I've been holding off on this thread for the better part of a week until I got the guitar and actually checked it out, cleaned it up, and took a few days to get used to it, play it, examine it. I'm happy to announce that I recently scored yet another mojo-filled '64. This time a cherry red mahogany Starfire IV. This SFIV and my SFV are only 16 serial numbers apart! Crazy!
Anyway, it's another played-in piece with some wear and minor issues, but with time I've realized that it would make more sense for me to hold onto it and get it fixed up than to be overly anal about it and return the guitar. For those that weren't aware, it was the SFIV listed on ebay as 'Guild Starfire Guitar' with a very lackluster description. I saw potential in the guitar even with the apparent issues, and I think I did quite alright.
I don't have any of my own pictures of the guitar yet and the seller's pictures aren't very flattering, but I plan to put some up sometime today. I took a little time to give it some basic TLC and get it to a state where I could rely on it immediately in a gigging/studio environment, since I have a session this weekend where it would probably work well. Just a fret polishing, nut lube, bridge adjustment, and string swap. She plays REAL well. I can hear and feel the potential after a proper setup by my tech. But for now, I'm totally satisfied. The voice of this guitar is different than my SFV in a lot of ways. It's a bit louder and thicker sounding. It doesn't have the snap that the SFV has, but it's got a throatier tone and sounds more aggressive. I have to assume that the main differences come from the harp/bigsby and the maple/mahogany.
The toughest decision I'm faced with now is: which one do I keep? Realistically I can't afford to hang onto both, as cool as it would be (especially considering how close they are with regards to serial #s). I guess the best thing to do is to make sure both are setup and the playing field is level, then make my judgements from there.
BTW, I'll be sending the guitar down to Fixit for some minor repair work. The man knows his stuff for sure! He's already got a handle on what needs to be done and how to handle it appropriately. Really loving these resources on LTG!
Anyway, it's another played-in piece with some wear and minor issues, but with time I've realized that it would make more sense for me to hold onto it and get it fixed up than to be overly anal about it and return the guitar. For those that weren't aware, it was the SFIV listed on ebay as 'Guild Starfire Guitar' with a very lackluster description. I saw potential in the guitar even with the apparent issues, and I think I did quite alright.
I don't have any of my own pictures of the guitar yet and the seller's pictures aren't very flattering, but I plan to put some up sometime today. I took a little time to give it some basic TLC and get it to a state where I could rely on it immediately in a gigging/studio environment, since I have a session this weekend where it would probably work well. Just a fret polishing, nut lube, bridge adjustment, and string swap. She plays REAL well. I can hear and feel the potential after a proper setup by my tech. But for now, I'm totally satisfied. The voice of this guitar is different than my SFV in a lot of ways. It's a bit louder and thicker sounding. It doesn't have the snap that the SFV has, but it's got a throatier tone and sounds more aggressive. I have to assume that the main differences come from the harp/bigsby and the maple/mahogany.
The toughest decision I'm faced with now is: which one do I keep? Realistically I can't afford to hang onto both, as cool as it would be (especially considering how close they are with regards to serial #s). I guess the best thing to do is to make sure both are setup and the playing field is level, then make my judgements from there.
BTW, I'll be sending the guitar down to Fixit for some minor repair work. The man knows his stuff for sure! He's already got a handle on what needs to be done and how to handle it appropriately. Really loving these resources on LTG!
