New Guild parts.

Greetings from sunny and hot SoCal. Been a member for a while and mostly read posts that I find interesting but haven’t had much to say until now. I’m considering on refurbishing my mid 60s StarFire III with new Guild parts. I’ve looked on the website and see that I can get new pickups, wiring harness and tuning machines that will get my Guild back towards it’s original shape. Over the years of playing I’ve had/wanted to replace or “upgrade(?)” the pots [ scratchy noise and drop-outs], internal wiring [hum and noise pickup] tuning machines to sealed units, replacement Guild knobs as the print on the originals wore off and a couple of the “G” logo inserts came off and got lost over the years, hot rod kit for neck pickup and alternative pickup for the bridge position. So, what have been your experiences with the new Guild parts? Looks to be fairly “plug and play” to me; I do have electronics and assembly knowledge so I can do the work in my shop. Thoughts, suggesstions, recommendations etc would all be appreciated. Thmj.

Hi. Not sure that gutting your guitar and replacing it with imported parts is the way I would go. I would replace the pots with some quality aftermarket pots if they are worn out. If they are just dirty, some tuner cleaner might be the trick. Hum, could be a grounding issue. Knobs are pricey used, so, if the new ones will fit on the replacement pots, sure. Not sure what you want for the pups. What are you looking for?

Welcome. I'm the guy who remembers all the bad things and mistakes and never remembers the corrections or the fact that things were fixed. In that spirit, a caution - People have reported that "new" Guild parts (from the Newark Street line) are not always drop in replacements for vintage Guilds. Furthermore the people in Oxnard have given well intended but often incorrect answers as to what will fit and what won't. In fairness to them they have very little access to Guild information that predates New Hartford.

Hi Thmjako513, and Welcome.

I consider pots and tuners to be wear items, so if you want to replace them with good quality aftermarket, that's your decision to make. But, as has already been suggested, I would probably not recommend Newark Street replacement parts direct from Guild. There are better quality aftermarket parts available. You can look for tuners at stewmac.com. They sell pots too, but mojotone.com offers CTS vintage taper pots that are very nice quality. I don't know off hand if the Newark Street replacement knobs sold at the Guild store will fit their slotted / spline shaft.

As far as pickups go, what's on your Starfire III? I will guess they are minihums (a.k.a. LB-1 "Littlebuckers".) It has been reported that the bridge version is not a good reproduction of the original 1960's version in that it is weak. Some people have put a neck version in the bridge position, either by swapping the two pickups or by using two neck versions. If you're looking for something hotter you might consider at TV Jones pickups. I have verified that their Filtertron sized pickups (which is most of what they offer) can be installed in place of Guild Minihums with just a slight widening of the mounting ring.

In any case, if you replace you're current pickups, please keep the existing ones. You might want to put them back in. Even if you don't, someone here on LTG will certainly want them (me!).

Thx for the info. I had a feeling that the new parts were not quite as good as the originals; is anything these days? So, I'll just keep it "as-is" since it's set up and works well for me. I've owned it since new in 1968; s/n EK1952. The original neck mini-bucker has an Alembic Hot Rod kit magnet in it from 1972-73 I'm guessing. It made a huge difference in sound and can hold it's own with any Patent Applied For Gibson humbucker. The bridge mini-bucker never did work well even with a Hot Rod Kit Magnet installed. Currently I've a Seymor Duncan Invader pickup installed in this position and it works well with the original/hot rodded Guild mini-bucker. All the wiring and pots were replaced around 1997; the selector switch is original. I bought some N.O.S. volume and tone knobs on that auction site around 2001 so I'm happy with that. The Schaller [sp?]tuning machines I had installed approx. 1972-3 at a guitar shop I was taking lessons at at the time; after all these years they still work well. Thx again for your input, THMJ.

Welcome to LTG! Please remember, US parts are in inches, Asian (Korean Guild) parts are metric. Does not always fit...
Ralf

SFIV1967 said:

Welcome to LTG! Please remember, US parts are in inches, Asian (Korean Guild) parts are metric. Does not always fit...
Ralf

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Thank you. I didn't remember that but it explains the "doesn't fit" stories that I do remember.