Guild Starfire III Model Thinline Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1963), made in Hoboken, NJ, cherry red lacquer finish, laminated mahogany body; mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, original brown tolex hard shell case.
A beautiful example of an early Starfire III, complete with the extremely cool white-topped DeArmond Dynasonic pickups (the same pickup Gretsch employed on their 1950's classics) used only for the first couple of years on this model. Nice medium cherry finish; body triple bound; front, back, and fingerboard single bound. Early style rounded back-painted pickguard with Guild logo, amber "G-logo" knobs, and Bigsby with original Bigsby bridge marked "Guild Spec" on the saddle bottom. A great 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 previously under-appreciated 1960's guitars have recently become better respected. This guitar dates to the middle of 1963 and would be one of the later Starfires equipped with the DeArmond pickups; the model was changed to carry Guild's own humbuckers before the end of the year. This is a much rarer guitar than the mid-60's version and a very classy thin-body electric; compared to equivalent Gibson or Gretsch models, these are still rather undervalued guitars.
Overall length is 41 1/8 in. (104.5 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 1/2 in. (622 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
Some overall play wear; not bad overall, but most finish is missing from the back of the neck. Small dent in side of the neck on the bass side near the second fret. Tuners restored to originals; slight compression circles on the headstock plastic overlay, but no extra holes in back. All other hardware original except the truss rod cover is a "Mono-plak" decorative metal fitting with the original owner's name engraved on it -- a 1960's extra! A very good player with an unusually fine neck angle for this model. Includes original brown HSC with a couple of vintage stickers affixed. Generally Excellent Condition.
