REVIEWED: GUILD GUITARS CE100D CAPRI WITH BIGSBY
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REVIEWED: GUILD GUITARS CE100D CAPRI WITH BIGSBY

Built in their Korean factory, this instrument embodies everything that modern Korean manufacturing has brought to guitar building in recent years. You know that guitars in this price point come with a certain standard of build, a certain feeling in your hands and a sound to match. You don’t have to go to Japan or America to find a well built guitar these days, as this instrument proves so very well. I am not usually a fan of Florentine cutaways on guitars, but I will make an exception on this model. With the thin body delivering comfort in balance to the size of the instrument, the cutaway is a nice touch and certainly suits the overall styling of the CE100D. This body offers further comfort with not only an arched top, but back also, allowing some added depth for sound without requiring one to have to reach across too much timber to play it.

 

I went straight in with a high-gain sound on the amp in a very inappropriate display of what this guitar was capable of doing. High-gain and Bigsby trems don’t really work a lot of the time. But for those of you looking for a great jazz box or blues machine, this guitar is going to sing for you. There is plenty of acoustic resonance from the body; even before you plug it in you can hear how this guitar sings. Into the amp, the pair of Guild designed pickups offer a warm clean tone and a good bite with a bit of drive behind them. The tremolo is perfectly stable, returns quickly and most importantly, it returns to the same position. So, you can go as heavy or as sparingly as you like with it and not be concerned about all the strings returning out of tune.

 

There are some lovely little touches with this guitar that had me smiling, too. Things like the gentle raised gold bumps next to each of the four pots to mark tone and volume positions with are not only functional but very discrete and styled to suit the instrument. It has a really nice three colour sunburst that fades just the way I like it, so it was certainly pleasing to the eye. Whether played acoustically and plugged in, this is a really great sounding guitar, and that’s what counts the most at the end of the day.