My 1984 Starfire 4, reborn

[Fab4ever]

Hello all. I joined this forum just a couple months back when I became the proud owner of a 1984 Guild Starfire 4. I love the feel of the neck, the quality of the construction and, especially, the unamplified sound. However, it came with those XR-7 high-gain humbuckers that DiMarzio supplied to Guild for a few years -- too gainy for me. And also it had no Guildsby.

While I would have loved to find some vintage HB1s and a Guildsby, I know I couldn't afford either. So, I got some DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAF style humbuckers and a B12 Bigsby and brought it all to my wonderful tech/luthier, David Anderson (http://www.tritoneguitars.com). I picked it up this morning. I think it turned out rather well:

I've only been able to play it for a few minutes, through my silverface Fender Vibrolux Reverb. But I love the sounds I was getting. Can't wait until I can really run it through its paces tonight!

 

[coastie99]

Looks great Fab ! 8) 8)

I'm sure you're going to love it; let us know more.

 

[walrus]

Great looking guitar! Crank it up when you get a chance!

walrus

 

[Fab4ever]

Thanks fellas -- I plan on cranking it a bit tonight, but will probably have to wait for the kids to go to bed.

 

[Jeff Haddad]

Your kids must be heavy sleepers :lol:

That's a sweet looking guitar, let us know how you like the upgrades.

 

[Fab4ever]

Well, I got to play it a bit last night and again this morning. I used by two silverface Fenders, a Vibrolux Reverb and a Princeton Reverb. I was VERY pleased with the sound. These pickups aim, I think, to be a bit less extreme in their response -- in other words, as the website says, the treble/bridge pickup is less cutting/trebly than many, and the neck is less dark/muffled than many.

To me, this makes it easier to switch between them without changing amp settings, which I really like.

The guitar itself is just wonderful. My tech set it up with super-low action and .10s (though I will switch to .11s the next string change). It exudes quality. And the B12 Bigsby is perfect IMO for this guitar. It gives it a nice warble without tuning issues.

Tonight I will try to play it back to back against my Gretsch 6118T on the same amp. I'll let you know how they compare...

 

[Fab4ever]

A bit of an update: I am playing "out" with the Guild for the first time this weekend - at church. I've been practicing in the home studio and having a ball. The guitar is so easy to play, and it makes beautiful sounds either clean or dirty-ish.

We're doing mostly rock-ish numbers, a couple of them U2-sounding with delay and some grit, and the Starfire is really sounding great through my silverface Vibrolux Reverb. I will try that against my Princeton Reverb and pick the best for the services.