parker_knoll
Senior Member
So I joined the yellow switch club. I got a good deal on a new SFIII in black and bit the bullet. I paid £681 all in, which is €800 and about $905.
I'll post pics in due course, but you've all seen them a million times.
I measured the pups and they're still mismatched: 7.1k neck, 5.35k bridge. However, they don't sound bad and i can see the pickup heights have been set so they match pretty well. Factory setup was surprisingly good, played well out of the box, fret ends are tidy and the finish is flawless. I have no issue with the Sta-Tites and the construction is overall very impressive.
A while ago I bought a complete NOS loom from the mid '60s with the Martin-style Dynasonics, plus CTS pots, Switchcraft etc. so my plan was to drop that in.
I checked and the guitar is still made in Korea - I wondered whether they'd switched production to China at some point.
A few of things I noted:
1. The body tapers in thickness towards the neck, so the upper bout is thinner at the neck side than at the bridge side. That's definitely not historically accurate, though that's not a bother to me.
2. The bridge is glued. This was not previously the case - they used to come with foam under the bridge that some demonstrators famously failed to remove. Currently this is annoying me as I had thought to drop in either one of my large selection of Bigsby bridges or possibly a Schaller TOM. As it is I'm stuck with the rather pale bridge base and the posts are too narrow for the Bigsby or Schaller bridges. The stock TOM is not too bad, although it has the rather wide slots that cheapo bridges often come with. I've dropped in a roller I had around that sounds pretty good.
3. They've changed the case. It's still a hard case but not in the classic Guild style with the gold painted G logo on the top. The new ones have a G logo plastic badge riveted to the side. Until recently the Newark Street cases pretty much matched the old ones, meaning it fit well when stacked up with my US Guilds.
I wonder why they made the decision to glue the bridge when previously they were pinned? Ungluing it would be difficult and would probably strip the finish from the top. Does it matter? I guess yes and no. It reduces my options. At 900 bucks for a new out the door very well made archtop it's still a good buy.
I'll give it a week or so before I decide if it's a keeper.
I'll post pics in due course, but you've all seen them a million times.
I measured the pups and they're still mismatched: 7.1k neck, 5.35k bridge. However, they don't sound bad and i can see the pickup heights have been set so they match pretty well. Factory setup was surprisingly good, played well out of the box, fret ends are tidy and the finish is flawless. I have no issue with the Sta-Tites and the construction is overall very impressive.
A while ago I bought a complete NOS loom from the mid '60s with the Martin-style Dynasonics, plus CTS pots, Switchcraft etc. so my plan was to drop that in.
I checked and the guitar is still made in Korea - I wondered whether they'd switched production to China at some point.
A few of things I noted:
1. The body tapers in thickness towards the neck, so the upper bout is thinner at the neck side than at the bridge side. That's definitely not historically accurate, though that's not a bother to me.
2. The bridge is glued. This was not previously the case - they used to come with foam under the bridge that some demonstrators famously failed to remove. Currently this is annoying me as I had thought to drop in either one of my large selection of Bigsby bridges or possibly a Schaller TOM. As it is I'm stuck with the rather pale bridge base and the posts are too narrow for the Bigsby or Schaller bridges. The stock TOM is not too bad, although it has the rather wide slots that cheapo bridges often come with. I've dropped in a roller I had around that sounds pretty good.
3. They've changed the case. It's still a hard case but not in the classic Guild style with the gold painted G logo on the top. The new ones have a G logo plastic badge riveted to the side. Until recently the Newark Street cases pretty much matched the old ones, meaning it fit well when stacked up with my US Guilds.
I wonder why they made the decision to glue the bridge when previously they were pinned? Ungluing it would be difficult and would probably strip the finish from the top. Does it matter? I guess yes and no. It reduces my options. At 900 bucks for a new out the door very well made archtop it's still a good buy.
I'll give it a week or so before I decide if it's a keeper.
