What were the best years for Starfire IVs and Vs?

guitarnewb · Oct 31, 2020

I've been looking at getting a Starfire IV westerly, but apparently they don't have the awesome hb1 original pickups that the old ones. Which years of starfires have the original hb1s? When did the start putting them in the starfires? 1960s? Thanks for any replies.

GGJaguar · Oct 31, 2020

The Duncan SD-1 pickups used on the Starfires in the mid-1990s are close in sound to HB-1s, but if you must have HB-1s, look for one made between 1971-94.

guitarnewb · Oct 31, 2020

Thanks.

GAD · Oct 31, 2020

What do you mean by "Starfire Westerly"?

There's more to a Starfire IV than the pickups. They come in different thicknesses, neck profiles, finishes, tailpiece designs, fretboard materials, etc. and many of those vary by year. Examples from my collection (These are all Westerly-made Guild Starfire IVs):

1973:

1981:

1992:

1998:

2000:

For example the last two look very similar but they're not. The '98 is much thinner and has better pickups stock. Oddly enough the 2000 is one of my favorite guitars, possibly because it has a perfect neck for me and also because it was the first Guild I bought when getting back into them back around 2008 or so.

shihan · Oct 31, 2020

Although I’ve only played one SF 4, the one I currently own, a blonde ‘97 like GAD’s ‘98, I’d venture to say that neck profile would be a very, perhaps deciding, consideration. They have a pretty wide variance over the years.
My first question when I joined here was ‘ what are the years to avoid when guying a Guild’.
The answer was none of them, they’re all good, but there are differences over the years.
Good luck in your hunt! I love my SF.

guitarnewb · Nov 1, 2020

The specific guitar I was looking at was made in New Jersey in the late 90s or early 2000s. I wasn't sure what the pickups on that were. The seller says they are dearmond. I thought the lat 90s westerly guitars had Seymour Duncans.

fronobulax · Nov 1, 2020

guitarnewb said:
The specific guitar I was looking at was made in New Jersey in the late 90s or early 2000s. I wasn't sure what the pickups on that were. The seller says they are dearmond. I thought the lat 90s westerly guitars had Seymour Duncans.

Not to be that guy but New Jersey and those dates don't match. Westerly is in Rhode Island and is where Guilds were made in the 1990's and early 2000'a. Hoboken is in New Jersey but Guild production there had ceased before 1970.

GGJaguar · Nov 1, 2020

guitarnewb said:
The specific guitar I was looking at was made in New Jersey in the late 90s or early 2000s. I wasn't sure what the pickups on that were. The seller says they are dearmond. I thought the lat 90s westerly guitars had Seymour Duncans.

We can be of more assistance if you can post a photo or two of the guitar in question.

guitarnewb · Nov 1, 2020

I

fronobulax said:
Not to be that guy but New Jersey and those dates don't match. Westerly is in Rhode Island and is where Guilds were made in the 1990's and early 2000'a. Hoboken is in New Jersey but Guild production there had ceased before 1970.

I see. Thanks. The guy selling doesn't know much about guilds I take it, which is another reason I am not sure about his claim that it has DeArmond pickups. They look like hbs to me. Did all the Rhode island starfires of the 90s have the Seymour Duncans?

GAD · Nov 1, 2020

guitarnewb said:
I

I see. Thanks. The guy selling doesn't know much about guilds I take it, which is another reason I am not sure about his claim that it has DeArmond pickups. They look like hbs to me. Did all the Rhode island starfires of the 90s have the Seymour Duncans?

I've seen a lot of people online think that the HB1s were made by DeArmond Rowe.

parker_knoll · Nov 2, 2020

shihan said:
Although I’ve only played one SF 4, the one I currently own, a blonde ‘97 like GAD’s ‘98, I’d venture to say that neck profile would be a very, perhaps deciding, consideration. They have a pretty wide variance over the years.
My first question when I joined here was ‘ what are the years to avoid when guying a Guild’.
The answer was none of them, they’re all good, but there are differences over the years.
Good luck in your hunt! I love my SF.

I agree with you and GAD that neck profile is key. I LOVE the neck on my 2001 Westerly SFIII-90. It also has a 44.5mm nut. After playing that I realised how much easier it was to bond with than the skinny neck '60s models I'd owned.

Now I'm looking for other guitars from the same era in the hope of finding the same neck, and currently have an option on a 2000 Westerly SF V similar to GAD's blue one at a decent price. If the neck is the ticket it will probably be a keeper. Pickups can be changed, especially easily if they are the standard size Fenderbuckers.

I don't generally get on with narrow nuts, and I've come across some '80s Guilds with 42mm nuts, like this 1981 SF IV, which also has wide flat frets: not everyone's cup of tea. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284062432792

GAD, your '81 above also looks to have a skinny nut; is that the case?

SFIV1967 · Nov 2, 2020

guitarnewb said:
Did all the Rhode island starfires of the 90s have the Seymour Duncans?

No. SD-1 were only used for a limited time until FMIC supplied their own manufactured version of a HB-1 for Guild.
You need to read:

Guild Full-Sized HB1 and SD1 Pickup Variations | GAD's Ramblings

One of the questions I see on the guitar forums quite a bit is, “What kind of pickups does this Guild guitar have?” Since I’ve posted in many of these threads, I seem to get a lot of emails with the same question. I thought that I might write up a quick summary of the …

www.gad.net

Ralf

Rocky · Nov 11, 2020

Did they have Starfire IV's back when they had the DeArmonds? If they did, it'd be a Hoboken, and the guy had the dates wrong. Pix would go a long way.

Wulfthar · Nov 12, 2020

SFIV1967 said:
No. SD-1 were only used for a limited time until FMIC supplied their own manufactured version of a HB-1 for Guild.
You need to read:

Guild Full-Sized HB1 and SD1 Pickup Variations | GAD's Ramblings

One of the questions I see on the guitar forums quite a bit is, “What kind of pickups does this Guild guitar have?” Since I’ve posted in many of these threads, I seem to get a lot of emails with the same question. I thought that I might write up a quick summary of the …

www.gad.net

Ralf

This is a very useful article for recognising the type of pickup but it´s missing the technical specs like DC resistance, magnet type and size and so on...

SFIV1967 · Nov 12, 2020

Wulfthar said:
...it´s missing the technical specs like DC resistance, magnet type and size and so on...

Fell free to start such project and you will realize how dificult to impossible it is to find any such information regarding the many variations of Guild pickups over time. There is no historical info existing as it looks and you would have to invest very big money acquiring a representative big sample lot for all the years on ebay and to do all the measurements, which also would require you have access to the right equipment...So yes, it would be nice to have more info but I guess we have to live with what we have...

Guild today in their webshop shows for some of the BHK made pickups some of that info at least, but that's not shown for all offered pickups.

Ralf

Wulfthar · Nov 12, 2020

Unfortunately I don´t have any Guild vintage gear, for the current production pickups everything is clear.

cupric · Nov 12, 2020

GAD said:
What do you mean by "Starfire Westerly"?

There's more to a Starfire IV than the pickups. They come in different thicknesses, neck profiles, finishes, tailpiece designs, fretboard materials, etc. and many of those vary by year. Examples from my collection (These are all Westerly-made Guild Starfire IVs):

1973:

1981:

1992:

1998:

2000:

For example the last two look very similar but they're not. The '98 is much thinner and has better pickups stock. Oddly enough the 2000 is one of my favorite guitars, possibly because it has a perfect neck for me and also because it was the first Guild I bought when getting back into them back around 2008 or so.

GAD,
You bring us mer e mortals to our knees with your great collection of Guilds! You are a lucky man indeed!

Just_Guild · Nov 12, 2020

I still have my ‘71 SF IV that many of you got to see at one of our LMG events.

GAD · Nov 12, 2020

Wulfthar said:
This is a very useful article for recognising the type of pickup but it´s missing the technical specs like DC resistance, magnet type and size and so on...

I have most of that info primed for a far more technical article that’s been years in the making.

Also if you have a catagorical method for differentiating 40-year-old Alnico II vs V magnets I’m all ears. I have a meter for magnetism but at that age the tolerances cross over and I couldn’t figure out a way to tell with any degree of certainty.

Wulfthar · Nov 12, 2020

I don´t understand the edginess of this discussion, however permanent magnets don´t lose their charge therefore it´s relatively easy to differentiate A2 from A5.

What were the best years for Starfire IVs and Vs?

Junior Member

Reverential Member

Junior Member

Reverential Morlock

Senior Member

Junior Member

Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods

Reverential Member

Junior Member

Reverential Morlock

Senior Member

Venerated Member

Senior Member

Junior Member

Venerated Member

Junior Member

Senior Member

Member

Reverential Morlock

Junior Member