Guild AntiHum and LB1 Pickup Guide

GAD

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I've taken what I've learned about the vintage Guild AntiHum and modern LB1 pickups and put it all into an article:

http://www.gad.net/Blog/2018/03/09/guild-anti-hum-lb1-mini-humbucker-pickups/

Guild-AntiHum-LB1-Pickups1.jpg



As always, please PM me with any errors you may find.

Enjoy!

GAD
 

shihan

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Very informative GAD. Thanks for the article. You do a great service to the Guild community.
 

jp

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Which reminds me, I have to get you a measurement from my '68 CE-100 the next time I have the strings off.
 

GAD

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Which reminds me, I have to get you a measurement from my '68 CE-100 the next time I have the strings off.

You can do it while it's strung. Put the probes on the tip and ring and put all knobs on 10. Then switch the pickups and record what you see.

It's not perfect, but it's close enough for what I'm looking for.
 

dbirchett

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Love your reviews/articles GAD. Still waiting on your review of the Blue Starfire V.
 

GAD

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Love your reviews/articles GAD. Still waiting on your review of the Blue Starfire V.

Thanks!

My next review is something special, but it's not the Blue Starfire. :emmersed:
 

SFIV1967

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Last edited:

GAD

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Hi Gary,
great job! Some comments. On your chart of pickups you show a question mark for the holes on my 1967 pair. The bridge pickup has the hole, the neck pickup has no hole.
Also I cannot confirm that all vintage versions had squared pickup rings look at my Starfire IV from 1967:

Both: https://imgur.com/loqkS9e
Neck: https://imgur.com/bXMJ1OU
Bridge: https://imgur.com/9WomxTh

Ralf

Fabulous information - thank you! I've updated my spreadsheet and will update the page. May I use your pic of the rings to reinforce the point that they're not all the same? Happy to give you credit.

Thanks!

GAD
 

GAD

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I've updated the article in order to change the image of data collected into a PDF that opens when you click the image. This has the added benefit of making the URLs in the PDF clickable. I've also updated the data with some changes and now that I have a total of 58 pickups reported.
 

mellowgerman

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Great article. Thanks for authoring and sharing it! For some reason pickup stuff always fascinates me. I'm pretty savvy when it comes to the basics, but I just picked up (pun retroactively intended) a big fat book all about guitar pickups. Can't wait to get really deep into the technical nitty gritty of it all.
 

GAD

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Great article. Thanks for authoring and sharing it! For some reason pickup stuff always fascinates me. I'm pretty savvy when it comes to the basics, but I just picked up (pun retroactively intended) a big fat book all about guitar pickups. Can't wait to get really deep into the technical nitty gritty of it all.

I love pickups, too. They're coils of wire with some poles and a magnet; how hard could it be? I'm amazed at how much the stuff I learned while doing ham radio paid off with guitar.
 

RyanV

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I'd like to know if anybody has actually replaced the newer LB-1 bridge pickup with a new neck pickup and what the difference in tone was having the hotter LB-1 neck pickup in the bridge.
 

Default

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That is a popular mod. I have not done it yet, because I want to rip one of my spares apart first.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Well done, GAD, as always.

Back when I was into measuring pickup DC resistance I came across quite a few '60s Starfires with Anti-Hums in the mid-6K range. (Wish I'd bought a couple of those guitars…just figured they'd always be around locally in quantity.) This coulda been a skewed sample set but that seemed to be the norm.

I personally think the 5K pickups sound fantastic, but then I'm into bright & jangly clean sounds. And those pickups work really well with fuzz & other raw-sounding gain pedals whereas lotsa higher-output p'ups hit the pedals too hard and make 'em overcompress.

-Dave-
 
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just wanted to chime in. Its now august 2020. I picked up a starfire 4, which I think was produced in 2019, I bought it new as a blemished item from guitar center. I took it to my luthier who is completely top notch. The interesting point is that both pickups measured in the 7 range, so I am guessing this issue is resolved.. Its a NS Starfire, Korean. I love the axe. I will also add that it needed a couple frets leveled and the bridge was in need of some adjustment, but I am ok with all of that. But the fact that the pickups match I think is of value to share.
 

GAD

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Interesting!

Guild is still advertising the bridge LB1 as having a 5k resistance, at least on the parts page. It would be very cool if they fixed this but I’d think they’d advertise the hell out if it if they did.

Might need to do some renewed digging.
 
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I dont know. Lets see how it plays out. Here is what he found: neck: 7.45 bridge : 7.29. Serial is : KSG1804270.
 
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