With over 120 years of experience, Gibson is one of the biggest guitar brands in America. Gibson guitars have been an enormous addition to the musical instruments, the guitar world is incomplete without Gibson guitars.
Guitars made by Gibson are always high quality, performance, and durability. It’s not just how easy Gibson guitars are to play but also Gibson’s unique designs that attract an enthusiastic following.
Meanwhile, Guild guitars are probably the most underrated brand of guitars being made in the USA today (being currently made in Oxnard, California). Guild has a legacy of excellence going back to 1953, where they quickly forged their way into the top leading brands. They may not have the flashiest looks and appointments, however, their guitars are workhorses and as their motto states, they are “Made to Be Played”.
| Features: | Guild S-100 Polara | Gibson SG |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge Pickup: | Guild HB-1 Dual-Coil | Burstbucker 61T |
| Fingerboard Material: | Rosewood | Rosewood |
| Scale Length: | 24 3/4”³ | 24.75″ |
Guild S-100 Polara
One of the more notable players of the era was Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil; who was well known for using Guild guitars, becoming almost as iconic as his wah-drenched wailing. Skip forward to today and Soundgarden have been on the road, teaming up Guild with one of the company’s biggest champions to reintroduce the S-100 Polara to the world.
Design
Modelled from the original designs from the mid-70s, Polara’s solid mahogany body has a familiar, slightly offset swagger with the devilish, SG-style horns that Soundgarden’s Thayil fell in love with from the beginning. The neck is heavy duty, with its almost tree trunk thick ‘C’ profile featuring a 24-¾ scale length. The balance of weight across the rest of the body is much more even here than in most SG’s, i.e., compared to SG’s, it won’t collapse towards the headstock every time your hands come clear. The S-100 is light enough that you can throw it around at will without losing it like a child’s balloon. The Art déco appeal of the stop-bar tailpiece, 10-gallon hat style knobs, ivoried binding and glossy, jet-black finish combination makes it classy to look at as it is to hold. Basically, it’s everything that has kept the originals competing with Gibson’s iconic design for so long and reignited for a new generation of riff-lords.
Sound
The thing that really sets the S100 apart from other dual humbuckers, and dual cutaway guitars is the sensitivity and versatility of the Guild-designed HB1 pickups. They’ve always been an interesting angle on the P90 style pick-up in that they seem to have their own. One rail of pole pieces atop an Alnico II magnet in each pick-up catches the attack and heft of the user playing while also allowing the user to pull back a long way to squeeze out some delicate, chiming tonality. There are only a few other guitars that can handle as broad a sweep in voicing as the Polara meaning you can switch between the muscularity of SRV sweating through and hacking away at 13-gauge strings.
Gibson SG
The SG Standard ‘61 returns to the classic design that made it relevant, played and loved – that has shaped sound across generations and genres of music. In 1961, the Les Paul model was put on hiatus and an all-new design grew into what is today known as the SG or “solid guitar”. The Gibson SG Standard ‘61 keeps the styling of the original featuring a slim taper mahogany neck and a bound rosewood fingerboard. The mahogany body features deeply sculpted body scarfing, a 22nd-fret neck joint with a 5-ply teardrop pickguard. The SGs nickel-plated hardware includes a classic-style Tune-O-Matic bridge and keystone tuners. The pickups used are 61R and 61T humbuckers adding a classic voice with added power and top end. Controls feature audio taper potentiometers and orange drop capacitors.
Design
There’s little to distinguish Gibson’s SG Standard from its mid-2000s incarnation. The only significant difference is the larger-than-usual strap buttons – which is a sensible choice on an instrument that can suffer from neck dive. The SG is finished with nitrocellulose that’s thin enough to sink into the grain of the mahogany body and neck, and very neat fret nibs. The headstock has pearly acrylic inlays with rosewood on the fingerboard, although the board may look and feel a little drier and rougher compared to others. Its mid-60s-style neck profile provides more than enough bulk to get a good grip, although it’s slimmer than a 50s profile. The SG comes as standard with a pair of straight-ahead humbuckers – a 490R in the neck and a 490T in the bridge.
Sound
The Gibson SG’s lightness and easy action combine with natural sustain and harmonic richness in unplugged mode, yet once plugged in, it feels like the stock pickups inhibit those appealing acoustic properties. Despite some mild harshness, you’ll be able to get closer to the thick and sustaining crunch tones that are associated with SGs by adjusting pickup heights and pole pieces and using different amps.
Conclusion
The difference between these two guitars is minimal and mainly depends on taste.
In an ideal world, you would try out both guitars before buying it. Although, you can always order a guitar model online and use the retailer’s return policy, if necessary if the model that you ordered isn’t to your taste.
Either way, these two guitars come from high-quality brands that should provide you with a great guitar.