In carrying on the Epiphone tradition with ex-Epiphone employees, Guild borrowed the signature inlay of high-end Epi models – a mother-of-pearl block with abalone V-wedge – for the top model in the Guild line, the Stuart X-550.

Guild initially gave natural-finish guitars a higher model number than the sunburst equivalent, so the sunburst version was the X-500. Around 1960 that disparity was eliminated when the X-550 became the X-500B (B for Blond finish).

Beyond the name adjustment, the model went through few changes, receiving humbucking pickups in 1963 and a master volume control around 1961.

Although most high-end guitars did not sell as well as lower-priced models, the Stuart remained the flagship of Guild’s archtop electric line through folk, rock, disco, metal and every other kind of music in the second half of the 2oth century, while it’s fellow 1950s models fell by the wayside (most of them in the 1960s). The Stuart X-500 finally met its end in 1994 when it was upgraded, ironically, to a version with a solid spruce top called the X-700.