it with a wood block, not hard to do with a router.
And then re-painted the body in that swirl.

 

[JimmyM]

If it were mine, I wouldn't care one way or the other whether it was Factory or not. It's very cool, and that's all that counts to me

 

[franvarin]

To hopefully Help you along, I took some pics of my '88 602 for you. Notice the neck pocket, there is a little overspray, but the pocke in general is bare wood. You can see where some kind of handle was used probably to either hang the body or manipulate it while it was being sprayed.

The control cavity is routed with a platform or the batter clip and notice the nice factory matt black non-conductive paint (wish more manufactures did this today!)

The bridge on mine is clearly not a Schaller, probably a Mueller.

Notice the Grover machine heads too...

This bass is completely factory; I am the only owner and bought it new locally back in 1988. I gig this bass for years and took really good care of it. Hopefully this gives you some kind of point of reference.

 

[knigel]

To hopefully Help you along, I took some pics of my '88 602 for you. Notice the neck pocket, there is a little overspray, but the pocke in general is bare wood. You can see where some kind of handle was used probably to either hang the body or manipulate it while it was being sprayed.

The control cavity is routed with a platform or the batter clip and notice the nice factory matt black non-conductive paint (wish more manufactures did this today!)

The bridge on mine is clearly not a Schaller, probably a Mueller.

Notice the Grover machine heads too...

This bass is completely factory; I am the only owner and bought it new locally back in 1988. I gig this bass for years and took really good care of it. Hopefully this gives you some kind of point of reference.

Super helpful, thanks. It’s a beauty!

It does seem like they both had a similar handle to paint the body, similar screw pattern too. Maybe it means something? Anybody else got their necks off feel free to share!

 

[knigel]

If it were mine, I wouldn't care one way or the other whether it was Factory or not. It's very cool, and that's all that counts to me

I generally agree, but like Scooby Doo, I find solving mysteries irresistible.

 

[JimmyM]

Super helpful, thanks. It’s a beauty!

It does seem like they both had a similar handle to paint the body, similar screw pattern too. Maybe it means something? Anybody else got their necks off feel free to share!

Weren't those swirl paint jobs done by dipping them into special swirl paints? If so, that could easily explain the cavity having paint in that pattern, since the jig they used has a very similar pattern to franvarin's. At this point, I'd bet money on it being factory.

 

[JTE]

I was a Guild dealer '77-'88, and a huge fan of Pilots. A great resource is the Let's Talk Guild online forum, they have a dedicated bass section. They also have a couple of former Westerly employees, and the man who literally wrote THE book on Guild history, Hans Moust, on the forum. Go there.

The P only version was available 'though not in the catalog pretty much throughout the Pilot life. Paint job I can't comment on because they did a lot of one-time things in that era. Several different headstock shapes were available simultaneously. They also used the Schaller roller Bridge and yhe Mueller Bridge seemingly interchangeably at times. The wiring in the photos looks very tidy and factory original to my Medicare years old eyes and memory. If it is factory original wiring, being an aftermarket refin would be unlikely. But that's inconclusive as any good tech would also be very tidy and I can't see it well enough to see signs of resoldering on the pickup leads.

I say just play it and enjoy that lovely neck!

 

[paddydaddyo]

Back in the mid-‘80s I worked at a music store that was a Guild dealer. We ordered a couple of custom Pilots, and I remember that—if you had the cash—them Rhode Island folks would twist up just about anything you wanted. They did a dark green metallic fretless with a matching headstock and an unlined maple fretless board for one guy ... just about the prettiest Pilot I’ve ever seen.

As far as if this is a factory custom finish? I just don’t really remember seeing that type of “dipped swirl” on guitars 35 years ago, though someone from outside of the company could’ve been commissioned to do it I suppose.

What’s the history of the bass, I.e. previous owners?

Regardless of the originality of the paint, it is super-cool ... and you certainly won’t “see yourself coming down the road” as we used to say about custom motorcycles ...

Enjoy it!

 

[paddydaddyo]

... The earlier pilots had the foot style headstock. My pilot is an 88 which is the cake cutter style which I thi k was only done for 2 years. The charvel style came after that...

FWIW: There were at least a couple different headstock options floating around in the first few years of production, the BH-prefix 604 of ‘83/‘84 sported the first “hockey stick” version, and in addition to the “foot” of the BE-prefix models, there were some really early ones with a “spear” looking shape, like Jerry Peek’s bumblebee with the black pickguard.

 

[knigel]

Hey gang, I found out some more information about the history of this bass.

Apparently, back in the old days in Westerly, employees were allowed to make "Sunday" instruments, custom things they wanted for their own, and eventually these instruments found their way into the world. The only rule was it could NOT be to the specs of a production instrument. For instance, that graffiti Pilot bass that was recently for sale at Empire Guitars had Jackson pickups. I think it explains why this one has that BH serial neck--it differentiates it from other Pilots at the time, which had the BE serial numbers. And it turns out the paint is factory--but it's the only one out there (so says the previous owner--who knows if that is true).

I'm not saying it's any more valuable than other Pilots, but it's certainly one of a kind!