Newark Street Starfire IV

For one thing, they ought to be easier to get shipped to Finland!

How I managed to miss this 5 pages thread sure beats me, guess it happened while I was not paying attention (doesn't sound like me though :biggrin-new
But anyway I'll go with :excitement: since I couldn't find the "cool" icon.

Quick question - how do the reissue pickups compare to the originals? I've never played a Guild with the original minihums so I've nothing to really compare the S-100 I picked up to. Did you find dialling the pickups in to take ages? I've found that these pickups in the S-100 are very twitchy in terms of adjustment - until you nail the sweet spot you either get woofy-boomy bass strings (and a bit of mush) or else very little bass response at all. They do always seem to have quite a bit of treble bite all round though, without being brittle.

Nice Starfire by the way! I'm still trying to convince myself I made the right call choosing the S-100 over the Starfire IV in the store...

Actually, I haven't played any guitar in the past few weeks, due to the heavy summer schedule.
I need to block some time out for it. BP, I owe you a phone call. I really want somebody that owns a vintage sflV to play this and give their opinion.

today I finally was able to try one of these through a decent marshall bluesbreaker. since I have owned a 1990 sf4 for a while, all I can say is wow!
WHAT A GUITAR FOR THE MONEY! plays perfectly, sounds amazing and is darned cheap!
if only guild would offer them with a guildsby....

I'm staying away from Eighth Street Music. I don't want anything else following me home! :embarrassed:

You really need to go check one of the others out ... you know ... for the sake of proper scientific validation

Were the Starfire IIIs ever available with a burst finish? Specifically, a tobacco/antique burst with less red in it? If Guild ever released a SFIII with tobacco burst, I'm toast...

Westerlys had sunburst Starfires, Hobokens, not so much. Plenty of T-100D's with bursts, but I couldn't tell if any were tobacco bursts.

jcwu said:

Were the Starfire IIIs ever available with a burst finish? Specifically, a tobacco/antique burst with less red in it? If Guild ever released a SFIII with tobacco burst, I'm toast...

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That 1997 one would meet your criteria I guess: http://www.vintageandrare.com/product/Guild-Starfire-II-1997-Sunburst-CMT-29949#



Ralf

Yup, I've seen a few T100D's that fit the bill - I have a CE100D already, and wouldn't mind getting a thinner bodied electric. The one that 2nevets is selling (that he originally acquired from cubis) fits the bill nicely in terms of body shape and color (see how there isn't really any red in the burst, just amber and brown?), except... I'm not so sure I'm ok with the binding separation.

jcwu said:

The one that 2nevets is selling (that he originally acquired from cubis) fits the bill nicely in terms of body shape and color (see how there isn't really any red in the burst, just amber and brown?)

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Ah! Now I see what tobacco burst you mean! I am not sure about SFIII models with that kind of "50ies look" burst.
Ralf

SFIV1967 said:

That's a good question and there is no final answer yet.
SPG used "KS" (Korea, SPG) as starting letters and the headstock shows "KSG" where G stands for Guild.
Now I thought the next two numbers "12" would be for the year of manufacture 2012. The problem however is that I have not seen a KSG13xxxxx yet! All so far shipped Newark St. models start with KSG12 and run in the fivehundred numbers so far. Does that mean all started production in 2012 already? Or is the 12 just for "2012" models, means 2012 designed models? That is something I was not able to find out yet.

The other 5 numbers behind are a sequential serial number independent of model number, so there is only one number 7 for the entire Newark St. collection as example.
So the serial number has no code for the model number in it.

Ralf

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Not sure if somebody noticed, but now we are at KSG13x serial numbers! This would be a good question to ask during the upcoming LMG why there were almost 1000 (or more) shipped in 2013 with KSG12x serial number (which I thought means made in 2012) and now suddently I see a KSG13x serial number. What's the meaning of the 12 or 13? Or was that just a screw-up that the factory forgot to change from 12 to 13?



Ralf

my Savoy is KSG13000377

New guy here, so don't be too hard on me!!:highly_amused: I'm fairly well-known over on TDPRI, where a bunch of guys over there referred me here...

Just got my SF IV today from Sweetwater, and I's be impressed! I originally wanted a 335, but my wallet wouldn't go for the torture... started reading up on Guilds, and remembering that Buddy Guy used to play one (I saw him later playing his Nightingale through a Marshall half-stack-amazing sound!). Wallet agreed with the purchase, and it arrived today... kinda early Christmas present to myself...

Haven't had it on the gig yet, so that report will have to wait till tomorrow, but initial impressions are nice-not quite as bright as my Fenders, but much clearer than my Hamer Echotone 335 copy. Fit and finish are all there, and as mentioned before a very lively and resonant tone acoustically, nearly as loud as a regular acoustic! Neck is nicely cut, chunky but not huge-think a fuller version of the other G guitars 60's taper and you get the picture. Fretwork is as good as I've seen on a production guitar. I'm not familiar with vintage Guilds in this regard, but the frets overlap the binding on the neck as most Asian made guitars do... not an issue for me...

The weight is nice, and it hangs well on a strap... will make those all night gigs a lot easier to take! To further muddy the waters on the serial # front, mine is KSG1200646... guess Sweetwater had it for awhile...

Now, to find one of those dreaded Model 1 SS amps... first band I was in 30+ years ago, I had one of those-I'd only want it for old times sake!!!

Franc Robert

Welcome aboard mate. Pics please. :laughing:

backalleyblues said:

..., mine is KSG1200646... guess Sweetwater had it for awhile...Franc Robert

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Welcome to LTG Franc! Well, the Newark St. series was just introduced in January 2013, so yours is somewhere from earlier in 2013 I would say. We don't know if that was an oversight on Guilds side to ship the 2013 models with a 2012 serial number (assuming that KSG12 should read year 2012), especially since they suddenly changed to KSG13...That's a mystery we didn't find an answer for (yet)...I had summarized some info which you might find useful here: http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...M-2013-Newark-St-™-Collection-electric-models
Ralf

Hopefully, this pic will take...

SFIV1967, my guess on the serial # kerfluffle is that a fairly large batch of guitars were made prior to the NAMM show in January, so that orders placed at the show could be filled immediately... seeing as how they weren't going to fly them over when finished, onto a ship they went, which even these days can still take some time (I'm guessing 2-3 weeks-on the dock times can vary widely). Considering lead times, tooling, etc. I'd guess that the initial order for Newark Street models was placed in the early fall, with a ship to USA date of around Dec. 1st-15th... Samick (I'm presuming they built them via the serial #-Korea-Samick-Guild) probably figured since they built them in 2012, they should have 2012 serial #s... but that is all conjecture on my part!

Tonight, we'll see just how well the Guildy performs on stage... took it to my local music store, whose owner really dug it (and is slightly ticked that I didn't order it through him!). I'm sure it will do fine though... I'll be using my trusty old Super Reverb for this gig, so I'll know PDQ how it sounds...

Thanks for the warm welcome!!!

Franc Robert

Welcome, Franc! Thanks for the review!

walrus

backalleyblues said:

...my guess on the serial # kerfluffle is that a fairly large batch of guitars were made prior to the NAMM show in January, so that orders placed at the show could be filled immediately... seeing as how they weren't going to fly them over when finished, onto a ship they went, which even these days can still take some time (I'm guessing 2-3 weeks-on the dock times can vary widely). Considering lead times, tooling, etc. I'd guess that the initial order for Newark Street models was placed in the early fall, with a ship to USA date of around Dec. 1st-15th... Samick (I'm presuming they built them via the serial #-Korea-Samick-Guild) probably figured since they built them in 2012, they should have 2012 serial #s... but that is all conjecture on my part!

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Franc: The Newark St. models are made by SPG (Sound Professional Guitar Co, Ltd.) as far as I found out, which is not Samick. SPG makes their own guitars and is also a manufacturer for Samick, but not Samick. Two different things. As far as I know it is only a customer-supplier relationship between Samick and SPG.
To also correct some wrong info I constantly read, Samick has never built guitars for Gretsch either as far as I know...Some Gretsch guitars were made by Peerless in Korea, and then in late 2007 (?) production was transferred to the SPG factory. (Easy to see, "KP" serial numbers are Peerless, "KS" are SPG). So regarding the Guild Newark St. models you can say it's the same factory that makes Gretsch, but it has nothing to do with Samick.

Now the story about the serial numbers you thought about could make sense but it cannot be correct. At NAMM only the prototypes arrived a few days earlier in the US. Not a single other guitar was made at that point in time (in early January) as far as I understood from FMIC at NAMM. It actually took some time until the first guitars left Korea, maybe it was April 2013 or so, can't remember exactly. Now certainly there is a possibility that raw material was allocated to serial numbers already in 2012...Who knows...But it took again quite some time until the KSG13 numbers showed up, that was long after mid 2013 only.
Ralf