NGD 1965 Guild Starfire IV

[Archie]

Hi All.

I won this GSF4 at the Uk guitar auctions last week. It used to belong to Ray Fenwick although slightly lost on me. The guitar has been refinished but tastefully so.
It feels and plays great. Very happy to have won it.
I hope you enjoy my cheesy video.

Aren’t US Guilds just wonderful!

 

[GGJaguar]

Refinished or not, that Starfire looks great. Congrats and enjoy!

 

[SFIV1967]

I won this GSF4 at the Uk guitar auctions last week.

I had looked at this "Starfire IV Special" end of Februar on the Gardiner Houlgate page already. Very nice score, congratulations! And a nice video done!
So the only part that you maybe could add is an original metal truss rod cover but the plastic one is obviously also o.k. The only issue could be, as the plastic one is slightly larger, that the metal TRC might maybe not completely hide the new hole from the plastic TRC. Not sure about this however.



Ralf

 

[Archie]

I had looked at this "Starfire IV Special" end of Februar on the Gardiner Houlgate page already. Very nice score, congratulations! And a nice video done!
So the only part that you maybe could add is an original metal truss rod cover but the plastic one is obviously also o.k. The only issue could be, as the plastic one is slightly larger, that the metal TRC might maybe not completely hide the new hole from the plastic TRC. Not sure about this however.



Ralf

Hi Ralf.

Agreed an original truss rod cover would be a nice touch. I’ll measure the hole spacing and let you know whether it will work.
Do you know where I can get a replacement if the holes do align?

 

[walrus]

Wow! Congratulations!

walrus

 

[BradHK]

Great guitar and welcome! I just happen to have a plastic 1970’s TRC and a metal 1960’s TRC handy for comparison. The holes on the plastic one are further apart than the holes on the metal. However, if I line up the hole on one end of the truss rod covers then the metal TRC is long enough to cover the hole from the plastic TRC. It is close, but it does cover the hole. I would pull the TRC just to see what holes are under there.

 

[hansmoust]

Agreed an original truss rod cover would be a nice touch. I’ll measure the hole spacing and let you know whether it will work.

From what I can see in the video you may have a non-original truss rod cover on the guitar right now, but I may be wrong. If it's not an original one they may have used the original holes, which should be about 1-3/4" apart. If they are further apart, an original metal truss rod cover will be 2-1/4" inch long, so it may still cover the screw holes.

I can help you with an original Starfire cover in case you need one!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[Walter Broes]

Nice to see someone put in the time and effort to do a quality refin. Lot of awful ones around!

 

[Archie]

I had been reading the internal label and saw that there was something written after the SF4 designation. I actually can’t quite work it out.
What is a SF4 Special?
Don’t tell me it means it came with a bigsby!! I was going to take that off and put it on my 1967 DE400 and return the SF4 to original spec with a harp tail piece. Probably the one on my DE400.

Ralf & Hans the hole spacing is precisely 47mm.

 

[Archie]

Nice to see someone put in the time and effort to do a quality refin. Lot of awful ones around!

It’s not perfect but a lot of care was taken.

 

[hansmoust]

I had been reading the internal label and saw that there was something written after the SF4 designation. I actually can’t quite work it out.
What is a SF4 Special?
Don’t tell me it means it came with a bigsby!! I was going to take that off and put it on my 1967 DE400 and return the SF4 to original spec with a harp tail piece. Probably the one on my DE400.

Yes, the Special designation is for the Bigsby; it came originally on that guitar.

As far as the truss rod cover is concerned, a plastic one from the '70s or later will have a 49 mm screw hole spacing, so the cover that is on there now is probably not original and like I said the holes on the original metal one are about 1-3/4" apart, so that's a little less than 47 mm.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[Archie]

Yes, the Special designation is for the Bigsby; it came originally on that guitar.

As far as the truss rod cover is concerned, a plastic one from the '70s or later will have a 49 mm screw hole spacing, so the cover that is on there now is probably not original and like I said the holes on the original metal one are about 1-3/4" apart, so that's a little less than 47 mm.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Yes I can see now where the original hole was. I think the original truss rod cover should do the trick?
I can inject filler into the new hole and re drill the old one. Although one wonders why the original isn’t on it? Perhaps it just got lost over time.

Have a look and see what you think. I don’t know how much room I would have spare with the original, to cover the new hole.

Judging by the pic Ralf posted there’s plenty of room to play with around the holes.

Looking more closely at that ‘original hole’ it does seem too close to the truss rod cavity.

Thanks Hans.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Hi All.

I won this GSF4 at the Uk guitar auctions last week. It used to belong to Ray Fenwick although slightly lost on me. The guitar has been refinished but tastefully so.
It feels and plays great. Very happy to have won it.
I hope you enjoy my cheesy video.

Aren’t US Guilds just wonderful!

Ray Fenwick was a very successful session guitarist and was also the guitarist in the Ian Gillan Band

 

[Boneman]

That’s gorgeous, HNGD!!

 

[Ixtlan]

NICE!!!

 

[Archie]

Vintage cat style

 

[davismanLV]

Beautiful, Archie!! Congrats!!

 

[SFIV1967]

I had been reading the internal label and saw that there was something written after the SF4 designation. I actually can’t quite work it out.

It actually reads "Starfire IV Spec Sb" (Spec for special and Sb for sunburst).

Looking more closely at that ‘original hole’ it does seem too close to the truss rod cavity.

That's the original position. Mind at that time there was no CNC machine, that was all done by hand. So the positions are different from guitar to guitar.

Ralf

 

[jp]

Beautiful! That's a nice refinish.

 

[chazmo]

Archie, congratulations. That's a beauty!