'82 Starfire 4 without pickup covers or pick guard

[waveland]

Hi All,
New to this site, but not new to Guild Guitars my acoustic being a D-55. I'm looking at an '82 Starfire 4 for $1,200. Owner says he bought it new and it had no pickup covers or pick guard. I did some research and found a mid '80's ad without them so he may be right. What do you think of this year and can I retrofit some covers on at least? Those humbuckers are ugly without the covers!
Many thanks,
Dave

 

[hansmoust]

I'm looking at an '82 Starfire 4 for $1,200. Owner says he bought it new and it had no pickup covers or pick guard. I did some research and found a mid '80's ad without them so he may be right. What do you think of this year and can I retrofit some covers on at least? Those humbuckers are ugly without the covers!
Many thanks,
Dave

Hello Dave,

Welcome! You didn't post any photos so there are several possibilities:

1) You have the black XR-7 pickups, which originally had no covers but they are 'Gibson' size and Gibson style covers will fit.

2) You have HB-1 pickups, of which the covers were removed. Only original Guild HB-1 covers will fit.

3) Somebody changed the pickups to whatever they are and Gibson style covers might fit.

However there's a good chance that we are looking at possibility 1, since Starfire 4s from 1982 with open-coil XR-7 pickups and without a pickguard are quite common.

Just show us a photo and we can tell you more.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[waveland]

Hi Hans,

Thanks for the info..........sorry to sound dumb, but I don't see where it says attach a file on here to attach an image?
The pickups are black....if they are XR-7's will a cover just snap over them and are they available? I'll get a photo to you as soon as I figure it out.

Regards,
Dave

Is this right??

 

[capnjuan]

Hi Dave and welcome; the way most people post pics is to open an account with a web-based photo host like Photobucket ... any one of them will do. Upload your pics to the web host; that site will assign a web address to the file that you can then copy and paste into your draft post. The BB software will go get your pic - now that it knows where to look - and display it when you 'submit' your post. CJ

 

[waveland]

Thanks CJ,

Let's see if this works

[/url] </div>[/img]

 

[waveland]

Okay now.....guess you can tell I didn't grow up with a computer, ha, ha!


http://s833.photobucket.com/albums/zz260/wavelandbvi/

 

[Qvart]

Okay now.....guess you can tell I didn't grow up with a computer, ha, ha!


http://s833.photobucket.com/albums/zz260/wavelandbvi/

Close...

Put the URL for an image inside the IMG brackets.

(click "quote" at the bottom of my post and you'll see how it looked when I posted this)

And yes, those look like XR-7 p'ups.

Sweet SF! and welcome!

 

[waveland]

I think I'm getting it......like this

So, is there an available way to cover up those pickups?
Thanks for all your help
Dave

 

[capnjuan]

I think I'm getting it......like this

Hmmm ... nice in a special way ... keep at it ... it's actually a little harder than it seems ... but I can see right away you're no teenager 8)

 

[Qvart]

So, is there an available way to cover up those pickups?
Thanks for all your help
Dave

Hans says Gibson-sized covers will fit those. You should be able to pick up a couple Gibson covers at any store that carries Gibson gear. Attach the covers to the base by soldering in the center of each of the two longer sides of the cover. Remove any black tape that may be stuck to that part of the pickup plate first.

I did this with some Seymour Duncans.

Before:

After:

 

[Qvart]

Ah, I see what happened here - you copied the link for "Email & IM." When you're looking at your pics in Photobucket, choose the link labeled "Direct Link" and put that between the IMG brackets. Or, copy the "IMG Code" (which already includes the IMG brackets) and paste that into your post.

 

[walrus]

Here's the "classic" photo insertion instructions from Default:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5522&p=53311&hilit=imageshack#p53311

walrus

 

[Qvart]

Attach the covers to the base by soldering in the center of each of the two longer sides of the cover. Remove any black tape that may be stuck to that part of the pickup plate first.

Oh yeah, you'll want to put a strip of black tape on top of the pickup too. Click here for some instructions. Pretty simple.

 

[Default]

One of those in black sparkle.... I should have sold a kidney....

 

[waveland]

Okay everyone......trying it two different ways....not to much laughing if it doesn't work out. Happy to say I understand the blues much better then the internet. Thanks for all of the info.....great community.
Dave

http://s833.photobucket.com/albums/zz26 ... nt=003.jpg

 

[Default]

Okay everyone......trying it two different ways....not to much laughing if it doesn't work out. Happy to say I understand the blues much better then the internet. Thanks for all of the info.....great community.
Dave

http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz26 ... vi/003.jpg

Okey dokey, do you see that box down on the left that says "Share this image"?
You can copy the "direct image" url and paste it between the board's image tags or copy the IMG url and that has the tags already. It's all good! :wink:

 

[Qvart]

....not to much laughing if it doesn't work out.

Hey, you're not the first who took awhile to get it!

Okay, when you look at a picture in your Photobucket account, this is the link you want to copy and paste here into a post (circled in red):

Good luck!

 

[hansmoust]

Hello Dave,

So I guess by now you know that your pickups are XR-7 humbuckers. They are more or less Gibson-sized and Gibson aftermarket covers will fit. There are a couple of things to consider though:

1) The XR-7 pickup has 12 adjustable polepieces. Regular Gibson covers only have one row of holes for the polepieces.

2) The spacing of the polepieces on the XR-7 is a little narrower, so the holes will not exactly line up with the polepieces.
The polepieces also have a smaller 'head' so all in all it may look a little 'funny' depending on how important looks are to you.

Now I do not know if you bought the guitar already or not and what styles of music you are planning to play on it, but maybe you could also consider this:

The XR-7 pickups are high-output distortion type humbuckers.They are decent pickups but they may not be a versatile pickup if you want to play other, say more Jazz-oriented, types of music. You could swap out the pickups for a set of HB-1 humbuckers. That would still keep the guitar period correct and you will end up with a guitar more suitable for different music styles. And at the same time it would take care of the 'open coil humbucker' look that you don't like.

Maybe you should first check if the XR-7 pickups give you the sound that you're looking for, before you start working on the 'looks' of the XR-7 pickups.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[Qvart]

The XR-7 pickup has 12 adjustable polepieces.

I did not notice they have two rows of pole pieces. Yeah, that would present a problem with installing covers.

 

[ac1dt3st]

The XR-7 pickups are high-output distortion type humbuckers.They are decent pickups but they may not be a versatile pickup if you want to play other, say more Jazz-oriented, types of music.

sounds similar to the hot "dirty fingers" pickups Gibson was using in the early 80s, a high output pickup great for a biting, overdriven sound, but not as suitable for jazz or clean blues...