Starfire or EmeraldFire III?

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My dad had a Fender Vibro Champ amp and a Guild Starfire. I found a local music store owner that wanted the amp and we did a trade which I was very happy about. Now he's interested in the guitar as well.

Here are pics of it: http://imgur.com/a/q2z0c

The Store owner is saying this is a repainted Emeraldfire III but he is still interested in it.

We were initially selling the guitar because we thought it would give us some decent money as my dad doesn't play guitar much anymore and I'm not interested in it (bass player).

If it's not against forum rules, can anyone give us a ballpark idea of what we're looking at value-wise?

I don't want to accept, for instance, $400 and find out it was worth twice as much.

If anyone could give us a little history about the guitar, that would be cool too. Like did it originally have Grover tuners on it? Were Emeraldfires just Starfires painted green? and so on. There's so little information on the web regarding Guilds, especially Emeraldfires.

Thanks for any help & info you can provide!

~Mark
 

AcornHouse

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Hey Mark, yes, an Emeraldfire was just a Starfire that had a green dye. The trouble with that one is that it's been refinished to red (and if its really been rePAINTed, instead of stained, which it looks like, that's worse, value-wise.) From what I can make out of the serial number, I think it's a '64, in which case I think the tuners have been replaced; they would have had open gear Grovers Statites.
Still, it is a Hoboken SF III, and if there are no hidden issues (the bridge pickup looks tilted), I'm going to guesstimate that it would be worth $1000 (if original finish, it would be double that.) Obviously, the dealer will need to pay less, so he can resell it.

Hopefully others will chime in with their opinions. Good luck!
 

SFIV1967

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Welcome to LTG! Just to add what Chris said, the pickguard is not original. It's from a younger and different Guild guitar. And the original metal toggle switch knob seems to be missing (an impossible to find part).
Also looking into the F-hole I am not sure that is the original wiring, it looks a bit wild in there.

On this picture (Source: Mike Brindell) you see the 4 available colors in 1962/1963 models: Emerald Green, Cherry Red, Honey Amber and Ebony Grain: https://scontent.ftxl1-1.fna.fbcdn....=2be04475c66fa8680059dbe2d4efee77&oe=5A23CE37

Ralf
 
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Hey Chris & Ralf, thanks so much for your input! The picture was especially helpful. I still can't believe that somebody would go to such lengths to mess up a beautiful guitar like that :(

I would definitely refurbish/restore the guitar if I was interested in doing so but, tbh, there would be no passion in it for me.

The guitar also has a bent tuner handle (not post/peg) on the G string too. But if somebody ends up restoring this, it's probably a moot point. Another thing, the paint/finish has a slight, fine orange peel texture to it with tiny crackles. It could be possible for someone like an antiques restorer to strip the top coat of paint off fairly easy.

If anybody's interested in this, pm (or email through profile) me your thoughts. I'd rather have it go to a Guild connoisseur if possible so I know that person will cherish the effort they put into it.

EDIT: Guitar has been sold. Thanks!
 
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