Newark Street Starfire Pickups

[griehund]

An indication that Oxnard follows this forum with an admirable level of diligence?

 

[Synchro]

The honorable thing would be to honor the price at which a firm order was placed. But if there was no firm order placed there is nothing going on that cannot be explained by a simple error of the sort we all make. In fact I can imagine someone rushing to determine a price because Guild was trying to be responsive to a request and, in the rush, getting it wrong. Perhaps, for example, the quoted price was for an authorized repair dealer?

I'm with the greyhound on this one.

After speaking to Winnie this morning CMG did honor their original price and, as I understand it, their asking price for these pickups is reasonable. My concerns in this area are satisfied.

Update,

I received the pickup at the original price plus only $5 shipping. I'll install it this coming week and report back. It reads 7.17K and the package is from FMIC.

I am like the cat that ate cheese and stationed himself in front of the mousehole; I am waiting with baited breath.

An indication that Oxnard follows this forum with an admirable level of diligence?

I hope so. I know for a fact that Gretsch follows the two major Gretsch forums and have seen instances where Joe Carducci has become directly involved in customer satisfaction issues regarding Gretsch guitars, after having seen these on the forums.

All I ask of CMG, is to be forthright about the NS "Li'l Bucker" (I love that name) issue. There are probably a lot of Starfire players out there that don't care in the slightest. I've only noticed a problem when I got to volume levels associated with public performances. For band practice, or just playing at home, I was fine with the way things were from the factory. I don't think that a general recall is needed, but I would hope that CMG will make correction as painless as is reasonable; perhaps selling the pickups at a discounted price to current owners on NS and other FMIC era models.

I don't know if I'll end up doing much to the Starfire III, but the T-400 is unacceptable. Worse case scenario, I'll try some Seymours or maybe some humbucking-mount TV Jones pickups. I could things of worse things than a set of Supertrons on my T-400. It would be a total mongrel, but it would be a good sounding mongrel.

As frustrating as all of this has been, I will state categorically that my overall satisfaction with Guild guitars (all of mine are 2014 production) is very high. I recommend N.S. Guilds to others and my T-400 is the guitar I consider the best in my somewhat sizable herd. Like Default, I want Guild to succeed as a line. I believe that the marque deserves to be treated with respect and a degree of reverence. This is a gem of a guitar brand. They had an incredible selection of models and, IMO, their line was very imaginative compared to the more limited offerings that some of their competitors had. I'm truly proud to see Guild head stocks on my famous "wall o' guitars' and I see the Guilds as a wonderful counterbalance to my beloved Gretsches. I just hope that CMG is able to build upon the groundwork FMIC did in bringing the N.S. line to market.

On a semi-related topic: One of the best archtops I ever chanced to play was an Artist Award. I've played quite a number of 17" acoustic archtops with floating pickups and one Le Grande and one Artist Award stand out in my mind as the best sounding of all the 17" archtops I've ever played. (Colorado Jazz guitarist, Dale Bruning, has an 18" DW Stephens that is absolutely amazing and perhaps he best archtop I've ever played {and this includes a number of Benedettos}, but this is an 18" instrument and not even remotely a production instrument.) Anyhow, one thing I hope greatly is that CMG is able to make some truly memorable Artist Awards once they are fully ramped up.

 

[Winnie Thomas]

Here's what it looks like. The blue wire is the original bridge pickup.

The pickup is installed by plugging it into the circuit with a small connector similar to the one on a battery in a cordless phone. The connection is near the Neck Volume pot, pulling switches or pots is not necessary. It was done in short order.

The change in tone is noticeable. The pickup now has more snarl,which was what I was looking for, yet cleans up when rolling back the pickup volume. All in all I think it's an improvement.

 

[Synchro]

That's a great looking Starfire IV, where'd you ever find such a beauty?

How is the balance in volume with the new pickup?

 

[cc_mac]

Now $119.99. Well played Guild. maybe you should be in the petroleum business

Probably no longer relevant but I was confusing threads and the comment quoted is in reference to the RC 1000 pickup which I recall had originally been offered at $89.00 but is currently $119.00. I may be wrong and if so will delete my comment.

https://shop.guildguitars.com/product-category/parts/electricguitars/pickups/

The mini hums are not shown currently (nor do I recall them being) on the "Guild Shop" web site.

 

[cc_mac]

Here's what it looks like. The blue wire is the original bridge pickup.

The pickup is installed by plugging it into the circuit with a small connector similar to the one on a battery in a cordless phone. The connection is near the Neck Volume pot, pulling switches or pots is not necessary. It was done in short order.

The change in tone is noticeable. The pickup now has more snarl,which was what I was looking for, yet cleans up when rolling back the pickup volume. All in all I think it's an improvement.

Glad to know it was an easy swap. Can you post a picture of the PU installed to show how the string spacing at the bridge matches up with the neck PU pole pieces? With both pick ups selected are the in or out of phase?

 

[Synchro]

Probably no longer relevant but I was confusing threads and the comment quoted is in reference to the RC 1000 pickup which I recall had originally been offered at $89.00 but is currently $119.00. I may be wrong and if so will delete my comment.

https://shop.guildguitars.com/product-category/parts/electricguitars/pickups/

The mini hums are not shown currently (nor do I recall them being) on the "Guild Shop" web site.

As I understand it, the mini hums are more on the order of $69 and change.

 

[fronobulax]

An indication that Oxnard follows this forum with an admirable level of diligence?

They do. Trust me on this.

 

[Synchro]

I just got off the phone with Guild and ordered a neck Little Bucker pickup to replace the bridge pickup in my T-400. It was $69 plus shipping and is expected to ship in the next day or two. I'm positively impressed. The fellow I spoke to, Daniel, definitely knows the line and is interested in making certain that the a Guild line is the best possible.

 

[Synchro]

The pickup came and, to my surprise, it is somewhat different in construction than the OEM pickup in my GSR T-400. I had to file a bit of material off the mounting tangs for it to fit in the rout of the T-400, but it looks like it will fit. I don't have time to complete the project right now, but hope to have it back in fighting trim sometime next week.

 

[SFIV1967]

The pickup came and, to my surprise, it is somewhat different in construction than the OEM pickup in my GSR T-400.

Maybe you can take a picture of both from the bottom next to each other?
Ralf

 

[Walter Broes]

You know, if I was a humbucker fan, and I had one of those NS minibucker guitars (two big ifs, ha!), I'd be very tempted to pick up some vintage pickups - they appear on Ebay every so often, and they're not expensive yet, under the price of some new "boutique" pickups out there.

 

[Default]

And that's exactly what I did. Got a rewound pup( shoutout to Acornhouse) and a pupcover(much thanks, jp!) but I can't seem to find the time to put the two together.

 

[Walter Broes]

You got a pair of old pickups Steve, apart from the rewound one?

 

[Default]

N, just the rewound one. I would want something that was mint clean to put in the T-400 and you just don't find them like that. Considering getting a NS neck pup and putting normal sized polepiece screws in it. All it takes is the proper tap.

 

[cc_mac]

N, just the rewound one. I would want something that was mint clean to put in the T-400 and you just do find them like that. Considering getting a neck pup and putting normal sized polepiece screw in it. All it takes is the proper tap.

Out of curiosity did you mean putting "vintage style" pole pieces in a modern NS mini hum or modern NS pole pieces in vintage mini hum. If yo know, what is the diameter, thread count and pitch of each?

Just cause I was thinking about it yesterday - the neck pickup (mini hum) is my favorite pickup of all time.

 

[Default]

I was posting on my phone - yikes. What I was trying to say was that I could get a NS neck minibucker and put polepieces with screwheads. http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickup_Kits_and_Parts/Polepiece_Screw.html

 

[cc_mac]

I feel like I'm missing something obvious. It seems the NS mini's have pretty standard slot head pole pieces as shown in the photo from the Guild website of a CE100D.

as opposed to originals which are just threaded rod with a slot cut in the to as shown here on this 1969 Starfire IV.

What's the reason/advantage for replacing the NS poles with the Stemac ?

I was posting on my phone - yikes. What I was trying to say was that I could get a NS neck minibucker and put polepieces with screwheads. http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickup_Kits_and_Parts/Polepiece_Screw.html

 

[Synchro]

Maybe you can take a picture of both from the bottom next to each other?
Ralf

It's too late, I've already modified the new pickup so they look the same now.

 

[Synchro]

I finished my install of a neck humbucker into the bridge position of my GSR T-400 today. It worked perfectly. The balance between the pickups is perfect. The guitar now lives up to its full potential.