New Starfire V and new member

[Staffy]

That's the nice thing with those guitars, you can fit them to what you like without having to worry to change a vintage model. It's just a bit of hard work with aquarium tubing and dental floss to take out the guts if you want to change anything inside like the mentioned things.
Ralf

Or you just hand it to your favourite tech or luthier and let them deal with it :joyous:

 

[Staffy]

A few weeks on this roller bridge is really holding up. The standard bridge was really disappointing but with the roller it's absolutely sweet. Very happy.

I noticed that Guild are selling new trapeze tailpieces on their website. I'm thinking I might pick one of those up some time in the next few months as well. Just in case I want a change one day. Though I reckon it will forever be in the bag and never fitted.

 

[txbumper57]

Welcome to LTG and nice score for you FIRST Guild! I have FIRST written in Capital letters because Guilds are compared to a Gateway Drug for more Guilds! Lots of great people here with lots of great info and a real since of community with everyone helping everyone out. Congrats and look forward to hearing more!

P.S. I remember reading here that someone switched their bridge and neck pickup positions and it improved the tone issue you mentioned drastically. Also I have roller bridges on all of my Bigsby equipped Guilds and they work great!

 

[Staffy]

Welcome to LTG and nice score for you FIRST Guild! I have FIRST written in Capital letters because Guilds are compared to a Gateway Drug for more Guilds! Lots of great people here with lots of great info and a real since of community with everyone helping everyone out. Congrats and look forward to hearing more!

P.S. I remember reading here that someone switched their bridge and neck pickup positions and it improved the tone issue you mentioned drastically. Also I have roller bridges on all of my Bigsby equipped Guilds and they work great!

You're not wrong. Only last week an early 2000's Dearmond Starfire like this one turned up for a good price on facebook. I started looking around for stuff to sell...

I didn't buy it. But just look at this thing. Isn't it beautiful!

Also, I've been a big fan of Kim Thayil from Soundgarden for a long time. I've always loved his sound. I recently found out he almost exclusively plays a Guild S-100 Polara. So Guess what I'm pining for right now?

Then there was the sound of that Guild acoustic some fella was playing in a youtube video from NAMM 2015....

Yeah I've got it bad. I've been a Telecaster and Godin player for a long time but I think I need to make room for some more Guilds in my life.

 

[SFIV1967]

I think I need to make room for some more Guilds in my life.

Ha, ha, yes GAS (Guild Acquisition Syndrome in our case) is hard to cure...Get Hans' book and you will have many more that you will look for soon...:loyal:
Ralf

 

[Staffy]

Yeah I know GAS well. The hours of scouring online ads, trying out new gear.... cupboards full of pedals....

I've had a quick look at that book too. It looks like a good thing to have around. Thanks Ralf.

 

[Staffy]

I'm loving this guitar. It sings under gain and fuzz, sounds fantastic and the roller bridge really helps when I grab a handful of the tremolo arm. I had a jam last week where I really got stuck into it and the bridge proved itself. As we've got to know each other I've now given this a name (like all good guitars deserve). She is named Rosetta after the one and only Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Anyway, I dropped the Guild off at my trusted techie today and she gonna give it another setup after swapping out the nut. I'm getting a Tusq nut fitted which is gonna make it much more slippy and get rid of some issues I've had with binding at the nut. She's gonna pop in some orange drop caps too, take a look at the pickup height, etc. She's done great work on my Tele's through the years so I'm excited to see what she does with the Guild. 7 days to wait....

So further to this GAS thing I actually emailed Guild/Cordoba recently to ask about custom shop options on the Newark Street range. I was told that they currently don't but this is on the cards for the future once their custom shop setup is up and running.

What I was angling for was a combination of the maple Starfire IV ST and the Mahogany Starfire V. I was looking to essentially get a Starfire V with a fixed bridge and tailpiece in black with white binding which would mean combining a build of a Starfire IV ST and a V. Hopefully they get this up and running by the end of next year when I'm looking to get another.

 

[Staffy]

I just spoke to my tech again as she wanted to ask about doing a treble bleed mod to the Starfire. I'm glad she asked as I forgot to mention it. I'm also getting the volume and tone layout shifted so the tone are at the bottom, volume on top, bridge pots at the back, neck pots at the front. It's the same layout I have on my four pot Teles and I'm really comfortable with it.

I'm getting excited to get Rosetta back in a week!

 

[Staffy]

So I got Rosetta the Starfire back today and man, I'm very happy.

My tech (Toni from Toni's Guitar Garage in Largs, South Australia) did a great job with the setup. Toni's set the intonation nice and low and light and it plays like butter.

I've had the original caps replaced with orange drops (and I know there are debates both sides on the benefits of these) and coupled with the treble bleed mod I'm finding the variations available across the volume and tone pots much more useable and less mud in the whole sound. Much sharper overall really.

Toni's even gone to the point of heat shrinking the orange drops in clear heat shrink which I thought was a great bit of attention to detail.

I haven't had the treble bleed mod done to the master volume as yet but a quick ten minutes with the guitar says that it will be worth it. I can roll off either of the volume controls now and all the way down to zero and there's a nice high end quality without things getting muddy. I can now leave my fuzz or octave fuzz on all the time and roll the volumes off for some great variations in sounds and small biting fizzy, farty tones, along with lower gain stuff which rolls on neatly into full blown fuzz.

I've had the pot layout adjusted too as I'm used to this setup on my Tele Deluxe and Tele Custom and it works well for me. Forward volume and tone is neck pickup, back volume and tone is rear pickup. Simple.

The nut has been replaced with a Graphtech TUSQ XL. The two Godin's I've had for years both have these nuts as standard and I've never had issues with them. Toni suggested the TUSQ nut as I wanted a replacement as I was having issues with binding across the nut when tuning or using the Bigsby. Now I've noticed I can grab a handful of the Bigsby and it'll still hold tune really well with the roller bridge and change of nut.

And here's a picture of one of my favourite parts of the Starfire IV....because, why not? The lower bout holds a toggle for the pickup and master volume. It's the perfect spot for these and was one of the things that really sold this guitar to me.

And you know what? When I picked Rosetta up Toni said to me she had spent some time checking it out after intonating everything and was really blown away by it. Now she's got the works. Tele's, Les Pauls, J Mascis sig model, etc, etc. Probably 2 dozen guitars there. She told me she's now considering one of these Guilds. Her words were "Why would you want a 335?"

That's right. Why would you?

 

[xilef regnu]

Great pics! Enjoyed following the thread.

 

[Staffy]

Great pics! Enjoyed following the thread.

Thanks buddy!

I took the Guild out last night along with a Tele deluxe, Tele Custom and Godin SD24 to a jam with two fella's I'd not met before. Man did that guitar sing. I picked up the Godin for a bit to get that real Strat neck tone but ended up switching back to the Guild pretty quickly. I'm seriously considering selling the Tele Custom to fund a Guild Maple Starfire ST now. That said I'd miss the Tele. Needless to say the next guitar I buy will probably be a Guild hollowbody.

 

[walrus]

Man did that guitar sing.

Ah, that's the most important thing! Interesting and informative thread, Staffy!

walrus

 

[Staffy]

Ah, that's the most important thing! Interesting and informative thread, Staffy!

walrus

Thanks man.

 

[Simbot]

I'm sure I won't stop there. Tone caps, switchcraft switch, upgraded pots.....

I just swapped out the PUP switch for a switchcraft, def worth it. Much more solid feeling, and no noise when switching. $17 for the switch. pretty easy to do.

 

[Staffy]

I just swapped out the PUP switch for a switchcraft, def worth it. Much more solid feeling, and no noise when switching. $17 for the switch. pretty easy to do.

Do you have a model number for the switch you used? I know there's a bunch of different ones.

 

[Simbot]

Do you have a model number for the switch you used? I know there's a bunch of different ones.

this one:
http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_...es/Switchcraft_Right-angle_Toggle_Switch.html

Stewmac #1243

 

[Staffy]

Thanks for that. I had a feeling the right angle toggle would be the best fit.