New Starfire V—Super Dark Neck Pickup?

[CAugustBlatz]

Hey gang! I've long been a fan of Guilds. I've played my guild acoustic for nearly 20 years now. I've always wanted one of their semi-hollow guitars. I received my Starfire V yesterday and was really excited by it—gorgeous to behold, and really well built. After a quick setup, it plays well too.

I do a lot of fingerstyle. I also come from an all single coil background—lots of teles, a jazzmaster, and a strat. I haven't had a humbucker-equipped guitar since about 2004.

First impression—the neck on this one seems really dark! Especially on the wound strings. I love hanging in neck position typically, but this one's crazy dark, especially for fingerstyle. It sounds half decent with a pick but I lose note definition on the wound strings specifically when plucking and strumming.

Anyone else have this experience? Curious to hear your thoughts. Wondering if perhaps the strings could be changed to something that would give a bit more brightness on those wound ones.

At the moment I'm not entirely sure I'll keep the instrument—I'm trying to downsize my collection to just about three that will give me a variety of tones.

Cheers!

 

[BradHK]

Quick question, when you say “new”, is it a used guitar that is new to you or a brand new instrument? Either way I would start by adjusting the pickup height to see if that makes a difference.

And we love pictures!

 

[CAugustBlatz]

Quick question, when you say “new”, is it a used guitar that is new to you or a brand new instrument? Either way I would start by adjusting the pickup height to see if that makes a difference.

And we love pictures!

I'll get some photos when I can, for sure!

It's a brand new instrument. Part of the Newark St. series. LB-1 Little Buckers, with a buttery smooth Guild logo bigsby

 

[GAD]

The neck pickup is probably hotter than the bridge. Lower it and you’ll probably like it more.

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG! As others have said, adjust the pickup (lower and higher). I had a SF-V and the neck pickup was definitely not dark when adjusted to my liking (i.e. - bright). Good luck and post some pix when you get a chance!

 

[CAugustBlatz]

Welcome to LTG! As others have said, adjust the pickup (lower and higher). I had a SF-V and the neck pickup was definitely not bright when adjusted to my liking (i.e. - bright). Good luck and post some pix when you get a chance!

Thanks for the reply! Curious—you said it wasn’t bright when adjusted to your liking? So it’s pretty dark still after adjusting?

I brought the neck up significantly last night and it just got boomy. It’s low and much sweeter now, but the wound strings are still quite dark. It’s funny because the plain ones have a nice bright edge to them

 

[GGJaguar]

Oops, sorry! I meant the neck pickup was definitely not dark. I edited my reply.

 

[CAugustBlatz]

Oops, sorry! I meant the neck pickup was definitely not dark. I edited my reply.

Ah, cool! What height did you end up going with? And what strings are you running on yours?

 

[GAD]

Ah, cool! What height did you end up going with? And what strings are you running on yours?

While the temptation to use science is strong, literally just lower it until it sounds good.

 

[CAugustBlatz]

Edited original post to include photos.

 

[GGJaguar]

literally just lower it until it sounds good.

Yes, this. I don't have the guitar anymore, but I can tell you that it took less than 10 minutes to dial in both pickups to sound how I like them. BTW, used two kind of strings on that one - nickel-plated 11s and pure nickel 11s. They both sounded good with the pure nickels being a little smoother on the top end (but not dull at all). Have fun!