- Joined
- Sep 19, 2023
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 1
- Guild Total
- 1
first a little background- i'll turn 70 in a little over a week and have been playing guitar since 1963. in that time- some of it while working in musical equipment stores- i have had more guitars than i can honestly remember. over the years i have developed a particular love of the sonic characteristics of P90 equipped guitars and tube amps. i can think of at least 10 P90 equipped guitars i have owned/played in the last decade. fast forward to today. when i first saw press releases covering the Starfire I Jet 90 i knew i had to purchase one as they encompassed virtually all the designs i love best- thinline archtop, semi-hollow with a center block capable of anchoring a stud mounted bridge (i had an ES-135 reissue Gibson back in 1996 that, while having a center block the material used was "chromyte" i.e. balsa wood which due to poor density could not adequately tame unwanted resonance and would NOT allow for a stud mount bridge- a most disappointing guitar), single cutaway and not just 2 large bobbin single coils but 3. i thought ALL RIGHT! here's a very reasonably priced guitar that check all my boxes and was from a trusted maker- i have owned 3 Starfire IV's going back to 1970, plus a Starfire III. now comes the sad part of this story. i live in an area where the closest stocking dealer was over 200 miles away and so i found myself in the position of taking a chance in purchasing without actually playing one of these guitars. i knew the P90s were Franz, but all the other Guilds i owned had humbuckers so i knew/anticipated little in how these pickups perform VS the standard P90s i have owned in the past. subsequently i have learned that (a) the Franz design pickups do Not sound similar to most standard P90s, and (b) Most Importantly there are significant dimensional differences between the Franz and standard P90s. so what i have is a brand new guitar that does Not produce the sound i was looking for (and that i have achieved with other P90 equipped guitars), and because of the size differences makes retro fitting alternative pickups a serious consideration because of the body design.
i know that several posts have raised the possibility of having Franz pickup rewound to change the overall sound but considering that this is a guitar that was purchased for less than $500 i fear the costs associated with having the 3 pickups rewound may not be justifiable in my case.
in hindsight i should have just knuckled down and made determination to make the trek to a dealer where i could have determined if the existing electronics would have yielded the sound i was after. but, alas i didn't.
sorry for the long post/rant but if my experience keeps someone else from finding themselves in the same situation it was worth it.
have a great weekend.
i know that several posts have raised the possibility of having Franz pickup rewound to change the overall sound but considering that this is a guitar that was purchased for less than $500 i fear the costs associated with having the 3 pickups rewound may not be justifiable in my case.
in hindsight i should have just knuckled down and made determination to make the trek to a dealer where i could have determined if the existing electronics would have yielded the sound i was after. but, alas i didn't.
sorry for the long post/rant but if my experience keeps someone else from finding themselves in the same situation it was worth it.
have a great weekend.