New Newark starfire reissue vs 2001 model

I've got my eye on the new Newark St Starfire reissues. They seem pretty affordable, but would be more so on the used marked, if one ever comes up (I'm in the UK).

But recently a USA made Starfire 3 came up on ebay, for a bit more (about £100) than the newarks are new (though there's a good chance it'll increase before the auction's done). The current owner guesses it was made 2000-2001.

Any idea how it would compare to the new model? Which would be better value for money?

They're pretty different guitars. The NS is close to a reissue of a mid 60's Starfire III, and the mini-humbuckers make it a twangier, treblier beast than the 2001 Starfire you're looking at. With the pickups that one has, it'll be a little darker and more towards a typical Gibson kind of tone.

Walter Broes said:

They're pretty different guitars. The NS is close to a reissue of a mid 60's Starfire III, and the mini-humbuckers make it a twangier, treblier beast than the 2001 Starfire you're looking at. With the pickups that one has, it'll be a little darker and more towards a typical Gibson kind of tone.

Click to expand...

Doesn't the NS have humbuckers too? Guild® "Anti-Hum" Dual-Coil, apparently.

http://www.guildguitars.com/en-GB/instruments/details/?partno=3792005866

Yes they are humbucking pickups but they are copies of Guild's first humbucking pickups which were mini-HB in form. As Walter said, they teend to be "twangier" and "treblier."

For 2001, the HBs are likely to be the Fender designed versions of the Guild HB which are not as well thought of as earlier Guild pickups. They aren't that bad necessarily (I have a 2001 Starfire 5) but they aren't as well regarded as the earlier HB-1 or the Seymour Duncan SD-1 that preceded them. You might want to read this article by a forum member http://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/11/25/guild-full-sized-hb1-and-sd1-pickup-variations/

If such a thing matters to you, resale will likely be higher on the '00-'01 Starfire.

Get the S/N and check with Hans, though. I don't know that I've ever seen a guess about year be correct when it comes to Westerly Guilds.

@hessodreamy: I guess you talk about the blonde one. It seems to have the Fender HB-1 pickups. I can't read the serial number from the headstock, pictures are too small. But very late 90ies or 2000/2001 seems to be right. Made in Westerly.



Ralf

SFIV1967 said:

@hessodreamy: I guess you talk about the blonde one. It seems to have the Fender HB-1 pickups. I can't read the serial number from the headstock, pictures are too small. But very late 90ies or 2000/2001 seems to be right. Made in Westerly.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's the one. The seller says the serial is AG302488 if that help?

hessodreamy said:

...the serial is AG302488 if that help?

Click to expand...

Well, that time (1998-2005) is not in the so far published serial number lists (which also have errors): (http://support.guildguitars.com/2012/dating/Dating_Your_Guild.pdf)
It's definitely after 1997, the last 1997 number was something like AG301083.
Hans Moust has most of the official factory records for that time, if he sees this he will most probably comment here.
Ralf