Guild Starfire

[Rickco]

So now that Im old enough that handling a full size archtop isnt very comfortable anymore Ive joined the ranks of the "smaller is better" archtop fans. I managed to aquire 3 yery nice 16 x 3 solid archtops and am very happy but...GAS! I was at a friends house and noticed a guitar case under the piano. When I took it out it is a '60 Starfire III? aluminium bridge and a whammy bar made in Hoboken NJ. He let me take it home so I put new strings on it with a quick setup. I was really suprised, the sound was excellent, neck perf for me and nice and small and light. I notice asking prices for these older models on reverb are in the 2-3K$ and they seem to have been made domestically in several different locals. New models from Asia are under a grand. I really like the playability and sound of my friends. Did I mention original lizard skin looking case in very good condition. Has anyone compared an old one to a new one? Any Starfire fans out there? Im not spending $$$ on any guitar right now but if new ones were good players it would be high on my mabey list. Any comments greatly appreciated!

[Jimmy Mack]

Rick, I couldn't be happier to read your account on the SF III. I have a 1961, your accounting is so spot-on.

Neck, weight, tone for days, responsive and a joy to play!

I have to find a photo and post it, but, when I recorded with it, the tone was to die for. It is THE perfect guitar, but a little too fragile to gig with.

Also had a similar Guild Studio from 1968 that was great to play, but not as great as a Gibson for gigging. Oh well...

[Rickco]

Thanks for the reply, I added a few photos. Im hoping to hear that the new ones selling for around $500. are every bit as good as the old ones...kinda like hoping the L5 imitation for $350 is like a real L5 but GAS trumps reason! Im sure my buddie isnt letting go of this one but I was smitten as soon as I started playing it.

[Perdido]

My folks bought me an early- to mid-60s Guild Starfire III for my elementary school (6th grade) graduation in 1966, my first electric guitar (and, actually, my last -- I unplugged for multiple decades -- until I bought another electric guitar in 2007, the first of a few). Here's a blurry photo of me (because that's all my dad knew how to take) at twelve years old, having just uncased the guitar on my return home from graduation. Mine had white, probably single-pole pickups (maybe they were ceramic?) and a curved, rather than stepped pickguard. I do recall it had a Rhode Island sticker inside. I believe it was used; I can't imagine my folks springing for a new guitar, as I'd just picked up the instrument for the first time a few months earlier. (Note excellent mid-60s paneling in the "den" and that groovy lamp, which I just, finally got rid of when I sold my folks' house last year.) I sold the guitar to a friend in college, having played it for eight years or so in my rock band, "White Noise." I wonder if it's still kicking around somewhere. Oh, mine came with a cheap chipboard case.

Edit: Having done some quick research, I discovered the Rhode Island factory didn't start producing guitars until 1967, a year after I got my used Starfire III, so I'm obviously misremembering the sticker. I guess it said New Jersey. (Figured I'd self-edit before some Guild expert here pointed out my error.) It did have that Guild/Bixby "tremolo" bar, which was a lot of fun for a 12-year-old budding rock star.

[Jimmy Mack]

An extreme "happiness" inspiring guitar!

It ia a sort of mystery. The neck inlay (not made for me) appears to be from the factory. It is a 1961 model. So it must have been a custom order for a young Jimmy somewhere. I bought it from a shop in Toronto that had a hard time selling it. Not enough Jimmy's were into the Guilds back then (early 2000's). As a plus (?) Young Jimmy painted his name in white enamel on the case in big letters. I tried to remove the paint, but realized I was destroying something special and memorable. I stopped.

I wonder if Jimmy Miller is wanting his guitar to come home? Touches me when I think about it. Did he know how great a guitar it is? Maybe, maybe not.

[Perdido]

Yes, that's the exact version I had (minus, of course, the Jimmy neck inlay). Nice to see it again. It appears mine, too, was a 1961 version, so it was five years old when I got it. Mine was obtained for me by my first guitar teacher, a fellow named Barry Tracht, who I was astonished to see is living in Florida (having moved from Long Island, where I grew up) and has a Frank Sinatra tribute act, apparently singing in lieu of playing guitar. Anybody here know him? Barry Tracht - Frank Sinatra Tribute Act Pompano Beach, FL - The Bash

[va3ux]

[Sam Sherry]

Incoming from ShopGoodWill.com is this 1961 StarFire I, a birth-year guitar for me.
Down toward the bottom of the line: One pickup, laminated top, thin hollow-body, regular 24.75" scale.
The black finish came from a spray can.
But there aren't a lot of birth-year American-built jazz guitars within my modest reach.

More details in a couple of weeks . . .