I TV Jones'd my Starfire 5

dbirchett

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I really like my Starfire 5. It is one of the last guitars that Fender/Guild made in Westerly before they moved production to Corona. Although a bit heavy, it plays well, looks superb and sounded ... well ... pretty good but not as good as I had hoped. It of course had the Fender designed HB-1s not the classic Guilds.

Like many here, I frequent the Gretschpages forum. Someone in Britain was selling some gear for charilty. One of the items was a TV Jones Power'tron neck pickup in a standard humbucking style. They were asking a reasonable price and it included shipping. Not too long ago, another forum member was selling two Bridge Power'trons that he had pulled from guitars, also in the humbucking style. I got one of these and had my pair.

I had the two of them put in the Starfire and got it back yesterday. Wow, what a difference. Clean and clear. I am not overly fond of the Bridge pickup alone, at least not at first blush but together they are great. The neck pickup alone is a whole 'nother story. Smoooooth and defined. I had seen recommendations for use of the Power'tron as a neck pickup and I have become a believer. I just played straight into the amp and have not tried it with any effects yet but I am really liking these so far.

With%20Chet%20arm%20and%20Powertrons.jpg


With%20Chet%20arm%20and%20Powertrons%202.jpg
 

walrus

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I'm also liking your Guildsby whammy bar!

walrus
 

dbirchett

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I did not care for the action of the standard Guild B7 so I raised it slightly off of the body with rubber washers (protected by felt against the body), put a one inch spring and added the "Chet" arm. Made a huge difference in the response.
 

txbumper57

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Beautiful Guitar and Congrats on getting the tone you want! I have it's Twin and mine sports a pair of Duncan Custom shop Phat Staple pickups. Out of all my Guild electrics it is the one that will stay with me to the end. I love your Bigsby Arm as well, Nice Job all the way around!
 

matsickma

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I noticed all the Guild Bigsbys of that era have a problem when the threads on the bolt that hold the arm and spring assembly together are not threaded enough. You can't tighten the nut sufficiently so that their is always extra play in the handle. When compressed the bigsby virbrato action doesn't start for the first quarter inch of handle compression.

m
 

Quantum Strummer

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Oooh, that's nice. The Chet arm rocks! :) I'm not too familiar with late Westerly Guilds…did you use custom pickup surrounds or do standard HB surrounds fit properly? (I have a set of TV Jones pickups, a Classic for the neck and a Classic Plus for the bridge, with standard surrounds waiting for the right guitar. I also know where to get my hands on some late '80s/early '90s Starfires…)

-Dave-
 

txbumper57

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I noticed all the Guild Bigsbys of that era have a problem when the threads on the bolt that hold the arm and spring assembly together are not threaded enough. You can't tighten the nut sufficiently so that their is always extra play in the handle. When compressed the bigsby virbrato action doesn't start for the first quarter inch of handle compression.
m

I have that issue with both my SF-IV Custom shop and my SF-V. They both have the same B7 Guildsby unit with the Tension bar. I have shimmed the springs and it helps but does not completely alleviate the problem. I don't have that problem with my B6 style guildsby equipped guitars like the SF-III-90 or the X-160. I may give the Chet arm a try with a shorter spring like Dbirchett did above.
 

txbumper57

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Oooh, that's nice. The Chet arm rocks! :) I'm not too familiar with late Westerly Guilds…did you use custom pickup surrounds or do standard HB surrounds fit properly? (I have a set of TV Jones pickups, a Classic for the neck and a Classic Plus for the bridge, with standard surrounds waiting for the right guitar. I also know where to get my hands on some late '80s/early '90s Starfires…)

-Dave-

If your standard TV Jones surrounds won't match up with the original holes on the body you can try a set of these. These are from Allparts and are the surrounds I used on my 2000 SF-V when I did the Duncan Custom Shop Fat Staple Swap. They are a direct replacement and fit all standard Humbucker sizes. I used these so I didn't have to drill a 3rd hole in the original pickup surrounds.

http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showth...et-Humbuckers&highlight=Starfire+Pickup+rings
 

dbirchett

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Oooh, that's nice. The Chet arm rocks! :) I'm not too familiar with late Westerly Guilds…did you use custom pickup surrounds or do standard HB surrounds fit properly? (I have a set of TV Jones pickups, a Classic for the neck and a Classic Plus for the bridge, with standard surrounds waiting for the right guitar. I also know where to get my hands on some late '80s/early '90s Starfires…)

-Dave-

I didn't install them and the installer used what surrounds he had available. I assume that they were standard surrounds.

If the Starfires you have access to are from the late '80s-early '90s, they probably have the original HB-1 pickups or, if not, then they would have the Seymour Duncan made SD-1. Both are considered excellent pickups. If I had either in this guitar, they would still be in it.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Thanks, folks, for the replies. Yes, if the pickups sound like HB-1s they will not be touched. Actually—now that it might be more than a whim—I might be more inclined to seek out a late '90s or so model, for the purpose of experimenting. Sometimes I like to tweak, and since the TV Jones pickups I have are the 4-wire type I'd likely add parallel humbucking and/or coil-splitting to the mix. No point in messing with a guitar that already has it together…

-Dave-
 

kakerlak

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With all this Bigsby and pickup talk, I think everyone is missing something... That's a gorgeous blonde Starfire!
 
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