How does the "stereo" work in a Guild Starfire?

[Steve Hoffman]

An eBay seller and I are totally confused about the "stereo" upgrade feature on a Starfire IV (4). Most I've seen have been tampered with and rewired to mono. The question is, why? As I understand it, the stereo jack is compatible with a mono guitar cord and you get both pickups and a blend. When the special Guild stereo "Y" cord is used with two amps you get stereo. Since I've never seen the cord, only in the obscure 1970's Guild accessory catalogs and since neither Hans' book or the earlier Guild book even mention it (that I could see), does anyone know (for sure) how this works?

This seller is wondering if his guitar was rewired for mono or it's truly a mono/stereo compatible jack.

Thanks for the help. If this was a Gibson we'd have pages on the subject, with schematics, etc. The lack of info about obscure Guild details is crazy sometimes.

SH

 

[capnjuan]

... As I understand it, the stereo jack is compatible with a mono guitar cord and you get both pickups and a blend. When the special Guild stereo "Y" cord is used with two amps you get stereo.

Hi Steve; this is Rickenbacker's take on stereo guitar wiring.

Rick's stereo output jack puts one pickup's output on one 'channel' and the other pickup's output on the other. To use it, you'd need a stereo cable; two hot/signal conductors plus a ground and an amp with a stereo input jack like '50s/'60s Gibson GA78s/79s/83s, Guild 200S, a number of Sano models, and a few others.

Alternatively, a Y cable has to have a male stereo plug for the guitar and split into two legs - each with one hot and one common (ground) for two mono amps; eh ... and each leg would have to be long enough to reach two amps with enough physical separation to get the L and R benefit ... or hit a splitter box with a stereo jack in and two mono jacks out.

We have a member who duped a stereo Gibson GA79 that he's crazy about but I think he drives it with a conventionally wired guitar. Without spending more time with that Rickenbacker drawing, it looks like if you switch out of the blend position, it not only kills one pickup, it kills the stereo thing ... only one amp is seeing an input.

 

[GAD]

One pickup to left, one pickup to right.