Starfire V - "Blanket Over Amp"

[DaveyJMusic]

Hello!

I bought a Newark St. Starfire V about 6 months ago and gigged it shortly after and remember being really happy with the sound. Lately, however, I'm on the verge of selling it because I'm just not happy with the sound. The best way I can describe it is "dull" and as if the amp has something covering it, with varying levels of treble (although still fundamentally muffled) depending which pickup combination I'm on. The only way I can get a sound that has just enough "oomph" is with the volumes on full, which isn't ideal when I like to drop for rhythm and roll up to 10 for solos. I've played around with pickup heights but that doesn't seem to give me what I'm after. Some more specific questions below:

1. A couple of times now, the input jack has fallen into the body. I have fixed it each time but we did lose some washers along the way. Could there be a problem with the jack that is effecting output?

2. With a "Gibson-style" control layout, I usually like to have the neck pickup on about 5, and the bridge pickup on 8-10 depending on rhythm or lead. Are Guild controls wired differently to Gibsons?

3. Sounding really muffled as soon as I roll volume off even a tiny amount - is this just a quirk of stock Guilds? Would a pot change help?

Appreciate any input people can give - whether you've had similar experiences with Starfires or if it just sounds like I have a dud (although I loved the guitar at first so I'm not sure about that). Thank you!

 

[Rocky]

Metal things stuck to the bottom of the pickups can certainly change the sound. When you reinstall the jack, use some clear nail polish or blue locktite to keep the nut on.

I haven't seen the schematic, but losing treble as soon as you turn down the volume sounds like the 'hot' wire of the tone controls is wired to the 'hot' end of the volume pot. Opinions differ, but I like it wired to the wiper of the volume pot - the wire that goes to the jack - or in this case, switch. So called "50's wiring."

Excessive (in my opinon) controls like master volumes on top of individual volumes - like on the Starfire V, and a lot of Gretschs load down the pickups, and dull the sound. When there are individual and master volumes, I like swapping 1 meg pots for the 500 ohm volume pots. That also helps brighten the sound.

 

[Default]

The tone pot on the neck is 200-250k, unless I'm wrong again.

 

[Walter Broes]

Strange, I thought the Newark street guitars came with 50's wiring stock? 60's Guilds are wired "decoupled", and that's pretty useless if you like using your contols - things go to mud really fast.