The Guild CE-100 Capri was a fully hollow deep body electric acoustic guitar, perfect for jazz and blues. It was the first Guild guitar model to feature a Florentine or "Old World" cutaway. It was a successful model and remained in the Guild catalog continually between 1956 and 1984, although changing a little over the course of its production. Most of these changes were also evident in other Guild models; pickups changed throughout the decades (most notably to Guild humbuckers in 1963), the scale was lengthened for a few years in the 1970s, and the mahogany neck was switched to maple from 1976. There were actually two models, the single pickup CE-100 and dual pickup CE-100D; other than pickups and related controls, these guitars were identical.
The most similar instrument to the Capri was the Gibson ES-125C (single pickup) or ES-125CD (double pickup). Both had approximately the same body dimensions, materials (depending on year), necks, scale (again, depending on year) and price.
The Epiphone Sorrento, ES-125T and Guild T-100 are again very similar, although thinline, rather than full body versions.
Model | CE-100 | CE-100D The 'D' was dropped after the single pickup version was deleted. |
Available | 1956-73 | 1959-1984 |
Pickups | One single coil pickup: initially a Franz soapbar, then briefly a DeArmond, before changing to a Guild humbucker in 1963. | As the CE-100, but with two pickups. Additionally, new model Guild HB-1 pickups were fitted in the 1980s. |
Body | Maple top, back and sides. Width 16 3/8", length 20 1/4", depth 2 7/8" | |
Neck | Three-piece mahogany laminate, changing to three-piece maple in the late 1970s. Rosewood fingerboard with block pearl inlays, Chesterfield inlay. | |
Scale | 24 3/4", although the 1975 and 1978 Guild catalogue state a scale length of 25 5/8" - changing back to 24 3/4" for the 1982 Guild catalog. | |
Hardware | Harp tailpiece, rosewood bridge, Waverly, Grover StaTite or Japanese-made (no name) tuning keys. | |
Finishes | Sunburst, blonde, black (1956-58 only) |
The Guild CE-100 was pitched around the same price as the Gibson ES-125C. Prices in 1969 were as follows:
Guild CE-100 | $340 |
Gibson ES-125C | $345 |
Guild T-100 (thinline) | $255 |
Guild CE-100D | $390 |
Gibson ES-125CD | $395 |
Gibson ES-125TCD (thinline) | $355 |
Guild T-100D (thinline) | $310 |
$2099
£2090