fisherking
Junior Member
Hi, fisherking here, it's been several years since I've been on here, I'm wanting some advice in regards to this 67 Guild Starfire V. Sorry, this is a bit of a story, so bear with me. This is the guitar at Willies that maa had posted about a couple weeks ago. I saw that post when it came up and chuckled bec. I had been into the store a couple days before that post playing this guitar. I agreed with what was said there in that post that the price was too high, and appreciated the info given there that the pickups were not original. I did not notice that.
Here's link to that post from maa: http://letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36308
I enjoyed playing on the guitar, it sounded good to me, plus I like the idea of this guitar bec. it's the same age as I am, I was born in 67. I agreed this guitar was priced too high but continued wondering about it. I went back in and talked to the guys at Willies and said given that the guitar had the following:
-doesn't have it's orig case
-been refretted
-doesnt have pickguard
-doesn't have orig bridge
-doesnt have orig pickups
-finish not in pristine shape
given all this, that the asking price was too high. They agreed and said they could lower it to 1900. I mentioned to them that I didn't think the pickups were orig. and pointed out the revealed rout hole under pickup ring at bridge and some of the guys there said I may be onto something. I left that day, but went back in to buy some strings earlier this week and noticed the guitar was not hanging up anymore, so I asked if it was sold and the sales guy I was talking to went and got Willie (like they had been waiting for me to come back in) and Willie said he'd been thinking about my assessment of the guitar (all the missing non-orig. stuff) and he'd be willing to sell it to me for 1250. What I'm surmising happened is that after I left they got to looking into it and realized they are not in fact orig. pickups so he took it off the shelf, not wanting to sell something this far from it's orig. condition.
Willie allowed me to take the guitar home this weekend to do more playing and sleuthing on it, I told him Ive been curious about the pickups and what date they may have etc, and he said I'd be welcome to take them out and investigate that stuff. He gave me a fresh set of strings to put on as well. So I have the guitar home now and have looked at back of pickups. My thought was even if these are not orig. pickups, if they are still old Guild HB1's from the early 70's lets say, I'd be pretty ok with that.
I have also measured resistance across these pickups and I'm not sure I'm doing that right. I get 3.751K on neck pu, 3.680K on bridge pu. Those numbers seem low, right? Based on posts I've seen these numbers seem about half what they should be. Im putting one lead where dark wire is soldered, and one where white wire is soldered.
Based on GAD's post about different types of HB1's I think these look correct to me and if I read the date etchings right I think these are from 1972. The neck pu looks to say 72929 (which I would assume first 2 digist is 1972) and the bridge pu looks to say 72926.
However based on GAD's blog post about HB1's, I don't see my pickups having the narrow and wide spaced posts that GAD mentions and has pictures of. Do these look correct? Could it be there are 2 bridge pickups in here?
neck pickup
neck pickup digits
bridge pickup
bridge pickup digits
Do you think 1250 would be fair for this. It seems in a correct ballpark to me. Do people think there's something fishy going on here? Willie has said if I don't want this guitar, he's planning on taking it to a show he's going to in a while and selling it there, but he'd rather sell it to me if I'm interested.
I know the advice given to maa was to keep looking, but I've gotten Willie to come way down on this, I feel like he's being fair on this. Interested in any and all input.
Lastly, when I went that day to play this at Willie's, my wife was with me and she took video. I have links of those below as well so you can hear it if interested. Excuse my sloppy playing.. The mid posn' and bridge posn sound best to me, the neck by itself not as good to my ear..
http://www.tennessen.com/share/67starweb.mov
http://www.tennessen.com/share/67starweb2.mov
Thanks for any direction / input / advice,
fisherking
Here's link to that post from maa: http://letstalkguild.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36308
I enjoyed playing on the guitar, it sounded good to me, plus I like the idea of this guitar bec. it's the same age as I am, I was born in 67. I agreed this guitar was priced too high but continued wondering about it. I went back in and talked to the guys at Willies and said given that the guitar had the following:
-doesn't have it's orig case
-been refretted
-doesnt have pickguard
-doesn't have orig bridge
-doesnt have orig pickups
-finish not in pristine shape
given all this, that the asking price was too high. They agreed and said they could lower it to 1900. I mentioned to them that I didn't think the pickups were orig. and pointed out the revealed rout hole under pickup ring at bridge and some of the guys there said I may be onto something. I left that day, but went back in to buy some strings earlier this week and noticed the guitar was not hanging up anymore, so I asked if it was sold and the sales guy I was talking to went and got Willie (like they had been waiting for me to come back in) and Willie said he'd been thinking about my assessment of the guitar (all the missing non-orig. stuff) and he'd be willing to sell it to me for 1250. What I'm surmising happened is that after I left they got to looking into it and realized they are not in fact orig. pickups so he took it off the shelf, not wanting to sell something this far from it's orig. condition.
Willie allowed me to take the guitar home this weekend to do more playing and sleuthing on it, I told him Ive been curious about the pickups and what date they may have etc, and he said I'd be welcome to take them out and investigate that stuff. He gave me a fresh set of strings to put on as well. So I have the guitar home now and have looked at back of pickups. My thought was even if these are not orig. pickups, if they are still old Guild HB1's from the early 70's lets say, I'd be pretty ok with that.
I have also measured resistance across these pickups and I'm not sure I'm doing that right. I get 3.751K on neck pu, 3.680K on bridge pu. Those numbers seem low, right? Based on posts I've seen these numbers seem about half what they should be. Im putting one lead where dark wire is soldered, and one where white wire is soldered.
Based on GAD's post about different types of HB1's I think these look correct to me and if I read the date etchings right I think these are from 1972. The neck pu looks to say 72929 (which I would assume first 2 digist is 1972) and the bridge pu looks to say 72926.
However based on GAD's blog post about HB1's, I don't see my pickups having the narrow and wide spaced posts that GAD mentions and has pictures of. Do these look correct? Could it be there are 2 bridge pickups in here?
neck pickup
neck pickup digits
bridge pickup
bridge pickup digits
Do you think 1250 would be fair for this. It seems in a correct ballpark to me. Do people think there's something fishy going on here? Willie has said if I don't want this guitar, he's planning on taking it to a show he's going to in a while and selling it there, but he'd rather sell it to me if I'm interested.
I know the advice given to maa was to keep looking, but I've gotten Willie to come way down on this, I feel like he's being fair on this. Interested in any and all input.
Lastly, when I went that day to play this at Willie's, my wife was with me and she took video. I have links of those below as well so you can hear it if interested. Excuse my sloppy playing.. The mid posn' and bridge posn sound best to me, the neck by itself not as good to my ear..
http://www.tennessen.com/share/67starweb.mov
http://www.tennessen.com/share/67starweb2.mov
Thanks for any direction / input / advice,
fisherking
