Westerly Starfire IV Build

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Hello all at LTG, I've recently gotten my hands on a Westerly Starfire IV body that I've identified thanks to GAD's article which pointed out it was 1 1/2" thick. I plan on making this look like a traditional Guild when I'm done, without breaking the bank, meaning I will be buying the NS HB1 pickups and knobs. I already have tuners and a bridge but I need help with the tailpiece. I was hoping to put a Bigsby on it but I am not so sure since this Starfire is so thin. If the Bigsby isn't an option I was wondering where I could find a Starfire IV harp tailpiece that would fit. I've looked at a few Guild harp tailpieces on Reverb and the official Guild store but it seems to me that I'd need to source one specific to this year.

This will be the first guitar that I will be attempting to put back together myself and I am looking forward to the challenge.

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hansmoust

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Hello all at LTG, I've recently gotten my hands on a Westerly Starfire IV body that I've identified thanks to GAD's article which pointed out it was 1 1/2" thick. I already have tuners and a bridge but I need help with the tailpiece. I was hoping to put a Bigsby on it but I am not so sure since this Starfire is so thin. If the Bigsby isn't an option I was wondering where I could find a Starfire IV harp tailpiece that would fit. I've looked at a few Guild harp tailpieces on Reverb and the official Guild store but it seems to me that I'd need to source one specific to this year.

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Hello IROCZ28,

Starfire IVs from that particular period were not set up with harp tailpieces, but with 'Gibson style' stop tailpieces. You could find a harp tailpiece that would fit the thinner-style body though!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

DThomasC

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Hello IROCZ28,

Starfire IVs from that particular period were not set up with harp tailpieces, but with 'Gibson style' stop tailpieces. You could find a harp tailpiece that would fit the thinner-style body though!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Would it be correct to say that that particular instrument came from the factory with a harp or Bigsby seeing as there are no studs for a stop tailpiece?

Screw holes around the tail pin would give clues.
 
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Of course you're right. I hadn't noticed that there are no holes for tuners.

An interesting find.

Actually there are holes for the tuners:

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But Hans is right in saying that there was no hardware on this to begin with.
There is no output jack or stop tailpiece holes, nor holes for a harp tailpiece.
The holes for the humbuckers appear to be just pilot holes.

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I got this body from my uncle and I asked him how it ended up in its current condition. (He worked at Westerly Guild)
He says that this Starfire was orignially taken off the line due to peeling stain. It was originally a smoke burst color, but with a lot of heat from a hair dryer or hot air gun he was able to peel off the original stain and refinish it in Blonde.
You can still see the finish wasnt perfect on the back in the bottom right as there are remnants of a darker smoke finish there. He also just told me that the original hardware for this guitar is actually in my X-2000... (SD-1 pickups, Tuners, tailpiece, etc.)
So I can make it original if I take my X-2000 completley apart, but it'll probably be less hassle just to get new parts as the X-2000 is sounding perfect.
 

GAD

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That is so cool!

Wait - Tell me more about the X2000!
 

Nuuska

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Hello

i had quick look at "GADs ramblings" - found this :


To summarize the often confusing nomenclature of the Starfire line:
Starfire I: Very early 1960’s Stafires that came with only a neck pickup.
Starfire II: Thin completely hollow body guitar – harp tailpiece
Starfire III: Same as SFII, but with a Guildsby vibrato tailpiece
Starfire IV: Thin semi-hollow body guitar – large center block – harp or stop tailpiece
Starfire V: Same as SFIV, but with a Guildsby vibrato tailpiece
Starfire VI: Same as SFV, but with high-end appointments. Highly flamed wood, gold hardware, 7-layer binding, bound ebony fretboard, abalone inlays, etc.



So - Starfire IV: Thin semi-hollow body guitar – large center block – harp or stop tailpiece

Yours was meant to have stop tailpiece?
 
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GAD, I talked about the X-2000 a little while ago in a thread titled X2000 Part 3?
At the time I posted what I knew about the guitar including that it is the number 54 of 54 on the serial chart and that it wasn't finished in the factory. For example it didn't even have holes for a back electronics cover.

Walrus, yes that's the X-2000 as my avatar.

My uncle thought it had Bluesbird hardware on it but when he found the Starfire IV in his workshop (his shop had collapsed a number of years ago due to snow) he remembered the hardware that was supposed to go in this starfire went to the X-2000 instead.
Photos for the X-2000 are in a google photos album on the linked thread but since then I have drilled and made my own cavity cover for the back and had a push-push knob installed for coil split on the tone knob and turned the small toggle switch back to a phase switch.

I have a lot to thank for my uncle, he is a great carpenter, not a musician in the slightest, so he felt that alot of the Guild guitars and items he had accumulated needed a good home so they were distributed between my other cousins and I.
Without the X-2000 I would not be as into guitars or have found you all on this forum.

Nuuska, I'm not sure if this Starfire was supposed to have a stop tail piece as it isn't drilled for either the stop or harp. Assuming that all the hardware on my X-2000 was from this Starfire then yes it would be a stop tail, I would prefer to have a harp tailpiece however.
 

GAD

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Nice. Thanks for the link! Beautiful guitars.
 
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I’ve been searching around but I think I need assistance, does anyone know of a good place to get a harp tailpiece that would fit on this 1 1/2” thick Starfire? I came across a Winfield Rickenbaker harp tailpiece but if anyone has a better suggestion I’d like to hear it.
 

dbirchett

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Nuuska, I would make a couple of changes to that list:

Starfire IV: Thin semi-hollow body guitar – large center block – harp or stop tailpiece. In some years, a Guildsby Vibrato was an option. In some years, the IV had the higher end appointments of the SFV.
Starfire V: Same as SFIV, but with higher end appointments, a master volume, and a Guildsby vibrato tailpiece
 
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