Pickups in Newwark St Starfire III

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That is what I have been telling you all along. When the company gets big enough, responsibility is diluted.
 

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Minibuckers have been out of production for 44 years, roughly, and all of the Westerly records and parts were dumpstered when production moved to Corona. So no one knew what a minibucker was supposed to sound like at FMIC.
 

SFIV1967

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John,
FMIC bought multiple original Guild guitars from ebay back in 2012 timeframe with the intent to make as good as possible 100% copies of them (with a few exceptions due to legal issues like the headstock shape). We know the people personally who did those things, so there is no doubt. And the good and talented people in Korea did nothing else than to make almost 100% copies of them (no change in material, construction or workmanship was allowed)!
There were no original Guild factory specifications that they could have used, even if you cannot believe this.
And as you might or might not know, the neck and the bridge pickups have different specs (different pole piece spacing for instance). So what was defective was the bridge pickup, the neck pickup is fine. But you can't use a neck pickup in the bridge position! (well you can if you want...).

Just to back up this story, I just heard today from a friend who does business with China about such a funny story. He sells workwear here and he had an old and special work suit where many of his customers asked if he can get that one again (it was out of order for quite some time as the original manufacturer in Germany closed his shop). So the Chinese factory asked to get an old suit in order to copy the style. So the German sent a sample from many years ago and ordered 10,000 (or such similar number) of them, as he trusted that factory. However that sample was a used one and there was a cut in the right knee which was repaired with a patch over it. Guess what, 10,000 such new work suits arrived some month later in Germany and each one had a cut and a patch over it on the right knee!!! That's "copy exactly" !!! Well, and the guy in Germany made the mistake not to test a "prototype" before they sent him all 10,000. His fault.

Ralf
 
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jcwu

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Just to back up this story, I just heard today from a friend who does business with China about such a funny story. He sells workwear here and he had an old and special work suit where many of his customers asked if he can get that one again (it was out of order for quite some time as the original manufacturer in Germany closed his shop). So the Chinese factory asked to get an old suit in order to copy the style. So the German sent a sample from many years ago and ordered 10,000 (or such similar number) of them, as he trusted that factory. However that sample was a used one and there was a cut in the right knee which was repaired with a patch over it. Guess what, 10,000 such new work suits arrived some month later in Germany and each one had a cut and a patch over it on the right knee!!! That's "copy exactly" !!! Well, and the guy in Germany made the mistake not to test a "prototype" before they sent him all 10,000. His fault.

Sounds like a Masterbilt relic worksuit!
 

SFIV1967

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Sounds like a Masterbilt relic worksuit!
I have no idea what kind of "special" work suite it is, I also found it amusing but also questionable...It was just so much fitting the pickup story somehow!
Ralf
 

matsickma

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I've been too busy to tinker around with the guitars these days. Finding time to play a bit but that is all. In reading this post I think we have a opportunity to make this into a great sounding pickup combination.

Since the NS Guild pickups are using the little connectors it will be easy to swap neck and bridge pickups. That will help balance out the coil issues. The pole piece centering is not a big deal...subtle at best.

What I find intreging is putting the underwond bridge pickup in the neck position and then jacking up the neck pickup to be closer to the strings to improve the loudness volume. Amperes law and magnetic induction principals still hold so the larger string displacment at the neck pickup will lead to a strong output. Moving the pickup closer will continue to beef up the output by increasing tthe magnet field the metal string is oscillating in.
I also suspect the neck pickup might sound pretty good being closer to the strings. It may actually pick up some higher frequencies that may be lost when the pup is down low. It may not be what Guild planned but might just do the trick.





M
 
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Played the T-400 extensively tonight through a 1961 Gibson GA-20T.

I loathe the lead pup.
 
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So when do you think Cordoba will finally correct the underwound bridge pickup, and implement them into production with the SFIII units? I'm planning on getting a Guild SF III, but am wondering whether I should jump the gun soon or just wait and hold for a while longer until the issue is finally resolved.

The other option is to just get one, and send in the bridge pickup to those guys on eBay (in UK) that provide SFIII mini humbucker (Guild-er-tron) rewinding service, but I'm already wondering if it's worth the extra cost of shipping and rewind service.

What do you guys think so far?
 

Synchro

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So when do you think Cordoba will finally correct the underwound bridge pickup, and implement them into production with the SFIII units? I'm planning on getting a Guild SF III, but am wondering whether I should jump the gun soon or just wait and hold for a while longer until the issue is finally resolved.

The other option is to just get one, and send in the bridge pickup to those guys on eBay (in UK) that provide SFIII mini humbucker (Guild-er-tron) rewinding service, but I'm already wondering if it's worth the extra cost of shipping and rewind service.

What do you guys think so far?

I really have no complaints about the way the stock units perform. I have good balance between the neck and bridge pickups and I wouldn't try to improve upon what I already have.
 

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Yes, I would wait. They are pretty bad, compared to the stock minibucker. I'm going to see if the ones I have coming in at the end of the month have been changed, but I can bet dollars to donuts that they will be corrected. It's a great humbucker for putting in a tele, but it ain't a Guild minibucker.

Imho, ymmv.
 

griehund

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I really have no complaints about the way the stock units perform. I have good balance between the neck and bridge pickups and I wouldn't try to improve upon what I already have.

What he said. In the process of raising the poles to fine tune the string balance on the neck pup.
 
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Hmmm, interesting. Well, what I can conclude from Syncro's description and Default's description, as well as from other esoteric online sources (i.e. the pickup re-winder at Radio Shop in UK eBay), is that if you wanted more of the "Gretsch bridge pup sound" (i.e. original style Filter or TVJ Class bridge), then yes, this would be a perfect pup-to-pup tone balance.

However, if you wanted a more authentic mid 60s, period-correct mini humbucker sound, with period-correct Guild output and period-correct Guild thickness and meatiness, then yes, perhaps it would be worth waiting for Cordoba to correct the issue (or maybe have someone perform the mods for you).

So in this light, I'm seeing two different, albeit very musical solutions to this dilemma.

All I can say is that I sure do love the twang, growl, chime, and 'krang' of a thin-line hollow body guitar with filters, mini-hums or the likes.
 
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On the other hand......I wonder how effective it might be if I were to adjust the height of the bridge pickup a little closer to the strings, while maintaining pole-to-pole height adjustment: would this increase output and "thickness"? Or will the results not be that accurate?

If I opt for a pickup with more turns of wire, and increased inductance, how does this affect the tone versus just adjusting the height of the pickup itself, closer to the strings?
 

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I've got the bridge pup jacked all the way up, both on the NS SFIV, the T-400 and on the late, lamented GSR-M75 and my 1968 Starfire III that I bought for $239 kicks all of their @$$es.

Just saying that I have my preferences for how I want my guitar to drive the amp and the stock bridge pup ain't cutting the mustard. If you look at all the videos of the NS stuff, the Starfires all have fuzztone on them. Draw your own conclusions as to why. If the pups I ordered come in at 5.02k, which was the spec they sent to the Koreans, all of them are getting rewound to 7.5k and the originals are going to live in the case pocket.
 

jcwu

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I've got the bridge pup jacked all the way up, both on the NS SFIV, the T-400 and on the late, lamented GSR-M75 and my 1968 Starfire III that I bought for $239 kicks all of their @$$es.

Just saying that I have my preferences for how I want my guitar to drive the amp and the stock bridge pup ain't cutting the mustard. If you look at all the videos of the NS stuff, the Starfires all have fuzztone on them. Draw your own conclusions as to why. If the pups I ordered come in at 5.02k, which was the spec they sent to the Koreans, all of them are getting rewound to 7.5k and the originals are going to live in the case pocket.

I liked this post. It was most informative. But above all, pray tell, I would like to know:

my 1968 Starfire III that I bought for $239

How did you manage this??
 
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