Bringing a Starfire back to life.

Dardplay said:

Not the De Armonds I had in mind, but still vintage. And at least it is for sale. From a Gretsch. But looks like a humbucker and not your usual Filtertron. Can't say I have ever heard one in a Gretsch. Size looks to be standard.

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I have a set of pickups that look identical, but are single coils in a humbucker shell.

By the way, Hans Moust wrote the Guild Guitar book. He could tell you when and probably how many were in the batch made.

Default said:

By the way, Hans Moust wrote the Guild Guitar book. He could tell you when and probably how many were in the batch made.

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...with the serial number.

Welcome to LTG . . . perhaps posting the serial number with "XX" in place of the last two digits would be more comfortable for you. And enough info for folks to give you better advice re: how your guitar was originally outfitted.

Fair enough you don’t want us to see how bad and unpresentable it is in its current state, but hopefully you at least still took photos to at least document its journey from trash to treasure. Besides, we’re curious what all it is that you do pull out from inside, and also whether the label is still legible.

The serial number would be stamped into the back of the headstock, so some indentations may still be visible with a good cleaning, unless they really did dig holes with it? Heh

Default said:

I have a set of pickups that look identical, but are single coils in a humbucker shell.

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Oh well, so probably single coil then. Would make sense.

I'm hoping these would fit?

Default said:

By the way, Hans Moust wrote the Guild Guitar book. He could tell you when and probably how many were in the batch made.

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Do you mean here an actual book, or that he just knows a lot about Guilds?

P. S. Oh, alright. I just googled it and there is a book. Never knew.

Hi! Things are moving slowly. But the electronics arrived. Now I'm wondering if I should have gone for a pre-wired harness.

I also managed to un-stuff the guitar. Nothing gross or strange inside. It was stuffed with this felt or wool like material. The reason I don't know. I'm suspecting that it was about to get a respray or refinish and the F-holes were stuffed to avoid over spray inside. Interestingly, even though it was stuffed, there seems to already be some over spray inside. That or very thick and sticky dust. The inside surface is covered by something fine. No raw wood color at the moment. Maybe it was already resprayed or refinished once. I didn't try to clean it thought. Didn't have a lot of time.

The smell is still strong. Wonder if I should leave it in the sun a bit, now that it is getting warmer. But probably not a good idea.

Found some numbers by the way. First few digits are 64100. I want to say 6A100, but I'm not sure they used letters too. It's not very legible under all the gunk.

Still on the hunt for a HB1 or De Armond set. I will continue working on the guitar. If by the time everything else is ready and only the pickups are missing and I still haven't found a HB1 or De Armond set, I might just buy some Gibson 57s and be done. Or maybe Seymour Duncan is less sacrilegious? I heard the Guilds came with SDs at some point?

I wouldn’t leave the guitar out in the sun, but one thing to do for a bad smell, on those musty attic guitar finds, is if you have a case for it, you can put coffee beans in the case with guitar, lid closed and let the beans absorb the stench. I‘ve used a ziploc baggie poked holes in it, filled it with beans, and dropped it inside the soundhole of an acoustic. For your semi-hollow, fill the ziploc enough so you can still squeeze it into the f-hole, leaving enough of it to grab and pull it out later. Leave it for a week and it’ll smell less like mold and more like coffee, and then the coffee smell goes away.

I’d also dampen a rag with vinegar, wipe the interior of the case with dampened rag, and leave that out in the sun. Good luck

Just to throw in my two cents. Some players have been known to stuff archtops to prevent feedback at high stage volumes.

The Guilds of Grot said:

Just to throw in my two cents. Some players have been known to stuff archtops to prevent feedback at high stage volumes.

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Yeah, I've done that. Stuff a hollow body with some rags or tape the sound holes. But I don't believe this is the case here. I can't see how you could play without the stuff spilling out. But then again I don't know how long it was in there.

Boneman said:

I wouldn’t leave the guitar out in the sun, but one thing to do for a bad smell, on those musty attic guitar finds, is if you have a case for it, you can put coffee beans in the case with guitar, lid closed and let the beans absorb the stench. I‘ve used a ziploc baggie poked holes in it, filled it with beans, and dropped it inside the soundhole of an acoustic. For your semi-hollow, fill the ziploc enough so you can still squeeze it into the f-hole, leaving enough of it to grab and pull it out later. Leave it for a week and it’ll smell less like mold and more like coffee, and then the coffee smell goes away.

I’d also dampen a rag with vinegar, wipe the interior of the case with dampened rag, and leave that out in the sun. Good luck

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Great tip thanks.

I was just about to order me some Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers when I bumped into some De Armonds pickups I might be able to buy. Fingers crossed! This would considerably speed up the process and actually motivate me to finally clean it off and get going.

Another update. The De Armonds fell through. But I have been seeing a trend which has got me intrigued.

After some reading it seems these pickups didn't come on Guild branded guitars but De Armond's own brand, which was or is Guild. I know Guilds came with De Armond but apparently not the ones I like. So after some looking around and figuring which guitars came with them, I started looking for these guitars in the used market. They are out there. But I also started seeing a lot of these guitars being sold without the pickups. With just some generic looking pickups. But no info if they actually were also available without the De Armonds and with just normal humbuckers. The De Armond pickups seem very respected and sought after. You can find people on forums saying they put them on all sorts of guitars including Gibsons. Since the supply seems to have dried up, I'm thinking people are buying the guitars with them, taking the De Armonds out, putting cheap pickups on and reselling the guitars for cheaper.

I did find some solid body guitars with the De Armonds. Still not sure I want to pursue this path. But might be the only way to get my hands on some.

Regardless I will order me some Seymour Duncans. I just need to decide if I go with Seth Lovers, JBs or 59s. They all claim to have vintage PAF tones. I had thought of the Seth Lovers, but after some listening I'm now undecided. But I will order one of them to see this through. And maybe also buy a guitar with the De Armonds and compare how they sound on the Starfire vs the Seymour Duncans.