Hello Treem,
After you e-mailed me some of the photos of the Black Starfire 4, I thought this was a good example to show how things sometimes went at the Guild factory.
Some of you might remember the little write up I did about the time it could take between a guitar getting a serial number and the instrumen being completed. If you haven't read it, maybe you should do so:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4480&p=40175&hilit='final+assembly'#p40175
You also might remember when 'Worked In Westerly' mentioned that 'Black guitars happened' at the Guild factory with which he meant that black guitars were not always planned but they were sometimes done to cover up some kind of mistake, blemish or other cosmetic issue. Since the guitar was not ordered, they didn't have a customer for it and consequently there was no reason to complete the instrument. It looks like the guitar that Treem bought is one of those guitars that had been finished in black and stayed on the rack, till an order had come in.
Here's the illustrated story:
If we look at the serial number, # 100919, that would make it an instrument from 1974. If the guitar had been completed in 1974, it would have gotten a label like this:
However, Treem's guitar has a later label:
The label is the indication that the guitar was not completed during 1974, because this label was introduced at a later date.
The next point of interest is the truss rod cover, which has the SF-4 model name engraved in it.
These engraved truss rod covers were first used during 1976.
Next we have the bridge, which is the version that has the bridge posts going into threaded inserts in the body.
This version of the roller bridge was introduced during 1976 as well.
By looking at the various details we can determine that the guitar in question wasn't completed any earlier than 2 years after it had gotten a serial number. Since most of the parts that we discussed were used for a longer period, it is very well possible that the guitar was completed even later than 1976. We could take a look at the pots, which might give us an indication but I just wanted to show how a guitar that was started in 1974, didn't leave the Guild factory any earlier than 1976.
Which leaves us with the question: 'Should we call this a 1974 Starfire 4 or something else?'
For all practical purposes I think it's probably better to call it an instrument from 1974 but at least it shows us that dating guitars is not just a matter of looking at the serial number.
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
http://www.guitarsgalore.nl
