New Corona Starfire III

[Martyguitar]

What a beauty enjoy

 

[matsickma]

I never realized that Corona guitars used Fender HB1's with Guild HB1 bezels!
Those adapter ears are not on the later guitars that had bezels with the closer spaced double mounting screws.

The Fender HB-1 are also heavily wax potted. To my knowledge Guild HB-1's were not potted which is why some guitarist complained they would microphonic squeal at high amp volume. Not sure if SD-1's were wax potted or not?

Normally I wouldn't think wax potting would change the tone of a pickup but I'm now wondering if the noticable sonic difference between a vintage Guild HB-1 and the Fender HB-1 is related to the later having heavy wax potting?

 

[B Arbogast]

I never realized that Corona guitars used Fender HB1's with Guild HB1 bezels!
Those adapter ears are not on the later guitars that had bezels with the closer spaced double mounting screws.

The Fender HB-1 are also heavily wax potted. To my knowledge Guild HB-1's were not potted which is why some guitarist complained they would microphonic squeal at high amp volume. Not sure if SD-1's were wax potted or not?

Normally I wouldn't think wax potting would change the tone of a pickup but I'm now wondering if the noticable sonic difference between a vintage Guild HB-1 and the Fender HB-1 is related to the later having heavy wax potting?

I don’t know what’s special about these pickups, but I think they’re great. As a rule, I’ve never bonded with humbuckers, but these sound so good!

 

[Walter Broes]

I wouldn't think wax potting would change the tone of a pickup

it does, to an extent. If you're into high gain distortion and fuzz at stage volumes, you almost have to pot most pickups, or you'll find yourself in microphonic feedback hell.

But at lower gain/volume levels, there's something to be said for unpotted (or lightly potted) pickups. They often have an airy, open high end and a liveliness that a heavily vacuum potted pickup doesn't.

What I mean by lightly potted : a lot of people have realized over the years that keeping the parts of a pickup that can rattle or move stable with wax takes care of the worst microphonics, and there's not always a need to saturate a pickup's coil with wax.

 

[GAD]

I never realized that Corona guitars used Fender HB1's with Guild HB1 bezels!
Those adapter ears are not on the later guitars that had bezels with the closer spaced double mounting screws.

The Fender HB-1 are also heavily wax potted. To my knowledge Guild HB-1's were not potted which is why some guitarist complained they would microphonic squeal at high amp volume. Not sure if SD-1's were wax potted or not?

Normally I wouldn't think wax potting would change the tone of a pickup but I'm now wondering if the noticable sonic difference between a vintage Guild HB-1 and the Fender HB-1 is related to the later having heavy wax potting?

I’ve been burned once by assuming that a guitar had SD1s when there were Fender HB1s in it with an adapter to make them fit the old rings. My total guess is that they did it for a very short while to use up the old rings.

That’s why I try to say that using the screw positions isn’t a guarantee.

 

[B Arbogast]

Someone took pictures at Saturday's gig. I love this guitar!



View attachment 73469

 

[GGJaguar]

Love seeing Guilds in action!