Starfire lV pickups

jiagap

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I have a nice starfire 4. What are some upgrade options folk have liked for upgrading the pickups?
 

dbirchett

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I have a nice starfire 4. What are some upgrade options folk have liked for upgrading the pickups?

To respond, it would help to know the age of your Starfire, what pickups are in it already, what you do not like about them. what pickups you do like and what music you intend to play with them. Most of the pickups that have been in the Starfire IV over the years have been quite good.

Having said that, I have a Starfire V from 2001 that had the Fender-designed HB-1 pickups in it (not to be confused with teh Guild-designed HB-1) and I changed them out for TV Jones Power'Trons. I like the change. A lot.
 

SFIV1967

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I also think that both the 60ies Guild minihumbuckers and the 70ies to 90ies Guild HB-1s are perfectly for the Starfire IV from those eras. Don't remember much if any changed vintage Starfire IV at all. Also the later 90ies SD made SD-1 (a SD in a HB-1 cover) are great. Not everybody was happy with the Fender designed HB-1.
If you are talking a Newark St. Starfire IV the issue is that the bridge pup is underwound (BHK used either a defective vintage pickup as master copy or two different pickups from two different series, a 5k and a 7k version) and hence not balanced to the neck pickup, so some owners had the bridge pup rewound for a better match. I also heard that somebody simply switched the neck and bridge pup on the Newark St. Starfire IV to achieve a better tone.

Some options and opinions from GAD are here:
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2017/02/02/2000-guild-starfire-iv-4/
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2017/04/07/1998-guild-starfire-iv-4/
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2018/03/09/guild-anti-hum-lb1-mini-humbucker-pickups/
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2017/09/24/identifying-fake-vintage-guild-hb1s/
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/11/25/guild-full-sized-hb1-and-sd1-pickup-variations/
https://www.gad.net/Blog/2016/07/07/guild-hb1-pickups-new-vs-old/

Ralf
 
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adorshki

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To respond, it would help to know the age of your Starfire, what pickups are in it already, what you do not like about them. what pickups you do like and what music you intend to play with them. Most of the pickups that have been in the Starfire IV over the years have been quite good.
Having said that, I have a Starfire V from 2001 that had the Fender-designed HB-1 pickups in it (not to be confused with teh Guild-designed HB-1) and I changed them out for TV Jones Power'Trons. I like the change. A lot.

I also think that both the 60ies Guild minihumbuckers and the 70ies to 90ies Guild HB-1s are perfectly for the Starfire IV from those eras. Don't remember much if any changed vintage Starfire IV at all. Also the later 90ies SD made SD-1 (a SD in a HB-1 cover) are great. Not everybody was happy with the Fender designed HB-1.
Ralf

It's a very late Corona originally advertised as an '05.
We explained that wasn't possible when he first asked for advice about buying it:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/sh...sed-2005-Starfire-IV-vs-New-Starfire-VI/page2
 

GAD

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If you don't care about the very Guild-looking double hump covers, and you don't want to go boutique, I'd recommend Seth Lovers. Fabulous pickups.

If you do care about the Guild covers, your only options are to have them rewound. The new Guild is selling guitars with import pickups that look the part, but I don't know if you can buy them directly yet and I don't think any of us have any experience with them yet.
 

Quantum Strummer

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If you are talking a Newark St. Starfire IV the issue is that the bridge pup is underwound (BHK used a defective vintage pickup as master copy as far as I understood) and hence not balanced to the neck pickup, so some owners had the bridge pup rewound for a better match. I also heard that somebody simply switched the neck and bridge pup on the Newark St. Starfire IV to achieve a better tone.

The NS LB-1 bridge pickup uses 41 gauge (I think) wire but is likely wound with around the same number of turns as the neck p'up (using 42 gauge wire) and so reads lower on the ohmmeter. The thicker the wire the lower the resistance per unit of measurement. So the pickup isn't really defective—Guild wound some anti-hums this way in the '67–70 period—just kinda unusual.

-Dave-
 

SFIV1967

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The NS LB-1 bridge pickup uses 41 gauge (I think) wire but is likely wound with around the same number of turns as the neck p'up (using 42 gauge wire) and so reads lower on the ohmmeter. The thicker the wire the lower the resistance per unit of measurement. So the pickup isn't really defective—Guild wound some anti-hums this way in the '67–70 period—just kinda unusual.
Thanks Dave, yes that is the story Guild told us here: https://guildguitars.com/a-deeper-look-at-the-starfire-pickup/

See also here about the issue and possible fixes, in any case they are mismatched in the NS guitars: https://www.gad.net/Blog/2018/03/09/guild-anti-hum-lb1-mini-humbucker-pickups/

But that doesn't help the OP as he has a Corona one with Fender HB-1s.

Ralf
 
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Ralf, I think GAD was talking about the standard-sized "HB-2" pickups on the Chinese M-75. Those are not available yet.
 

SFIV1967

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Ralf, I think GAD was talking about the standard-sized "HB-2" pickups on the Chinese M-75. Those are not available yet.
Ah! I remember, the normal BHK made HB-1 would most probably not fit in the cutouts of a Corona SF-4... as Gad shows here: https://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/11/25/guild-full-sized-hb1-and-sd1-pickup-variations/
"Both pickups are 2 ¾ inches in length, but the Guild HB1 is 1 9/16″ wide where the regular humbucker (and the Fender HB-1) is 1 ½” wide. That’s only a difference of 1.59mm, but it’s enough to cause problems."
Ralf
 
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