Guild Starfire II Model Thinline Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1964), made in Hoboken, NJ, serial # 37147, cherry lacquer finish, Laminated mahogany body, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.
This is a nice, slightly played in but original 1964 example of a Guild Starfire II, a guitar that proved to be one of the company's 1960s mainstays. The Starfire II is a fully hollow single cutaway thinline 16" guitar with a deep cherry finish, with the body triple-bound on the top and a bound dot inlay fingerboard. The Stafire II and III were the same instrument, the III just adding a Bigsby tailpiece to the mix. Both were easily Guild's most popular electric guitars at the time, and really helped put the company on the map in the early-mid 1960's.
This guitar was built in the beat-boom year of 1964, with a mix of features somewhat specific to that year. These include a pair of the then-new Guild Humbucking pickups, which replaced the original single-coil DeArmonds on this model the year before. This guitar also has a set of newer features for 1964 including the peaked headstock shape, staggered-edge pickguard, bound back body edge.
The plastic faced headstock is fitted with Grover Sta-Tite tuners; later in 1965-7 cheaper Japanese machines would appear. The Guild harp tailpiece is standard for the model. The bridge on this one is a correct period Guild wooden adjustable unit; Starfire II's usually have a Hagstrom Adjusto-matic on a wooden base, but vintage Guild hardware can be randomly variable so it's not possible to say for sure if this was changed. It works fine in any event!
This Starfire II is a great '60s rock and roll guitar from the height of the "Beat Boom" era, and one of the few remaining comparatively affordable original classic American guitars of the period. This model and its vibrato-equipped III sister were extensively used by many mid-1960s groups including the Kinks, Beau Brummels, Music Machine, Dakotas, Jerry Garcia and many more, and was Guild's defining professional grade electric guitar. The sound ranges from a jazzy purr to the Kinks-ian snarl, with plenty of options in between. This one has a small "Made In USA" stamped on the label so was originally shipped outside the US.
Overall length is 40 11/16 in. (103.3 cm.), 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a nicely original guitar overall, showing general wear but with no major alterations. The finish has a lovely unfaded deep red color and shows some play wear overall, most notably an area of belt buckle wear to the back with attendant scratching and some ancient attempts at touch-up. The top and sides show numerous smaller dings and dents but no heavy wear, the back of the neck has some feelable deeper dings and dents along its length. There is no structural damage or repair.
The guitar remains original except the cap was replaced on the treble tone pot (the original is dead but still in the case) and as noted possibly the floating bridge. The neck angle is very good (not always the case on '60s Starfires) and the original frets show surprisingly little wear. This is a really nice gigging example of this 1960s classic, not the cleanest we have had but one of the best playing. It is housed in a later (1970-80s) HSC that works well. Overall Excellent - Condition.
