Hello all,
I'm new to the forum having recently picked up a 2017 Guild Starfire IV ST (Newark St. Collection). I am very impressed with the quality of the guitar so far, however, I am feeling the urge to upgrade some of the replaceable parts to a more higher quality.
A few of my thoughts so far:
1. Changing the toggle switch tip from the stock orange plastic tip is not as simple as I first thought: I recently purchased a 3.5mm Nickel replacement from eBay where I found the internal diameter to be too large. After a thorough web search, it seems to be impossible to find a smaller, 3mm switch tip anywhere leaving me stuck with a cheap looking plastic tip, or the option to replace the entire switch to a higher quality?
2. Changing the volume/tone pots would likely be a problem: As far as I understand, the knobs found on Newark St. guitars are designed to fit 'import' (Alpha?) pots, and therefore, wouldn't fit a USA equivalent such as CTS?
3. As discussed elsewhere on the forum, upgrading the tune-o-matic bridge proves to be difficult with 9.5" radius guitars as third-party bridges tend to be designed for flatter radii.
4. Bone nut: It's great to see a bone nut material on these guitars, however, the slots cut on my Starfire IV are incredibly narrow. This seems to cause the string to catch and leave the guitar out of tune, especially following big bends etc.
Seeing as both the electronics and hardware on these models is mostly generic to the entire line of Newark St. guitars, I would be really keen to hear of any successful upgrades done by other members in regard to the above, or any other parts on the guitar.
Len
I'm new to the forum having recently picked up a 2017 Guild Starfire IV ST (Newark St. Collection). I am very impressed with the quality of the guitar so far, however, I am feeling the urge to upgrade some of the replaceable parts to a more higher quality.
A few of my thoughts so far:
1. Changing the toggle switch tip from the stock orange plastic tip is not as simple as I first thought: I recently purchased a 3.5mm Nickel replacement from eBay where I found the internal diameter to be too large. After a thorough web search, it seems to be impossible to find a smaller, 3mm switch tip anywhere leaving me stuck with a cheap looking plastic tip, or the option to replace the entire switch to a higher quality?
2. Changing the volume/tone pots would likely be a problem: As far as I understand, the knobs found on Newark St. guitars are designed to fit 'import' (Alpha?) pots, and therefore, wouldn't fit a USA equivalent such as CTS?
3. As discussed elsewhere on the forum, upgrading the tune-o-matic bridge proves to be difficult with 9.5" radius guitars as third-party bridges tend to be designed for flatter radii.
4. Bone nut: It's great to see a bone nut material on these guitars, however, the slots cut on my Starfire IV are incredibly narrow. This seems to cause the string to catch and leave the guitar out of tune, especially following big bends etc.
Seeing as both the electronics and hardware on these models is mostly generic to the entire line of Newark St. guitars, I would be really keen to hear of any successful upgrades done by other members in regard to the above, or any other parts on the guitar.
Len