![]() ![]() There’s such a tiny range of motion where the blend does anything noticeable that it’s useless.Īnd the loss of treble when nudging the volume off of max is also huge. For example, if you’re in the middle position with the neck on 7 and bridge on 9 (max on Guilds) the tone and output are indistinguishable from bridge alone. ![]() So the potential for all those great sounds from blending in the middle position is lost. Turn a volume knob down a tiny amount and the volume drop is enormous, like I’ve never experienced in 5 decades of guitar playing. The only point where this Starfire falls short is the taper of the volume pots. I started two other threads ( #1 #2) about my ham fisted methods to brighten up the neck pickup on the Guild (magnet swap, broke the slug coil and reattached the lead at approx the halfway point of the wind) that helped bring the EQ balance to where I’d like. I'm not - I like a Strat neck pickup and an overwound Tele bridge combo. If you're the kind of player who likes a Tele with a PAF or P90 in the neck, then you'll love this exactly as it comes. So it’s darker when you optimize the amp for the bridge. But it’s positioned really far forward (right where fret 22 would be) and is wound at about 7.2k vs 5.0k for the bridge. I like it more than a Duncan SM1 firebird style pickup I had, but it’s not really a fair comparison since that was a while ago and a very different guitar. The neck pickup sounds really nice on it’s own. I can’t stand guitars with long gradual bevels that rob you of fretboard space. There’s still plenty of space on the edge of the fretboard because the frets have a steep (but very smoothly filed) bevel. That’s much narrower than I like so I cut a new one at a little over 36mm. The bone nut was cut well, but with weirdly narrow string spacing (about 34mm), just like a 335 I owned. The fret work is terrific and the fretboard edges are extremely smooth. The Guild might be a little flatter at the back. They are both 9.5” radius, medium frets, and fairly small C back. It’s just a little wider at the nut (1-11/16”) and a little narrower at the upper frets. Other than the 24.75” scale length, the neck feels similar to my Vintera 60s Mod Tele neck. It’s a whole lot of fun, like it’s trying to convince me that it’s an Esquire disguised as a jazzbox. 90% of my noodling on this guitar is on the bridge pickup with a little dirt. Net result of that construction plus the low wind mini bucker in the bridge is that it twangs and rocks easily yet weighs <5.75 lbs. It’s almost fully hollow, just a small block under the Tuno-Matic and the stop tail, and a big block under the neck extension. And if you hate both neck dive and heavy guitars, they’re the answer to a prayer.īut they’re tougher to twang and rock with (not that it can’t be done). The most comfortable guitar style for me is an ultra-lightweight 16” archtop with a short scale neck and 14 frets clear of the body. Verdict: It’s a keeper, easily my new #1 any-gig machine.Con: The volume pots are useless, neck pickup is wound hotter than the bridge.Pro: Ultralight yet perfectly balanced, a twang machine, great neck, excellent QC.It was reconditioned by MIRC and stamped “used” so it was probably a cosmetic second or demo. It’s a 2017 Korean built Guild Starfire II ST that I bought from for $500 in early September. ![]()
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