Guild M-65 Freshman, Sunburst (1960)

Les Paul like size and comfort with thinline hollowbody tone - few guitars from this period get you there better than an old Guild M-65 Freshman!

1960 Guild M-65 Freshman hollowbody electric guitar just in!

This is a standard scale version of Guild's popular student model hollowbody electric, with a relation much closer to the M-75 Aristocrat model introduced some 6 years prior. Built in 1960, this M-65 Freshman features the Gibson-esque 24 3/4" scale length with a 1 11/16" nut width and full size single-cutaway body. By all accounts, this is considered a rarer variant than the 3/4 version; think of it almost like an Aristocrat Jr. This stunning and completely untouched example came in from the son of the original owner, who'd recently discovered the guitar along with a period Ampeg combo tucked away in his late father's attic. It survived its long hibernation without issue, requiring just some requisite sprucing up, cleaning of the electronics, and polishing of the oxidized frets.

As you might imagine, the guitar is very lightweight (nearly 4.5 lbs!), and produces a focused and woody acoustic tone. The Franz P90 has a different tonality than that of a Gibson P90 - rounder in the bass with more zing and clarity in the top end. Output is quite healthy, and there's great range in tones with adjustments in either Volume or Tone controls. The Medium C neck profile is quite comfortable with an even taper - think late 50s Gibson carve. The original small frets show very little wear.

It's accompanied by its original lined chipboard case with leatherette covering, that has also remained in excellent condition all these years later.