New to LTG, 2nd owner of 1966 EN784, Starfire V Blonde, since March or April of 1967

Jennifer

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Greetings everyone... Just found this place and HAD to join..

I am a 'duffer' of a guitar player today, but back in the 60s, like a lot of teens back then, I had aspirations, and with some effort I learned to play enough to join in with nighborhood garage bands that were on just abiut everywhere in our neighborhood in south Minneapolis area. In late 1966, just as winter was coming on, a beautiful Guild Starfire V showed up a Len's Guitar City in Bloomington Minnesota for sale on consignment. I was taking lessons there every week, and Len let me use the instrument in the lesson studio instead of my crap instrument.

By early in 1967, it was gone. I asked if it had been sold, and he said no..the owner, a member of the Minneapolis based one hit wonder band, the Castaways, [ Liar Liar, on Soma label] owned it and had just taken it home. The band had come on hard times after a big hit in 65 and a huge tour in '66, when hit number 2 never materialized. Len said he sold the guy the instrument and a few months later when monsy started to get tight, he took it back to try and sell...I recall a price starting in the 700 or so range, dropping to upper 500s before the fellow took it home.

Len gave me the name and number to contact myself..I gave the information to my dad and arrangements were made to visit the band house and see the guy and the guitar...He still wanted a lot of money for it, but my dad learned that he had a $200 payment for something due in about 2 weeks...We left that evening with no deal and I was heartbroken, I loved the guitar SO much!!but dad had a plan... In 10 days time or so, my dad called him back as asked if he had the $200 he needed so immediately, and he said no. Dad replied that he had $200 cash waiting, and he could have it for the Giuld...about 11 minutes later 2 band members arrived at our door and the exchange was made! I have had it ever since!

I do not recall who the band member was that owned it at the time, and I cannot find any photos of the band with this specific guitar. I presume it was Robert LeRoy Folshow, also known as Bob Laroy who was the main guitar man in the band, but it might have been founding member Roy Hensley, who went back and forth betwen guitar and bass. Roy passed away in 2006, so I never be able to ask him...but I just found Robert Folshows address, so a letter and photos will be posted in due time to ask if if it had been his. I DO know and recall clearly from the time, that the guy that had the Guild also had a Gibson 355 that was similar in shape. In many photos and videos of the 1964 to 1966 period, Fulshow can be seen playing larger body, thin, electrics, either a single or double cut-away type, so I know he was attracted to this style of instrument. The only other guitar man in the band was founding member Dick Roby...who had likely left the band by mid 1966 when the Giuld was purchased. Who ever it was, they only had a few months...and it has been with me ever since. Could I be the longest continuing single guild owner on this forum? Don't know, but it would be fun to find out!

1966 EN784, ...how is she doing today?
Her frets are wearing out, and over time the set of the neck has slowly moved a tiny bit, resulting in the need for some ever-so-slight lowering of the highest frets to compensate for the slight curve where the neck meets the body...and as a result, the bridge needs to be low, like all just about all the way down on one side. Back in the day, there was a little room and the bridge could be lowered farther, relative to the neck. It is still barely in range to work fine, but when I get it re-fretted, the luthier will need to know about this and be sure to accomidate. I don't really want to invest in neck reset! The binding as shrunk a little up in the double cut-away area...but I don't mind. We could re-glue it and make up the tiny shortfall at the ends near the neck base with some new segments, but it does not buzz and I think it adds to the patina. The bulk of the binding around the body is just fine. This Starfire V was fitted with the Harp tailpiece...I remeber back in the day [ still in the 60s] thinking about orderin the Guild Bigsby for it, but never did..and now never will. About 15 years ago I removed the black pick guard as I have never thought it attractive, and later it fell behind a book case. One of these days I will remove the thosuand of pounds of book to retreive it, but for now it is safe and just gathers dust. I have recently thought of making a rosewood pickguard that will at least match the fretboard, and maybe add some tone, as compared to the plastic guard originally fitted. I don't have any photos of her handy, but will try to get some posted in the coming weeks.

Over the many decades, I have had the opportunity to play a lot of guitars, and of ALL those there was only ONE that felt as natural to me as my Starfire, and that was a real special one...BB Kings, Lucille.. by 1968 my family had moved to Oregon, and he came to our town on tour in 1969. His band played a small venue out on the east side, Springers Ballroom... at break time, the rest of his bend went out back behind the building for a while, while BB lingered near the stage. I went up and introduced myself as a huge fan and sort of a blues player. He was SO KIND, ...and gentle..his handshake like feeling a cloud! ....I asked him if he would allow me to just touch Lucille, to have had the experience...Instead he silently handed her to me, and then said quietly, "Hear her voice for yourself"....I was in heaven! 2 or 3 years later I met BB again at a huge open air concert in the downdown Portland arena..he remember me and we chatted a few minutes after his set, before he was whisked away.... What a memory, to have played some fiffs on Lucille for BB himself!!!! A high point in my life for sure...

Well that's the basic story....I'm getting older now, and want to fill in the blanks about the early life of my Guild. She has been a VRY special guitar to me, both for her early history, and the music she and I have played together over the years, for almost a half a century.... Cheers, Jennifer
 

twocorgis

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Great yarn, and welcome to LTG Jennifer! Lots of Starfire love around here, and maybe Hans will chime in with some additional information about your beloved guitar. Happy Thanksgiving, too!
 

rampside

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Welcome Jennifer, what a grand entrance with that wonderful story. No bigger fan of BB myself and you're originally from Minnesota to boot!
I'm sure a lot of folks here, will be anxiously awaiting some photos.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Terry
 

AcornHouse

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Welcome, welcome! Great story, but, of course, we will need to see pics before we can truly welcome you. :triumphant:
 

davismanLV

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Welcome to LTG, Jennifer!! I love it when someone shows up with a great story to tell. Great that you still have the guitar and we DO LOVE PHOTOS!! Happy Thanksgiving!! :encouragement:
 

killdeer43

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Thanksgiving Day WELCOME TO LTG from the Evergreen State!
Great first post, as several have alluded, and I think someone also mentioned pics....we love pics!

Have a great day and stick around, :apple:
Joe
 

The Guilds of Grot

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Welcome Jennifer! I've had my 1966 T-100D since 1967 so we both have long time Guilds! (Click on my Museum link below for a photo.)
 

JohnW63

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I would pop for the neck reset. I would think the guitar is "worth" more to you than it's retail value. Get it back in great form, Jennifer !

Welcome, by the way.
 

Zelja

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What an introduction! Welcome to LTG Jennifer. Great story & fantastic to have that experience with BB & Lucille. Looking forward to pics.
 

southernGuild

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Welcome Jennifer, and thank you for that wonderful introduction. Sounds like a very special guitar indeed, Full of your own personal history and Guild goodness.
Cool tale of B.B King too.:soap: Every tale I hear from folks that have met him are much the same......A really kind and generous man. A class act.
Anyway, Looking forward to photos here too. Glad you found your way here.
 

idealassets

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It appears that you have some great roots in music. I hope that BB King liked your playing.

Don't laugh too hard, but when "Liar, Liar" was out on top 40 AM radio, we all decided "if they can do it, we can do it". So we formed a band, but no one had any instruments. There was no such thing as "air guitar" then, but we found that canoe paddles for guitars did the job. Of course a few of us did eventually buy instruments, and then make some money at playing in public.

HOWEVER, I have not met anyone in the state of Michigan that has any musical roots such as you describe with your Starfire, or any other Guild guitar for that matter.
 
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Jennifer

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Just a basic photo...sorry for the poor quality, it is just a cheap cell phone camera, but I wanted to at least get something here for you folks to see. Just a few days ago our Nikon digital lost the display driver, so its time to go shopping for a replacement. Until we have a new "real" camara and can update with some nice photos, at least to start with, here is a low resolution introduction.. The sharp eyed viewer will see the high e string is absent..A fresh re-string is NOW due!



<a href="http://s54.photobucket.com/user/Fiberglassfan/media/313b9b83-0eac-4bbd-ac6f-760f8fbb38fc.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g83/Fiberglassfan/313b9b83-0eac-4bbd-ac6f-760f8fbb38fc.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 313b9b83-0eac-4bbd-ac6f-760f8fbb38fc.jpg"/></a>

[url]http://s54.photobucket.com/user/Fiberglassfan/media/313b9b83-0eac-4bbd-ac6f-760f8fbb38fc.jpg.html


 
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Jennifer

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I have just uploaded an avatar photo, and I see it is working! Soon my recent reply post, and a cell phone photo [ low quality ] should appear as a "reply" on this thread. Cheers
Jennifer
 

geoguy

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You're a good writer, Jennifer . . . welcome to LTG, & thanks for posting this story.

I'd like to add another vote for resetting the neck on that special guitar.
 

sailingshoes72

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Welcome Jennifer! I enjoyed reading the story of your '66 Starfire V. We like photos on LTG, but we also enjoy the backstory of members' instruments and how they acquired them. Yours is a good one. It is interesting when guitars have a cultural history like yours does.

Best, Bill
 

Jennifer

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I just spent some time digging into the internet to learn more about the bridge on my Starfire...Most of the photos I have seen of other Stars have different bridges, but now and then I see another like mine. Turns out to be a Hagstrom Adjusto-Matic , made in Älvdalen, Sweden. I found an oline reference to Hans book that details these on many pages, aparently used on, and I quite from the reference "Thunderbird/S-200,Polara/S-100,Jet-Star/J-50 and hollow body models Starfire I,II&IV" ....and aparently also on Starfire V and Vi now and then, as I have my V and seen a few photos of Vi with these too.
 
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