Guild Starfire II Model Thinline Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1962), made in Hoboken, NJ, cherry lacquer finish, laminated mahogany body, mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, hard shell case.
A well played but very cool example of an early Guild Starfire II, equipped with the extremely good sounding white-topped DeArmond Dynasonic pickups (the same pickup Gretsch employed on their 1950's classics) used only for the first couple of years. The original medium cherry finish has faded to a darker hue, the body is triple bound on front with an unbound back and the fingerboard is single bound. Other equipmebnt includes Grover Sta-Tite tuners, the early style rounded back-painted pickguard with Guild logo, amber "G-logo" knobs, early-style switch surround and Guild harp tailpiece with Hagstrom-made "Adjusto-matic" bridge. A fine playing and spectacular sounding guitar, with a tone you could describe as a 1950's Gretsch crossed with a Gibson ES-330, with an additional high-end 'snap'.
The Starfire series has been Guild's most consistently successful electric guitar line since its inception in the early 1960's, and these often under-appreciated 1960's guitars have recently become better respected. This guitar dates to 1961 and is an early style Starfires. A much rarer guitar than the mid-'60's version, this is a very classy thin-body electric; compared to equivalent Gibson or Gretsch models these are still a rather undervalued guitars.
Overall length is 41 in. (104.1 cm.), 16 3/8 in. (41.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 2 in. (5.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.). Well played overall, the lacquer has darkened and checked over time and a lot of the finish worn off the back of the neck but there is no other major loss. The back edge seam on the bottom has been resealed, solidly but not perfectly clean. All original finish and hardware, frets are low but solid, a good player with an excellent sound typical of these early Starfires. Very Good + Condition.
