Starfire XII restoration

Fixit

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Well here we go again with a Starfire restoration. Our own Littlesongs brought to my attention a Guild Starfire XII that was for sale and in need of some TLC in Michagan. The gentleman that sold it to me, said that it had belonged to his son and it had been involved in some kind of accident in a weight room. The accident resulted in the neck being broken off the body, at the neck joint, there are a few other bumps and bruises and the fact that the guitar has been this way for aprox. ten years since the accident. Bridge was not able to be found, but Hans has helped with that and a NOS one is on the way. The only other thing missing is one of the volume knobs. I'm looking for one if anyone has one they will part with. Anyway, here are a few pictures of where we are before I get started. These pictures were taken by the gentleman who sold me the guitar.

And, "Away we go"

guild4.jpg


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guild1.jpg


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guild12.jpg


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guild11.jpg


guild10.jpg


More to come!
 

dapmdave

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We're all gonna get our "fixit" fix. 8)

It hurts me just to see the neck joint busted like that.

Dave :D
 

Fixit

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Started taking things apart, and checking out the condition of everything. The good news is that the pickups are good :) Looks like I maybe able to save the tuners as well, got one set cleaned up, tightened and adjusted and they seem pretty good. The wiring harness looks rough but not any worse than the last one, just going to have to see how the pots clean up and function. It would be nice to be able to keep it all original.

Here are a few more pics.

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Thanks for contributing another restoration thread, Fixit. Sharing the details of your projects adds a great deal to LTG. It's much appreciated, by those of us without the skills.

Thank you,

~nw
 

bluesypicky

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Glad that SF-XII found you Tom.... and one ore Guild saved!!!! 8)
I'll stick around this new endeavor of yours... :wink:
 

SFIV1967

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One interesting detail to me is the view of the laminated "Mahogany top". Where the neck fretboard was originally glued on the top you see that the Mahogany is really only a very thin last layer on top of a laminated piece of wood (or basically it is "plywood", "laminated" just sounds "higher end" I guess...), the thin Mahogany top layer still sticks on the fretboard. That plywood top discussion came up in the restoration/conversion thread of the M-65 to a M-75 recently. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26169
I love all the pictures, it also gives a great idea why some instruments are more expensive than others.
Ralf
 

dapmdave

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SFIV1967 said:
One interesting detail to me is the view of the laminated "Mahogany top". Where the neck fretboard was originally glued on the top you see that the Mahogany is really only a very thin last layer on top of a laminated piece of wood (or basically it is "plywood", "laminated" just sounds "higher end" I guess...), the thin Mahogany top layer still sticks on the fretboard. That plywood top discussion came up in the restoration/conversion thread of the M-65 to a M-75 recently. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26169
I love all the pictures, it also gives a great idea why some instruments are more expensive than others.
Ralf

Something to consider: The plywood contributes to the "survivability" (a word?) of the guitar body, as the destruction visited on this guitar in it's past might have turned a solid wood guitar of this type into matchsticks. In a semi-hollow electric guitar like the Starfire, would solid wood make much of a difference in how the guitar plays or sounds? Note that the ES-335 is also plywood.

Dave :D
 

SFIV1967

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@Dave: Exactly. I did not want to say that laminated is not good, it really was a good thing here! I was just surprised about the discussion in the M65 to M75 topic, where the luthier said he wanted to make a carved spruce top on the M65 to convert it to the M75 instead using the original plywood it had. Hans correctly replied that this would probably lead to all kind of problems later on when playing amplified.

Ralf
 

Fixit

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Hello,

Been awhile, I've had several other guitars to work on since my last post on this one! There has been some progress though. There has ben quite a bit of work on the neck and the body. The remaining finish on the top needed to be removed, it wasn't original and the wrong color to match the rest of the guitar. The neck has also been re-fretted after having the fingerboard leveled and re-radiused, still original radius. Have completed some repairs to the headstock overlay snd some finishing work on the neck aswell. The next step was to restore the neck pocket in the body and that is complete also. Were getting there.

Here's a few pictures, enjoy

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And a few before.

guild10.jpg


guild11.jpg


More later.
 

capnjuan

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I love anatomically-correct pictures 8) Fine work Tom!
 

twocorgis

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It's great to see a fine old guitar like this on the road to recovery. Best wishes with it, Tom.
 
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