I recently bought a starfire V and have some concerns

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Hi all,
I’m looking for some help with my recent purchase, a Starfire V.

looking at other Starfires vintage or new, the sticker in mine doesn’t make much sense, I has no mentioning of the factory location like I’ve seen on other. I’d like to get your opinion in authentication and year of build?

note the pick guard is an after market.

Thanks all,
 

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twocorgis

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Welcome Yafim!

That label is from the period early in the Westerly years where there's no manufacturing plant mentioned. My '73 D50 has that same label. Your guitar looks to be from very late 1969, or more likely early 1970 before they went to all numeric serial numbers. Hopefully Hans will come along and say for sure.
 

cupric

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Yes, this is just after the last numbers listed for 1969. So very early 1970?
 
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Welcome Yafim!

That label is from the period early in the Westerly years where there's no manufacturing plant mentioned. My '73 D50 has that same label. Your guitar looks to be from very late 1969, or more likely early 1970 before they went to all numeric serial numbers. Hopefully Hans will come along and say for sure.
Thank you so much twocorgis!
You assume 69-79 by the guitar serial?
 

cupric

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Thank you so much twocorgis!
You assume 69-79 by the guitar serial?
Yes. He is going by serial number. It is just after the last serial numbers listed for 1969. Which may put it in very early 1970.
 

hansmoust

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Hi all,
I’m looking for some help with my recent purchase, a Starfire V.
looking at other Starfires vintage or new, the sticker in mine doesn’t make much sense, I has no mentioning of the factory location like I’ve seen on other. I’d like to get your opinion in authentication and year of build?

Hello Yafim,

Welcome! Your Guild Starfire V was completed during the second half of the year 1970.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 
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Thanks for the help guys!
Any idea where I can find an original pick guard?
 

hansmoust

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Thanks for the help guys!
Any idea where I can find an original pick guard?

Original pickguards can be expensive on the 'vintage guitar used parts market'. Don't have one right now, but send me an email through my website and I'll try to find you one.

Something else that might interest you and some other readers is that the body was already routed for the earlier (read smaller) size pickups when it was eventually completed and routed again to accept the HB-1 humbuckers!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
 

kakerlak

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Original pickguards can be expensive on the 'vintage guitar used parts market'. Don't have one right now, but send me an email through my website and I'll try to find you one.

Something else that might interest you and some other readers is that the body was already routed for the earlier (read smaller) size pickups when it was eventually completed and routed again to accept the HB-1 humbuckers!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
Yeah, I noticed that, too. You can even see the footprint of the original route at the bottom of the bridge pickup cavity. All in all, pretty clean for a fifty year-old guitar!
 

mavuser

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beautiful. have only seen one other, it was a sunburst, same year. a SF-V with the full size HB-1's is hard to find
 

SFIV1967

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Something else that might interest you and some other readers is that the body was already routed for the earlier (read smaller) size pickups when it was eventually completed and routed again to accept the HB-1 humbuckers!
Yeah, I noticed that, too. You can even see the footprint of the original route at the bottom of the bridge pickup cavity.
Cool!

1617744494609.png


Ralf
 
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Amazing, I didn’t even thought about this when I saw the small footprint a few weeks ago. I guess that means Guild originally had different plans for this guitar. I wonder how it finally ended as it is.
 

SFIV1967

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I wonder how it finally ended as it is.
Simple. The models up until your one used the small humbuckers and right at that time in 1970 the new larger HB-1 was introduced, so they re-routed existing bodies to fit the new humbuckers. Your one looks like the routing was done after the guitar was already sprayed/finished with the cherry nitro color.
Ralf
 

Zelja

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That's an interesting example of the model, being on the cusp between eras like that. Congrats on the purchase & enjoy it well.

Has it got the deeper depth of body like the 60s ones? I assume the 70s & maybe 80s ones were built similarly. My 97 SFIV is a lot thinner than my 66 SFV.
 
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Simple. The models up until your one used the small humbuckers and right at that time in 1970 the new larger HB-1 was introduced, so they re-routed existing bodies to fit the new humbuckers. Your one looks like the routing was done after the guitar was already sprayed/finished with the cherry nitro color.
Ralf
So in a sense I'm the owner of first edition HB-1 starfire V. Pretty cool.
 

Knash

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I have these right now:
Not sure which one is correct and would need some measurements. I have brackets and screws too.
 

mavuser

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So in a sense I'm the owner of first edition HB-1 starfire V. Pretty cool.

it is the first and only edition, as the SF-V was discontinued in 1973! so between 1970-1973 it would be impossible to know how many SF-V's were made, but I can tell you this- not that many. as eluded to above i've only seen one other. it was a sunburst 1970 with the HB-1s. i think the guy was asking $3,200 and it was 6 hours away, and this was at least 2-3 years ago. suffice it to say, i didn't land her. you almost never see those. A SF-VI (or SF-6) with full size HB-1s is another nice grab, and some of those have the bridge drilled as opposed to floating (later than 1970 though, for that). Of course if you have a SF-IV (or 4) with a Guildsby and HB-1's, you would still be doing great. but the one you have is the coolest of them all!
 

mavuser

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Additionally Hans' book on page 89 reports and depicts that in 1970, some SF-V's were equipped with the older DeArmond pickups that were still in stock, and black plastic mounting rings were fabricated to cover up the holes previously routed for the 60's mini humbucker (example pictured top left). So it seems other SF-V's in 1970 like yours were pre-routed for Guild 60's mini humbuckers, and wound up with older DeArmonds, or brand new Guild HB-1s.
 
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