OnFallowGround
Junior Member
The journey to a Starfire IV (Now with pictures!)
Hello soon-to-be-friends,
I'm ashamed it's taken me this long to find you all, but I hope to be an active member of the community as time goes on. You see, I recently stumbled across the magical mystery world of Guild electric guitars. I sold a tele deluxe that I had grown bored with and was on the hunt for something different. My musical love has recently been dirty folk/blues/jazz types and I needed a guitar that could give me some of that smokey sound. Something warm that wasn't afraid to growl a little.
Somehow in my ignorance, I thought all I would need to do was track down a hollow body that looked purty enough, and it would do the rest. Through a lot of reading and Youtube watching, I went ahead and purchased a brand new Gret*h 5420. The moment I sat down with it I knew something wasn't right. It was honkey tonk city. With enough wrestling and castrating I could get it to mellow out a bit, but for the most part it was a twangbox that annoyed me to no end. The build quality was impressive, and the form factor seemed to be right up my alley, but something about that tone profile was like a drill in my skull.
A guitar player by the name of Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers) has long impressed me, so I hunted down that he plays a vintage Guild t100 that he is rather fond of. I decided to study up on Guilds. My dad had a Guild acoustic when I was little, and it was the first guitar I learned on. Here I am 29 years seasoned thinking that Guild was that lame brand my dad had, only to be stunned by their dynamics. The video I saw was this:
... and that's all it took. That's the tone. I had to have one. I've spent the last month or so reading everything I could about the Starfires, the differences between each version, the differences from decade to decade... the preference of the Westerly versions over their counterparts. I was as stumped as you all when I saw that recent Starfire IV from the 60s with a volume knob (I thought they didn't arrive til the 70s!).
OKAY OKAY, long story short... I have a guitar dealer who can get me insane deals on the new Newark St Starfires. Brand new, with case, professionally set up, not B stock, etc for a price I haven't even seen used on eBay. So I told him to get me a IV. His rep from Fender says the new run won't be done for another 30 to 60 days. I said put in the order.
Here's the dilemma- He has a III in stock. I'm not sure why I got the IV in my head; maybe it's the simple prevalence of the version compared to the III, but in my head, I needed a IV. But 60+ days without a guitar?! BLECH. Suddenly, that Guildsby is looking all the more appealing.
So convince me one way or another- Tonally, will I notice much of a difference between the III and the IV? How much does a center block shape the sound? This feedback issue everyone talks about... is it still as present in the Newark St line, and how much of an issue is it anyway?
Of course, none of this will matter when I inevitably trade up/down for a vintage Starfire in the not-so-distant future, but humor me. If I don't care all that much about a Bigsby, which way do I go? Thanks in advance, and thanks for letting me hang with y'all. I look forward to joining you for years of financial ruin and sweet harmonic bliss. [/longest thread ever]
Hello soon-to-be-friends,
I'm ashamed it's taken me this long to find you all, but I hope to be an active member of the community as time goes on. You see, I recently stumbled across the magical mystery world of Guild electric guitars. I sold a tele deluxe that I had grown bored with and was on the hunt for something different. My musical love has recently been dirty folk/blues/jazz types and I needed a guitar that could give me some of that smokey sound. Something warm that wasn't afraid to growl a little.
Somehow in my ignorance, I thought all I would need to do was track down a hollow body that looked purty enough, and it would do the rest. Through a lot of reading and Youtube watching, I went ahead and purchased a brand new Gret*h 5420. The moment I sat down with it I knew something wasn't right. It was honkey tonk city. With enough wrestling and castrating I could get it to mellow out a bit, but for the most part it was a twangbox that annoyed me to no end. The build quality was impressive, and the form factor seemed to be right up my alley, but something about that tone profile was like a drill in my skull.
A guitar player by the name of Oliver Wood (of the Wood Brothers) has long impressed me, so I hunted down that he plays a vintage Guild t100 that he is rather fond of. I decided to study up on Guilds. My dad had a Guild acoustic when I was little, and it was the first guitar I learned on. Here I am 29 years seasoned thinking that Guild was that lame brand my dad had, only to be stunned by their dynamics. The video I saw was this:
... and that's all it took. That's the tone. I had to have one. I've spent the last month or so reading everything I could about the Starfires, the differences between each version, the differences from decade to decade... the preference of the Westerly versions over their counterparts. I was as stumped as you all when I saw that recent Starfire IV from the 60s with a volume knob (I thought they didn't arrive til the 70s!).
OKAY OKAY, long story short... I have a guitar dealer who can get me insane deals on the new Newark St Starfires. Brand new, with case, professionally set up, not B stock, etc for a price I haven't even seen used on eBay. So I told him to get me a IV. His rep from Fender says the new run won't be done for another 30 to 60 days. I said put in the order.
Here's the dilemma- He has a III in stock. I'm not sure why I got the IV in my head; maybe it's the simple prevalence of the version compared to the III, but in my head, I needed a IV. But 60+ days without a guitar?! BLECH. Suddenly, that Guildsby is looking all the more appealing.
So convince me one way or another- Tonally, will I notice much of a difference between the III and the IV? How much does a center block shape the sound? This feedback issue everyone talks about... is it still as present in the Newark St line, and how much of an issue is it anyway?
Of course, none of this will matter when I inevitably trade up/down for a vintage Starfire in the not-so-distant future, but humor me. If I don't care all that much about a Bigsby, which way do I go? Thanks in advance, and thanks for letting me hang with y'all. I look forward to joining you for years of financial ruin and sweet harmonic bliss. [/longest thread ever]
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