Why the Guild Polara Deluxe offers the best of both worlds for fans of offbeat guitars

The newly-revived set-neck double cut can do far more than just bashing out classic rock riffs.

Transcript

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00:19 Hello, Killian here with Guitar.com. This in my hands is Gil's new Pallara Deluxe,

00:25 part of its relaunch of the S100 Pallara. The Pallara Deluxe is joined by the more stripped

00:30 down Pallara bass model and the one pickup Pallara Night Edition. The Deluxe however will be the one

00:35 that's most familiar to you if you like an old vintage Guild. It's the one that comes with all

00:40 the trimmings. There's a bound rosewood fretboard, a four control layout, covered humbuckers and

00:45 vintage style open gear tuners. As you can see there's also the Guild compensated tailpiece.

00:51 This is screwed down right to the body meaning loads of downward tension on the bridge and lots

00:55 of sustain.

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01:12 Its vintage roots don't mean that it's a pricey 100% accurate reissue though. It's more affordable

01:18 than the previous reissue plus there's a few modern twists that we'll get to. And yes there

01:22 are two pointy horns, two humbuckers and a set neck, all of which might make you think of a

01:27 certain other style of guitar. But the Pallara offers its own playing experience. The body is

01:32 mahogany and pretty thick meaning no neck dive at all.

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01:40 It's also slightly offset so if you're used to Jaguars and Jazzmasters

01:44 how the guitar sits on you will be nice and familiar.

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01:53 The main way though that this guitar sets itself apart is with its pickups. The Pallara comes with

01:58 Guild's new HB2+ humbuckers and they're definitely not what you'd call vintage voiced. There's a lot

02:04 of output and a good deal of brightness too, even on the neck pickup.

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02:17 On the Deluxe you've also got the option to coil split the pickups. You can get some

02:21 lovely chimey cleans from splitting the neck or you can go all Tony Iommi with the bridge single coil.

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02:36 Because they're so bright and loud you can go all out with fuzz too and the

02:40 guitar will keep its bite even in humbucker mode.

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02:55 But the pickups back off really nicely as well. Combine that with the coil splitting

03:00 and you've got loads of sounds right here without having to toggle any pedals on or off.

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03:32 The Pallara Deluxe is a best of both worlds guitar. Whether you need to just bash out some

03:36 power chords or do something a little bit more experimental, the flexible pickups and easy to

03:40 play ergonomics will let you kind of do whatever you want with it. It's balanced between an offbeat

03:45 old-school Guild and a more modern guitar and it's also literally just balanced. You can head

03:50 to guildguitars.com to find out more about the new Pallara models. Thanks for watching.

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