NGD! 1962 Guild Starfire III
Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 3:20 pm
Well, all the recent obsession I've had with old Guild Starfires has culminated and I am now the proud owner of a '62 Guild Starfire III (also my first vintage guitar, so excited)!
I suppose it's an early '62, based on the lack of back binding, but so far haven't found a source to get a real ballpark of when it was made in '62. All I can find is that back binding was added to these models in '62.
I got this one from GC, turns out the original owner sold it to them (had the original receipt with it but he hung onto it) with a vintage spaghetti strap and a non original Guild case, as the original was too trashed after all these years. Aside from the case, everything on it is original. Good bit of finish checking and some dings, but pretty clean overall and the binding hasn't shrunk at all. Tuners are a bit stiff but I'm sure we can get them working well again easily. The frets are fairly worn and oxidized but still playable. It has some pretty hefty, old flatwounds on it currently and the action is a bit high further up the neck, but the neck is nicely worn in in some spots and is just the right size so it plays really well but will be even better after a set up. The bigsby is super broken in and feels great. I'm gonna take it to my tech this week to have him look over it and determine whether we should go for a refret, or just a fret dress + setup and new strings. Can't wait.
Even as it is, it sounds fantastic through my Super Reverb reissue. The amp needs a new transformer at the moment, so I'm getting some weird frequencies/harmonics over the stuff I'm playing, but I bet it will sound even better once the amp is in tip top shape. Dynasonics are some of my favorite pickups ever and these sound pretty great so far. It's super loud acoustically and has a nice woody, chimey clean tone to it. I need some more time (and a fixed amp) to get a really good gauge on how to describe these pickups and maybe a demo for you guys.
Overall, I'm loving it. It plays great, sounds great, and the thin body feels just how I hoped it would. This honestly feels like the perfect hollowbody, compared to the Gretsch's I've owned and others that I've played. It really feels like I got lucky with how good this one is.
Here are some more photos!
I suppose it's an early '62, based on the lack of back binding, but so far haven't found a source to get a real ballpark of when it was made in '62. All I can find is that back binding was added to these models in '62.
I got this one from GC, turns out the original owner sold it to them (had the original receipt with it but he hung onto it) with a vintage spaghetti strap and a non original Guild case, as the original was too trashed after all these years. Aside from the case, everything on it is original. Good bit of finish checking and some dings, but pretty clean overall and the binding hasn't shrunk at all. Tuners are a bit stiff but I'm sure we can get them working well again easily. The frets are fairly worn and oxidized but still playable. It has some pretty hefty, old flatwounds on it currently and the action is a bit high further up the neck, but the neck is nicely worn in in some spots and is just the right size so it plays really well but will be even better after a set up. The bigsby is super broken in and feels great. I'm gonna take it to my tech this week to have him look over it and determine whether we should go for a refret, or just a fret dress + setup and new strings. Can't wait.
Even as it is, it sounds fantastic through my Super Reverb reissue. The amp needs a new transformer at the moment, so I'm getting some weird frequencies/harmonics over the stuff I'm playing, but I bet it will sound even better once the amp is in tip top shape. Dynasonics are some of my favorite pickups ever and these sound pretty great so far. It's super loud acoustically and has a nice woody, chimey clean tone to it. I need some more time (and a fixed amp) to get a really good gauge on how to describe these pickups and maybe a demo for you guys.
Overall, I'm loving it. It plays great, sounds great, and the thin body feels just how I hoped it would. This honestly feels like the perfect hollowbody, compared to the Gretsch's I've owned and others that I've played. It really feels like I got lucky with how good this one is.
Here are some more photos!
