Another Starfire Q?

[ChrisMcG]

I’m looking at Starfire IV / Vs and played a ‘73 recently. It was lovely

The volume pots, though, didn’t have much range. Lowering to 8.5 or 9 would be like my Les Paul Studio @ 6 or so. Is this common? Is it a pot replacement thing?

 

[nmiller]

Different pots may have different tapers. They also have different tolerances, and interact differently with different pickups. Two Les Paul Studios may not exhibit exactly the same behavior.

 

[ChrisMcG]

So it’s not an expected ‘Starfire thing’ but a pot + circuit = variables?

I wondered if it had to do with the master volume in the circuit but I don’t know enough about electronics or guilds to know. Lol

 

[fronobulax]

Welcome. While pots are a variable I am 99.44% certain that different pots were never a factory option.

My experience with vintage Guild basses is that the knobs could almost be replaced by toggle switches. For my ear the tone at zero and at nine are different enough to make a choice but everything between 1 and 8 sounds pretty much the same.

My volumes tend to be full on or backed off just a little to about 7. Backing off to 7 reduces hum in some situations and cuts some harmonics that compete if there is a guitar spending a lot of time below the fifth fret in the mix.

There is nothing magic about Guild's choices. There are a lot of anecdotes about PUs that are somehow improved by changing the factory provided components in the circuit.

So a stock Starfire is almost certainly not going to have a lot of sensitivity/variability with the tone and volumes. If that is an adjustment you would rather not make then swapping the pots is something you'd want to investigate.

 

[GAD]

It’s just the way Guild and many brands did the wiring. This behavior made me never use the controls on my guitar - a habit that I’ve found very difficult to break.

I have over 100 guitars (mostly Guilds) and I can think of two off the top of my head that have useable volume and tone controls. And I rewired one of them.

 

[ChrisMcG]

Thanks for the feedback! Does volume and tone roll off still work with germanium fuzz?

Also, are the ‘70s M75 the same?
And since your here, is the ‘70s M75s hollow body? I can’t find much reference to that model.

 

[fronobulax]

Thanks for the feedback! Does volume and tone roll off still work with germanium fuzz?

Also, are the ‘70s M75 the same?
And since your here, is the ‘70s M75s hollow body? I can’t find much reference to that model.

The bass equivalent of the M-75 was the M-85. M-85's were true hollow bodies until about 1971 when model number was applied to a very similar solid body. I make the previous statement with certainty and some authority. With less certainty I observe that a M-65 was a similar hollow body but the model change to M-75 seems to always have been applied to a solid body.

You cannot always believe the catalogs but you can certainly amuse yourself seeing what they said.

Guild Guitar Catalogs | GAD's Ramblings

Welcome to GAD’s Guilds guitar catalog collection. I’ve spent many years (and dollars) collecting these catalogs for my research of various Guild guitars for my GAD’s Guild articles. I have physical copies of every catalog shown which were all painstakingly scanned or photographed, then...

www.gad.net

 

[jp]

Also, are the ‘70s M75 the same?
And since your here, is the ‘70s M75s hollow body? I can’t find much reference to that model.

In 1970, the solid body version of the M-75 Bluesbird was introduced and continued up until around '76 or '77. I think hollow versions were available until around 1970, although I recall seeing some examples for sale dating to '71. GADs blog has some info on these, and of course, Hans's book.

 

[ChrisMcG]

Guild M-75 S | Reverb

To my knowledge, this is all original.This is a U.S made 1973 Guild M-75 Bluesbird solid body in "Nature Boy" finish. Mahogany neck and body, rosewood fretboard. Light finish wear and a few very minor Scratches. A 9+ on a scale from 1-10 for a 47 year old guitar. The guitar plays and sounds amazi...

reverb.com

This is the M75 S I’m referring to, I found one post from TGP or here saying the S is hollow body but haven’t found any other reference to this designation.

 

[krysh]

In 1970, the solid body version of the M-75 Bluesbird was introduced and continued up until around '76 or '77. I think hollow versions were available until around 1970, although I recall seeing some examples for sale dating to '71. GADs blog has some info on these, and of course, Hans's book.

Hollow M-75 have been available until 1972 and only 1971 and 1972 they had HB-1s. The M-75C had chrome hardware and the M-75G had gold hardware with ingraved harp tailpiece. Guild experimented with soundposts like the one in mine but unfortunately stopped the model in 1972. To me these are my favourite M-75 models.

 

[krysh]

Guild M-75 S | Reverb

To my knowledge, this is all original.This is a U.S made 1973 Guild M-75 Bluesbird solid body in "Nature Boy" finish. Mahogany neck and body, rosewood fretboard. Light finish wear and a few very minor Scratches. A 9+ on a scale from 1-10 for a 47 year old guitar. The guitar plays and sounds amazi...

reverb.com

This is the M75 S I’m referring to, I found one post from TGP or here saying the S is hollow body but haven’t found any other reference to this designation.

In my understanding of Guild model names the s stands for solid.

 

[ChrisMcG]

Thanks

 

[jp]

Hollow M-75 have been available until 1972 and only 1971 and 1972 they had HB-1s. The M-75C had chrome hardware and the M-75G had gold hardware with ingraved harp tailpiece. Guild experimented with soundposts like the one in mine but unfortunately stopped the model in 1972. To me these are my favourite M-75 models.

I was going kind of tight roping here by going according to info from the bible, although I do know that later versions have popped up.

You can tell if a 70s M-75 is hollow or not by looking at the tailpiece. The hollow models have the Guild harp tailpiece.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

At the risk of getting Hans'd or Ralf'd for going from memory, I believe there were three construction versions of the M-75 Bluesbird.

The first was fully hollow with as stated above, the harp tailpiece but also a floating bridge. Alas, I do not possess one of those.

The next version was "Semi-Solid" which I think means it has a block down the center. While it has the harp tailpiece, it has a mounted bridge.

This is my M-75C: (As previously mentioned, "C" is for Chrome, "G" is for Gold)




The third version is the totally solid version which has a mounted bridge and a stop tailpiece.

Here is my M-75CS: ("S" is for solid)



It is slightly thinner and only bound on the top as the back edge is just radiused.