I can't say enough about my Newark St. Starfire IV. I always admired Guild back in the 70's & 80's but never had an opportunity to play a Starfire IV. After reading the great reviews from Sweetwater, MF, etc I had to have one. Mine is a hard tail with the Cherry finish. All I can say is this guitar is great & hangs in there with many other guitars of mine that are considered "high end".
The finish is nice, the fretwork is outstanding, hardware is good, tuners stay in tune really well & the pickups are really unique. I like the fact that the pups are lower output and a little on the crispy side which is great for a nice bluesy rock tone. And the feedback & sustain is really inspiring. I recorded an instrumental with my drummer that featured some nice feedback. The feedback was controllable, but really came from a place I never heard before in a hollow body. The NS Starfire IV is truly a nice guitar & a bargain at that.