First time Guild Owner Starfire IV

Guildedagain

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Let me know if you just absolutely have to get rid of the strap ;]]

Never seen one, didn't know they existed, but now I want one. Wide leather straps are absolutely the best, and leather is antibacterial and anti-fungal.

Cool covers on the guitar, I like well done DIY solutions.

At one point in the 70's, Gibson got tired of dealing with the usual way of stuffing electronics in 335 and gave them a pickguard like control plate, lift out all the pots at once, another solution but extremely ugly.

Case and strap seem to be of 80's or 90's vintage?
 

The Guilds of Grot

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So have we determined for sure the neck binding was removed? That would explain the side fret marker funkyness as well as why the E strings are so close to the edge of the fretboard!
 

Guildedagain

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Binding removed for fret job, I imagine. I'm interested in a thin neck right now, trying to do more with thumb. Frets look huge, it may just about play itself. but hopefully neck isn't back bowed from large frets tangs. I never bend strings outwards, it should be fine.

This looks like someone's obsession that was quite handy at guitar work.

The tapped pickups really appeal to me.

It's like a Custom from the days of old and the price half of a museum piece.

Need to maybe find a pair of p'up rings and a pickup adjusting screw.

Who's got parts on the site, anyone?
 

SFIV1967

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Guildedagain

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I wonder if someone at Guild could give a definitive answer, but unlikely. That is it offered right now points to recent manufacture.

It looks old, but it's made to look old.

GOG should know, if he's been collecting case items like straps for a long time.

I have one Guild strap, embroidered, not particularly great pattern but it is Guild.
 

cupric

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Binding removed for fret job, I imagine. I'm interested in a thin neck right now, trying to do more with thumb. Frets look huge, it may just about play itself. but hopefully neck isn't back bowed from large frets tangs. I never bend strings outwards, it should be fine.

This looks like someone's obsession that was quite handy at guitar work.

The tapped pickups really appeal to me.

It's like a Custom from the days of old and the price half of a museum piece.

Need to maybe find a pair of p'up rings and a pickup adjusting screw.

Who's got parts on the site, anyone?
Did you buy this guitar?
 

The Guilds of Grot

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I wonder if someone at Guild could give a definitive answer, but unlikely. That is it offered right now points to recent manufacture.

It looks old, but it's made to look old.

GOG should know, if he's been collecting case items like straps for a long time.

I have one Guild strap, embroidered, not particularly great pattern but it is Guild.
Looks to me like Ralf had your answer in Post#18 and then again in Post#25. What seems to be the confusion?
 
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Guildedagain

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Sorry Ralf ;]

It is definitive.

"I'm sure that strap design didn't exist before CMG bought Guild. It was introduced at NAMM 2016, so maximum 4-5 years old. They are available from the Guild store and others."

Explains why I've never seen one before. Timeless classic design though. Good job Guild.
 

Guildedagain

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It just struck me that I might like a Guildsby, are they are direct screw in, an old one?

SF IV and V use the same Mueller bridge?

Screen Shot 2020-12-19 at 3.16.45 PM.png


It's really cool to be expecting a guitar that already has a thread with reference pics and community interaction?
 

Guildedagain

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Interesting new info about this guitar.

I spoke on the phone with the person who sold it to Mightymole. Nice guy by the name of Ron in Cache Valley Northern UT who's a very good luthier who's into the fixing up guitars for vets program, and teaching guitar to vets to help deal with PTSD.

He puts ads in the paper for guitars for the vets program, and this came from the widow of a guy who had 20 guitars, the Guild was one of two that he kept, the other being a Gibson Dove that had had a 1x2 glued under the top as some kind of bridge doctor. Apparently he liked to tinker with his guitars.

He's the one who put access panels in the guitar and possibly removed the binding, although this luthier wasn't certain that it had been bound but he just refretted it with Evo Gold fret wire from Germany.

He also got into the pickups and split the coils and rewired it to the Jimmy Page wiring schematic on Seymour Duncan.com.

Holy crap, this thing has 4 push pull pots.

He said the switch was fiddly but he didn't want to replace it because it was original and cool.
 
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Ron

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Interesting new info about this guitar.

I spoke on the phone with the person who sold it to Mightymole. Nice guy by the name of Ron in Cache Valley Northern UT who's a very good luthier who's into the fixing up guitars for vets program, and teaching guitar to vets to help deal with PTSD.

He puts ads in the paper for guitars for the vets program, and this came from the widow of a guy who had 20 guitars, the Guild was one of two that he kept, the other being a Gibson Dove that had had a 1x2 glued under the top as some kind of bridge doctor. Apparently he liked to tinker with his guitars.

He's the one who put access panels in the guitar and possibly removed the binding, although this luthier wasn't certain that it had been bound but he just refretted it with Evo Gold fret wire from Germany.

He also got into the pickups and split the coils and rewired it to the Jimmy Page wiring schematic on Seymour Duncan.com.

Holy crap, this thing has 4 push pull pots.

He said the switch was fiddly with he didn't want to replace it because it was original and cool.

Hey guys, I'm Ron. I'm the (very) amateur luthier who patched this guitar up. Guildedagain reached out to me earlier today to ask about this guitar, it's been fun reading your comments.

Thought I'd add what I know and correct some information I gave guildedagain - I run about 5 guitars a month through my shop, and fixed this one up almost two years ago, I got the wiring and fret info mixed up with some other repairs I've done.

I found this guitar (and a slew of others) when I bought a banjo off the local classifieds. I run a Guitars for Vets chapter, so when I buy or repair instruments, I ask people if they have any guitars they would be interested in donating to the program. The banjo was being sold by the widow of a guitar geek (and combat veteran), she showed me a room of guitars she was trying to sell to pay for funeral costs. I bought a 1969 Gibson Dove, the Starfire, and a banjo for myself, and helped her price the rest of the guitars. About two months later, her daughter called me and donated the unsold guitars to the program. A few have been given out to veterans, the rest are still awaiting repairs. To be absolutely clear, I don't resell donated guitars, but the national program maintains a reverb store that is worth following: https://reverb.com/shop/guitars4vets.

Every one of the guitars from that estate have needed extensive repairs (especially that Dove, which is now an amazing player). The former owner was extremely enthusiastic with his mods, and did a lot of really funky stuff (like putting access plates on this guy). Please don't think I'm being judgmental, I've done some janky stuff on my own guitars (such as the spider web of wiring on this guild).

The Starfire was a wall hanger when I bought it. The frets were uneven and there was buzzing everywhere, sound only output from one pickup, and the outer strings tried to slip off the fretboard whenever they were fretted. It had obviously been loved half to death, which is a lot of what attracted me to it. The widow and her daughter couldn't remember the last time it had been played. Makes sense that it used to be black and had a bound neck.

It was one of my daily players for almost two years. I was sad to see it go, but after I bought a T5z during the Taylor spring sale, it just didn't get enough playtime to keep around.

What happened to this guitar while it was mine:
1 - Bought the strap and new knobs from the Guild website. Highly recommend the strap, it's a nice, wide, thick piece of quality leather. If another guild crosses my path, another strap will surely join it. Started breaking in the strap with a few rounds of mink oil and rolling it up in both directions, then a couple hundred hours of playtime. It was just getting to feel "right" when I sold it.

2 - Added those sweet d'addario elliptical end pins. There were end pins on it before, but they were mismatched and most definitely not original.

3 - I told Guildedagain on the phone that I had refretted with EVO Gold (I love the stuff and have it on almost all my own guitars), but looking at the pictures, I led him astray. Those are the frets that were on it before. They did get a badly needed level and crown job.

4 - Converted the 2 wire pickups to 4 wire using this method: https://www.robchapman.tv/forum/threads/how-to-convert-2-conductor-humbuckers-to-4-conductor.28147/

5 - Custom wiring. I usually use the seymour duncan JP setup, but looking at the pictures, I did something else on this guy. Apologies to guildedagain for the mixup. After reading this thread I reached out to Mightymole and confirmed that the volume pots were and are working properly. I experimented a lot with the wiring on this guitar, and don't properly remember what all I did to frankenstein it together.

6 - New nut. The neck on this guy is very thin and narrow. If it was bound, then the neck was shaved down on the sides at least as far as the binding channels were originally. I had to bring the strings in quite a bit on each side to keep them from slipping off the side of the neck when I played, and it seems like they were still too close for comfort for other players.

And that's it. I tried to keep it looking as close to "as found" condition as I could while turning it into a player. This is a very cool guitar that I loved. I'm thrilled it's going on to a good home.
 

Mightymole

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Hi Ron glad you added more input and back history. It really is a wonderful sounding guitar. After turning the knobs a little bit I realized it was operator error (mine) for thinking a pot was non functional.
I don't know how Ron managed the coil splitting but after using it for a while I really enjoyed it and found it useful. The bridge in full humbucker and neck split sounded very piano like.
It was a great guitar in many aspects. If the neck was a little larger I probably would have kept it, even though the ergonomics of a larger guitar don't fit my playing while sitting style.
 

Ron

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I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'd be lying if I said that the large body wasn't also part of the reason I moved on from it. I loved the cleans through my blues jr.

It wasn't my or your perfect guitar, but it's a great player that has decades more life to go. I'm glad to have been part of that journey.
 

fronobulax

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Hey guys, I'm Ron. I'm the (very) amateur luthier who patched this guitar up. Guildedagain reached out to me earlier today to ask about this guitar, it's been fun reading your comments.

Thought I'd add what I know and correct some information I gave guildedagain - I run about 5 guitars a month through my shop, and fixed this one up almost two years ago, I got the wiring and fret info mixed up with some other repairs I've done.

I found this guitar (and a slew of others) when I bought a banjo off the local classifieds. I run a Guitars for Vets chapter, so when I buy or repair instruments, I ask people if they have any guitars they would be interested in donating to the program. The banjo was being sold by the widow of a guitar geek (and combat veteran), she showed me a room of guitars she was trying to sell to pay for funeral costs. I bought a 1969 Gibson Dove, the Starfire, and a banjo for myself, and helped her price the rest of the guitars. About two months later, her daughter called me and donated the unsold guitars to the program. A few have been given out to veterans, the rest are still awaiting repairs. To be absolutely clear, I don't resell donated guitars, but the national program maintains a reverb store that is worth following: https://reverb.com/shop/guitars4vets.

Every one of the guitars from that estate have needed extensive repairs (especially that Dove, which is now an amazing player). The former owner was extremely enthusiastic with his mods, and did a lot of really funky stuff (like putting access plates on this guy). Please don't think I'm being judgmental, I've done some janky stuff on my own guitars (such as the spider web of wiring on this guild).

The Starfire was a wall hanger when I bought it. The frets were uneven and there was buzzing everywhere, sound only output from one pickup, and the outer strings tried to slip off the fretboard whenever they were fretted. It had obviously been loved half to death, which is a lot of what attracted me to it. The widow and her daughter couldn't remember the last time it had been played. Makes sense that it used to be black and had a bound neck.

It was one of my daily players for almost two years. I was sad to see it go, but after I bought a T5z during the Taylor spring sale, it just didn't get enough playtime to keep around.

What happened to this guitar while it was mine:
1 - Bought the strap and new knobs from the Guild website. Highly recommend the strap, it's a nice, wide, thick piece of quality leather. If another guild crosses my path, another strap will surely join it. Started breaking in the strap with a few rounds of mink oil and rolling it up in both directions, then a couple hundred hours of playtime. It was just getting to feel "right" when I sold it.

2 - Added those sweet d'addario elliptical end pins. There were end pins on it before, but they were mismatched and most definitely not original.

3 - I told Guildedagain on the phone that I had refretted with EVO Gold (I love the stuff and have it on almost all my own guitars), but looking at the pictures, I led him astray. Those are the frets that were on it before. They did get a badly needed level and crown job.

4 - Converted the 2 wire pickups to 4 wire using this method: https://www.robchapman.tv/forum/threads/how-to-convert-2-conductor-humbuckers-to-4-conductor.28147/

5 - Custom wiring. I usually use the seymour duncan JP setup, but looking at the pictures, I did something else on this guy. Apologies to guildedagain for the mixup. After reading this thread I reached out to Mightymole and confirmed that the volume pots were and are working properly. I experimented a lot with the wiring on this guitar, and don't properly remember what all I did to frankenstein it together.

6 - New nut. The neck on this guy is very thin and narrow. If it was bound, then the neck was shaved down on the sides at least as far as the binding channels were originally. I had to bring the strings in quite a bit on each side to keep them from slipping off the side of the neck when I played, and it seems like they were still too close for comfort for other players.

And that's it. I tried to keep it looking as close to "as found" condition as I could while turning it into a player. This is a very cool guitar that I loved. I'm thrilled it's going on to a good home.

Welcome and thanks for adding to the story. Please introduce yourself to @dreadnut who is running a Guitars For Vets chapter in Michigan.
 
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