Guild Pilot 4 , both FL and fretted Reviews 
4 / 5 based on 1 reviewsAbout $225 from Daddy's. I almost tripped over it where a customer left it, and its
case, on the floor. The customer left when
his lowball offer was refused. In about 10
minutes, I owned it at the asking price of
$230 with case. Later, also from Daddy's,
I acquired its near-twin for $225 also with
case. The "twins" are fretted and fretless
but otherwise differ only by color.
Very light weight bass with smallish body,
slender neck, and classic tone. PJ setup
is fairly versatile even without any coil
tap, series, or other switch controls.
I've been able set low action and minimal relief on both of them [barely detectable relief and about 2mm action at the octave].
Feels not only light but balanced on your
shoulder, possibly due to a very assymetric
body with longish lower bout [think of an
exagertion of the offset shape of a Fender
Jazz].
Needs a 9v battery even though it sounds
like many passive basses of its era [80's]
and has only one tone knob. Also rather
have a PU blend knob rather than seperate
volume knobs.
Due to the very assymetric body, you can't
lean it up against anything without it just
falling over. It requires a stand.
I have no serious complaints and like the bass well enough to love it warts and all.
The finish on both of these 20-yr-olds has
remained quite intact and shiny [other than
the various minor collision scars]. Necks
are excellent [still allow low action] and
appear to be one-piece maple with rosewood
fingerboards. Bodies seem to be alder or
poplar or something similar, light but not
as soft and easily dented as basswood. My
Pilots have vaguely Fender-like pegheads
[some have the Kramer-like "sickle" head].
Necks are bolt-on. The fretless is unlined
with a rather dark fingerboard but I don't
think that it's ebony. 21 fret 34" scale.
Pickups are real EMGs, tuners are Grovers,
and bridge is the once-common Schaller of
the adjustable spacing type [roller saddle
type]. Knobs are VVT and both basses came
with clean-sounding pots all around with no
evidence of prior replacements one these
obviously used basses.
The original hard cases are quite nice as well with a large storage bin, body-shaped
custom fitted, good hardware, and the top
opens to the usual angle but without need
of those retainer straps common to most
hard cases.
Easy on the shoulder, a fast neck, great
classic tone, and easy on the wallet too.
Just plain old great basses from the 80's
but without the weight of many other tone
champs of that time. Tone-wise the Pilot
closely resembles my G&L near-twins [also
fretted & FL] in essential character, but
the G&Ls have more variations through all
their switches and knobs. The Pilots are
all about tone and feel, not features.
Warning: I've tried the Dearmond Pilot,
a copy of this bass. It feels really nice
but expect to replace the PUs if you want
the big tone.
Golem rated this unit
on
2003-09-25.
