Marcellis, I have a Starfire 5 and like it a lot. But, mine is not the Newark Street model but an older American made one. The Newark Street model is going to have the Guild Mini-HB pickup on it. It is closer to the single coil sound than the Gibson HBs so it might be twangy enough for you. The Guild pickups in general seem to have more of treble bias than say a similar Gibson pickup would. So that is in your favor as well. If you get the Starfire 5, you may not like the action on the Bigsby due to the tension bar. I replaced the spring on mine with a low tension spring from Reverend guitars and it made a huge difference. $10 well spent. Good luck.
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I'd have to take it to my luthier for anything like that. And I don't want a Gretsch.
I've never been a good tinkerer. And so I hate the idea of having to mod a new product. That seems to be common though. Jazzmaster buyers seem to expect it. I like the mini hum sound on my jazzbox. It does lack that clarity single-coils have.
Oh, if the action ain't right on the starfire V, it goes straight to the luthier and gets right fast. Or I don't buy it.
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Guildman63:
Marcellis,
Another option is to replace the mini-hum with another pup, like a Lindy Fralin P-90 or P-92. Even better would be to contact someone like Pete Biltoft at Vintage Vibe Guitars and have him make you whatever you want, but in a form that fits in your current pickup cover. I have had him do this for me before when'd i wanted Franz tones from a coil tapped humbucker, and the results were outstanding. He will simply need you to send him a pickup cover, a description of what you want, and he will do the rest. Probably at less than the cost of brand name pups as well.
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I probably have unrealistic expectations. But my red Guild will leave the shop with the right action and sound or I ain't buying it.
I intend to buy a red Guild Starfire w/a Guildsby though, whichever one sounds right.
Walter Broes is a superb pro performer. (Love his sound. Love both the videos in this thread.)I'm not nearly the guitarist WB is.
But with time and a studio, I can get it right. My playing is more unvoiced Jazz chords sliding around, or slow to mid-tempo (never fast) minimalist Spaghetti Western leads. On acoustic I might speed it up. But I'm a beginner on electrics. The only electric I own is my big jazz box.
In fact, some other players around here seem to think I play Jazz chords a lot. Guild 63 or any other real jazz player would never think that.
On this song, my big jazzbox and the mini HB keeps up w/my synth orchestration, using both the chords and the low, slow lead.
It's the lead I need more treble on though.I think (hope) a Starfire can do that. I'm not asking for much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE_5gCMqrH4
p.s. I'm a little irrirated some Youtuber included it in a collection of "elevator music, Jazzy, Instrumental, Background, BEAUTIFUL"
(I added the emphasis to 'beautiful'. It eases the sting of 'elevator music')