Guild Starfire III Model Thinline Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1965), made in Hoboken, NJ, serial # 41046, cherry lacquer finish, Laminated mahogany body, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
This is a very clean example of an early 1965 single cutaway Guild Starfire III, one of the company's 1960s mainstays. The Starfire III was the highest-ranked single-cutaway, fully hollow guitar in the very popular Starfire line.
The Starfire III is a fully hollow 16" wide thinline body guitar with a cherry finish laminated mahogany body, triple-bound top and back. The one-piece mahogany neck has a bound dot inlaid rosewood fingerboard. Fittings include a Guild-logo Bigsby tailpiece and bridge and Guild Humbucking pickups that had replaced the original single-coil DeArmonds on this model in 1963. This guitar has the typical mix of features for 1965 with the new staggered-edge pickguard, humbucking pickups and bound back but the older Grover Sta-Tite tuners.
The Starfire III is a great '60s rock and roll guitar from the end of the "Beat Boom" era, but well-suited to jazzier stylings as well. This exact model was extensively used by many top mid-1960s groups including the Kinks, Beau Brummels, Music Machine, Dakotas, and many more; even the young Jerry Garcia had one in the Warlocks/early Grateful Dead period. The Starfire III was easily Guild's most popular professional grade electric guitar at the time. Today these original Starfires represent few of the remaining comparatively affordable original American classics of the period; still a versatile and great-sounding instrument.
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 Starfire is a super nice example overall, all original and looking very little used showing hardly any play wear. There is a small repair to the back of the neck, a tight grain split along the spine between the second and fifth fret area, most likely caused by someone over-tightening the truss rod decades ago. This has been fully sealed and lightly touched up, and is completely solid.
The finish has virtually no fade and shows only very light wear, most notable a few chips along the metal bridge base. The neck angle on this particular guitar is better than many and it is an excellent player with virtually no fret wear or fingerboard wear. It is complete in the original Guild-branded HSC, with a heavier gator pattern covering than most, looking like the Harmony cases of the period. If not for the old neck repair this guitar would rate close to near mint. Overall Excellent - Condition.
