{"id":14032,"date":"2019-03-13T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gad.net\/Blog\/?p=14032"},"modified":"2021-08-16T18:02:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T22:02:54","slug":"1966-guild-starfire-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gad.net\/Blog\/2019\/03\/13\/1966-guild-starfire-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"1966 Guild Starfire III"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This 1966 Guild Starfire III came to me as a surprise gift. Well, it came to me after I apparently bought it on eBay while under the influence of Nyquil and Aged Rum. Well, it was fine Aged Rum and Coke (the real Mexican kind with real sugar, dammit) and then a shot of Nyquil. Maybe two. At least I think that’s what happened because the next day I woke up to a shipment notification for a this 1966 Guild Starfire III in very nice condition that I didn’t remember purchasing.<\/p>\n

Anyway,\u00a0it’s here, so let’s review it!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>This guitar is the first Guild I’ve owned that was made in the Hoboken, NJ factory. There is a fair bit of mystique amongst Guild aficionados about the Hoboken guitars and a fair number of people greatly prefer this era of Starfire (regardless of model) over those from any other factory. If you were not previously aware, the Newark Street import line of Starfires being sold in the late 2010s are all based on these 1960s-era Guilds. Guild says that the Newark Street guitars are inspired by the originals and are not absolute reissues, but it’s pretty clear when looking at a Newark Street Starfire III that it’s an almost identical copy of a ’60s model.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>According to Hans Moust’s<\/a> The Guild Guitar Book<\/a>, the Starfire III was first introduced in 1961 and went through changes over the years, perhaps the most notable\u00a0having to do with the pickups included. Pickup changes\u00a0included what are\u00a0generally called Mickey Mouse pickups, Dearmonds, the AntiHums seen in this guitar, and in 1970 or so the Guild HB1s were\u00a0added. The Starfire III was discontinued in 1973 and wasn’t revived until 1997, my guess being due to the resurgence of jazz swing\u00a0after the comeback of Brian Setzer with his\u00a0The Brian Setzer Orchestra<\/em> album in 1994 and the follow-up Guitar Slinger<\/em> in 1996, though it may just be that Fender (who bought Guild in 1995) just decided that the world needed a new Starfire III.<\/p>\n

The guitar on the cover of the 1965 Kinks album, The Kink Kontroversy<\/em> was a 1963 Guild Starfire III owned by Dave Davies according to Hans Moust on this old Fender forum post<\/a>. Note the different pick guard which assuming it wasn’t replaced, is one of the ways you can differentiate the different years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The 1966 catalog describes the Starfire III as a favorite for many years because it was specifically designed for the young artist with a flair for showmanship<\/em>. The cynic in me translates\u00a0specifically designed for the young artist <\/em>as the inexpensive model <\/em>while similarly translating a flair for showmanship<\/em> to red<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The guitar came standard in Cherry Red\u00a0and Sunburst with red being the color I see most often and I daresay a red Starfire III is an almost iconic design.<\/p>\n

The 1966 price\u00a0list shows the Starfire III at $395 in Cherry Red which coincides with the hand-written note on the catalog image shown here from the copy in my personal collection. \u00a0A note on the bottom of the price list\u00a0states that, The above guitars are available in Emerald Green, Ebony Grain, Amber, Black or other special colors on special order at $20 additional. <\/em>The emerald green examples are pretty coveted, but the most common color I’ve seen is red.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Perhaps the most famous image of an artist with a Guild Starfire III is this one of Jerry Garcia. There are many pics of him from The Warlocks days sporting a Guild Starfire with Dearmond pickups, but this one more closely resembles the guitar in this review with its AntiHum pickups and stair-step pick-guard. The earlier Starfire IIIs had a curved pick-guard which is what was copied for the Newark Street guitars.<\/p>\n

Certainly many famous artists played Starfire IIIs over the years, but one of my favorite examples is Norah Jones who played a DeArmond-equipped ’60s Starfire III in her\u00a0Live in Amsterdam<\/a> concert video from 2007.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Norah Jones clearly has a love of vintage Starfires because she is often seen playing one, and in this pic, grabbed from JazzTimes, she is seen playing a later model with AntiHum pickups and the star-step pick-guard like the one in this review.<\/p>\n

One reference to a Hoboken Starfire III that always pops up in my searches is the song, 1964 Guild Starfire III in Very Good Condition<\/a>\u00a0off of\u00a0the album Bee China<\/a> from the band\u00a0Single Girl, Married Girl<\/a>. There’s no cool picture that I have to share to go with it, but I just felt like I needed to mention the song because how many songs about vintage Guild Starfires are there?<\/p>\n

The case<\/h2>\n

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The case this guitar came to me in is… not so great. I believe it to be original based on the color of the felt inside and the aged look of the latches, but it does not say Guild on it. That doesn’t really surprise me since this looks like the low-quality case option available at the time.<\/p>\n

There were a variety of options case-wise for the ’66 Starfire, and the original owner of this example apparently decided that the better otions weren’t worth the money. Pro-tip: the better case is always worth the money. The Hard top only,\u00a0flannel-lined<\/i> case retailed for $22 while the Hard Shell 3-ply veneer, plush-lined case<\/em> was a cool $80. Remember this was 1966 when only two years earlier US pocket change was still made with real silver, so those dollar values shouldn’t be dismissed. According to the official inflation calculator<\/a>, $22 in 1966 would be equivalent to $170 in early 2019. To compare, the Newark Street hardshell case sells for $149 in 2019.<\/p>\n

Honesty, I’m impressed that this guitar survived as well as it did in this lame case. Hell, judging by the condition of the case I’d venture a guess that the guitar spent most of its life in the case and the case spent most of its time under a bed or in a closet. Kudos to whoever took care of this guitar, because though it’s clearly been played, it’s also clearly been cared for.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you’re in the position of needing a new case for a 1960s Guild Starfire III, I can verify\u00a0it fits like a glove in a Newark Street\u00a0Guild Deluxe Electric Guitar Wood Case<\/a>\u00a0(size Guild Starfire or T50 Slim). I was able to test this because I happen to have a Newark Street Starfire III that’s also being reviewed, and I can tell you the guitar seems much happier in the nicer case even though it’s spent the last 50+ years sleeping in the other one. Hey, everyone needs a mattress\u00a0upgrade from time to time.<\/p>\n

Finish<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>The finish is quite obviously lacquer based on the miscellaneous lacquer marks burned into it by things like the infamous surgical-tube covered guitar stands of the time. The guitar glows a sickening green under a UV light which is smooth and even except where there is more wear and where there are obvious holes in the finish such as the aforementioned spots on the back of the neck.<\/p>\n

When I bought this guitar I thought it looked too good to be true because 50+ year old guitars don’t usually look this good. Still, I’ve seen my share of very attractive 50-year old people, so the possibility did exist, but like some of those attractive people I wondered if any work had been done to maintain the appearance of youth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are signs that a buyer can look for to see if a guitar has been refinished, but this guitar didn’t really show any of those. I did spy a drop of white material in the f-hole which made me curious, but I didn’t see any sign of overspray in there, so I made sure to look around in that area with my borescope. While i didn’t find any definitive\u00a0signs of refinishing, I did find something that looked a bit strange to me, though to be fair I don’t spent a lot of time with a borescope inside 1966 hollow-body guitars so I didn’t have a good baseline with which to compare.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On the underside of the f-holes on both sides of the guitar there is a fair bit of white… stuff. At first I wondered if this was some sort of glue that someone had used to seal up the f-holes while they refinished, but since I found no other obvious indications of refinishing, I was left wondering what this was. After a discussion on the LetsTalkGuild forum about this, the best guesses I saw were either some sort of wax or polish residue that had wicked under the f-holes or some sort of adhesive used by someone trying to seal the f-holes in order to reduce feedback. Neither answer would surprise me, honestly, because this guitar has signs of being waxed a lot in its life and it also feeds back like a champ with even a little volume. If you’ve got another idea about the white goo, please leave a comment.<\/p>\n

Fretboard and Neck<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is a short-scaled guitar like most Gibsons, though very slightly different in length like most Guilds. It feels absolutely wonderful in the hand with its one-piece mahogany neck and bound rosewood fretboard. The fretboard inlays are simple dots which have always worked for me on this model. I’ve always sort of thought of the Starfire III as the working-man’s guitar, sexism notwithstanding, especially since I listed two female players in the introduction. How about a working musician’s guitar, then.<\/p>\n

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This guitar’s fretboard radius measures 9.5″ and the neck is 1 11\/16″ at the nut.\u00a0The fretboard is fairly\u00a0worn down in the cowboy chord section of the neck, and there is a fair bit of wear on the frets, but I don’t feel either when playing, perhaps since I’ve learned to play with a lighter touch since my early monkey grip days.<\/p>\n

I like the neck on this guitar a lot more than most of the Guild electrics I’ve played from the 1970s, all of which have 1 5\/8″ wide and very shallow necks. This neck has a great feel to it and I wish they never moved away from this design, though they did go back to it or something similar to it with the ’90s reissues.<\/p>\n

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The frets measure .04″ high by .100″ wide which matches many of the other Guilds I’ve reviewed. I like them because they’re slick and fast, but if I’ve been playing my jumbo-fretted guitars lately then they’re a bit of a distraction. Of course, if I play a vintage Guild for a while then the Jumbos become the distraction. What can I tell you? My life is complicated.<\/p>\n

Build Quality<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here’s\u00a0what you need to know about the build quality of this guitar: it’s a hollow-body guitar that hasn’t collapsed in on itself in over fifty years.<\/p>\n

Now, to be fair, some do, and that’s not necessarily due to the design. This guitar has parallel bracing which means that it has two long braces that go from the front to the back of the guitar just inside the f-holes. Those braces are one of the ways that the Newark Street reissues differ as you’ll see when I publish the review of that guitar.<\/p>\n

This guitar weighs 6 lbs\u00a05 oz\u00a0(2.86 kilos) so it is an absolute featherweight. I measured the top to be\u00a0.2″ thick (just over 3\/16″) with my calipers.<\/p>\n

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Another way that the guitar is quite different than the Newark Street guitar has to do with the space under the end of the fretboard. That space is empty in this 1966 Starfire III while there is a large wooden block in that space on the Newark Street model. My completely uneducated guess is that the block is there in the modern copy of this guitar to help keep the top from collapsing which something that can happen on hollow body guitars.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The constant force of the strings pulling on the neck and pushing down on the bridge can cause all sorts of failures in a guitar that’s built a lot like a violin or other stringed instruments that can also suffer from similar maladies. As a result, one of the things that my Guild-loving brethren told me to watch out for was the break angle over the bridge. Thankfully, it looks pretty good, but when I first got the guitar, it looked a little strange. Why? Electrical tape.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When I got this guitar, the bridge didn’t sit properly, the action was way too high, and I thought there might have been something seriously wrong with it. When I tried to remove the bridge, I could only rock it until I pulled forcibly. That’s when I found that the bridge was held down by rolls of electrical tape. I get why people tape down bridges and I’ve seen everything from glue to sandpaper to carpet tape to screws right through the bridge into the top. Now I’ve seen rolled up electrical tape, too. Electrical tape is generally made from vinyl and vinyl reacts with lacquer, so using electrical tape to keep the bridge in place is a seriously bad idea.\u00a0Anyway, I pulled that tape off and now it plays and sounds great.<\/p>\n

Pickups<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>The pickups in this guitar are the coveted Guild AntiHum<\/a> mini-humbuckers. These are the real deal and they deliver the goods just the way you’ve heard. They’re jangly and chimey, though not as jangly and chimy as, say, DeArmonds from the same era. They are coated in chrome and are shiny silver in color like every other metal bit on this guitar. The pickups are original equipment and\u00a0measure 6.54k\u00a0\u03a9 at the bridge and 6.53k\u00a0\u03a9 at the neck making them about as closely matched as possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Unlike the larger HB1 pickups that would be introduced around 1970, the AntiHum pickups have only one hight adjustment screw on either side. This can lead to the pickups being tilted with\u00a0there being no easy way to rectify the issue, and indeed the neck pickup on this guitar has a slight cant towards\u00a0the fretboard. The only way this can be fixed is by bending the legs on the bottom of the pickups, which was something I was unwilling to do on a 52 year old guitar that plays and sounds great.<\/p>\n

Electronics<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At first, I didn’t pull the wiring harness because that’s a huge pain in the ass, if I’m being honest, and since the pots are pretty corroded there would be no easy way to measure their values without dismantling the harness which I was unwilling to due on such an original vintage piece. I then changed my mind and I’m glad that I did.<\/p>\n

The wiring isn’t rocket science on most Guilds, and this is a two-humbucker four-knob setup like most others.\u00a0The wiring is coupled which means that the volume will go to zero if you turn either volume down all the way with the pickup selector toggle in the middle position. Still, the wiring is not as simple as I’d assumed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pulling the wiring harness\u00a0let me see that the pots appear to all be original and I have to say that I’m surprised that none of them pop or crackle or do anything other than what they should do. All of the pots are 500k\u00a0\u03a9 except for the tone pot on the neck pickup which is 200k\u00a0\u03a9. Note that that is not a typo – the pot is 200k, and not 250k.<\/p>\n

The 500k pots all have code 1376631\u00a0which translates to\u00a0CTS pots dated to 31st week of 1966. The Guild pot code for these, which is stamped on them, is 004019.\u00a0The neck\u00a0tone knob is stamped 004026 which is 200k and also dates to 1966.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From previous examinations and some discussions on the LetsTalkGuild forum, I believe at least some of the Guild Pot codes to be as follows:<\/p>\n