NGD ‘60 Starfire II

AcornHouse

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NGD ‘60 Starfire II

I’m going to break the post into three parts.

If you’ve been following the thread in the eBay section, this is the early Starfire II with the rare beveled Dearmonds that was listed on the ‘Bay and the ‘Verb. A Starfire II with Dynasonics was on my guitar bucket list, so when the price, and starting bid, got low enough, I could no longer resist. They’re not Dynas, but maybe a notch higher, so, I can cross that one off.
I messaged the seller on Reverb asking about whether the bridge was glued down, and the action at the 12th fret. His reply was, no, it was loose, and the action was nice and low. I asked for a specific measurement, but didn’t get a reply before the eBay listing was going to hammer down, so I took a chance for just a little over the starting bid. After winnng, I didn’t get any communication from the seller; I even had to “remind” him to take down the Reverb listing. I finally saw it had shipped, and it arrived in due course.
His eBay feedback indicated he had sold instruments before, but I’m surprised he doesn’t have any negative feedback. He certainly did everything he could to ensure damage during shipping. First off, he used a box of very thin cardboard from a bass case that was barely big enough to hold this case; the sides were bowed out. Which meant there was no padding around the case at all, only some crumpled up newspaper at the top and bottom.
Speaking of which, here’s the sight that greeted me when I opened the case at the top (according to all of his address/mailing labels.)

img_3122.jpg


Yup, it was upside down, and had made the journey on its head.

With sinkng heart, I pried the case from the tight box, finally having to tear it apart to get it out.
i was astonished to find it unharmed! Especially as he didn’t bother to loosen the strings at all.

Opening the case, a lovely sight greeted me. (And I would love to see what these interiors looked like when they were new.)

img_3132.jpg
 
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AcornHouse

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(Cont.)

The action at the 12th fret wasn’t nice and low. It wasn’t horrible, but it needed work. Looking at the bridge there was definitely something under the feet. Loosening the strings, sure enough it was stuck down. I could quite figure out what, but it seemed to give a little, moving, then springing back. Grabbing a thin palette knife just for bridge removal, I started working out what it was.

img_3124.jpg


Sure looks like silicone caulk to me. When I finally got it all off, I had a nice little ball. That brought the action down considerably, that’s how thick it was.

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(To be cont.)
 

AcornHouse

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The action isn’t quite there yet, I need to adjust the truss rod a bit. But, there one more problem. The strings are barely clearing the polepieces in the bridge pup. They need to be screwed lower before I can get the strings lower.

img_3143.jpg


But I need to be very careful. I’ll have to grind a screwdriver thinner to fit the slots, and I need to spray some Deoxit to make sure they can move. It looks like a previous owner had adjusted the neck pup polepieces, and managed to snap off one side of the slot.

img_3145.jpg


There’s definitely been some neglected maintenance over the years, but, overall, I’m pleased, the neck has that Hoboken shape that I love. The pups sound great. The binding is perfect, with no shrinking away, and the finish is old, but overall good.
The case locking latch is frozen, just like my other Hoboken brown case, probobaly a common issue at their age. But it sure protected it from an idiot.
 

GGJaguar

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Wow, hopefully that's the end of the surprises. Beautiful guitar, congrats!
 

GAD

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Congrats! Those broken screws are a bummer.

If it helps any, the "up" labels on boxes mean nothing to shippers. I've had more guitars delivered upside down and seen them stored on the trucks all sorts of ways other than what the "up" label demanded.

There's no excuse for that packing, though.
 

AcornHouse

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Congrats! Those broken screws are a bummer.

If it helps any, the "up" labels on boxes mean nothing to shippers. I've had more guitars delivered upside down and seen them stored on the trucks all sorts of ways other than what the "up" label demanded.

There's no excuse for that packing, though.
He didn’t use any up labels. The USPS label and his address label were both on the butt end of the box facing up. To read them it had to be bottoms up, as it were.
 

GAD

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He didn’t use any up labels. The USPS label and his address label were both on the butt end of the box facing up. To read them it had to be bottoms up, as it were.

Ah - gotcha.

Some people just don't understand that vintage instruments are fragile.
 

txbumper57

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Congrats Acorn, Glad she made it in one piece! There are just some folks that don't need to be guitar owners let alone guitar shippers, LOL. I'm sure you will get the guitar all squared away and from the looks of it it is in relatively nice shape for it's age. Bet it sounds killer with those pickups. Enjoy it my friend!

TX
 

AcornHouse

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FYI for everyone. I talked with Erick Coleman about the pole pieces. (He’s the StewMac Trade Secrets guy) He uses, and recommends, PB Blaster for freeing polepieces or other stuck metal bits.
 

Default

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She's beauty, Chris!
I bought a guitar from El Paso and had it shipped to Fixit. It showed up in a beatup case with tape holding it shut.
 

2nevets

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FYI for everyone. I talked with Erick Coleman about the pole pieces. (He’s the StewMac Trade Secrets guy) He uses, and recommends, PB Blaster for freeing polepieces or other stuck metal bits.
give me your address
Ill send one on the house
I probably have 300 plus cans
 

walrus

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Congratulations, Chris, that is a beautiful vintage guitar! And it must be pretty "tough" to survive that trip!

walrus
 

AcornHouse

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give me your address
Ill send one on the house
I probably have 300 plus cans
Thanks, but I already picked up a can while I was doing the shopping.
Maybe use them as welcome bags at the next LTG get together.
 

Walter Broes

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IS it possible to replace those pole pieces ? That broken one will be hard to adjust.

Not really. These are not just steel pole screws like you'd find in a typical humbucker or P90, they're magnets that sit in a threaded sleeve. So you'd have to find the exact same ones, which I don't think you will. And they're a lot more brittle than a steel screw, so it's not atypical that it broke.

super nice guitar btw Chris, congratulations!!
 

AcornHouse

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Well, the PB Blaster worked well. After applying with a q-tip and letting it work a bit, they turned smoothly and easily; no problems.

img_3159.jpg


Just a couple of other pics, first of the ghost label.

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Then the beautiful grain on the case’s tolex; almost ostrich skin-like.

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