Guild Starfire IV Model Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1968), made in Hoboken, NJ, brown lacquer finish, laminated maple body, laminated mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, original black hard shell case.
The Starfire series has been Guild's most consistently successful electric guitar line since its inception, and was by far the company's most popular electric instrument in the 1960's. This Starfire IV from early 1968 is a double cutaway semi-hollow instrument with a laminated maple/mahogany body in an fairly rare dark red/brown finish -- this was a custom order option although not all that different visually from the far more common cherry red. The label notation reads "Starfire IV Brown". By the time this example was made, the neck joint on the double-cut Starfire models had been moved out to the 18th fret, resulting in better fret accessibility and a feel more akin to Gibson's ES-335 series.
The two pickups are the typical 1960's Guild humbucking pickups, similar to but a bit brighter and crisper than the Gibson equivalent with a nice wide tonal range. Like Gibson's similar ES 335, the Starfire IV has a solid block running through the center of the body, cutting down on feedback and giving the guitar a tighter tone. Thie Starfire IV is a very versatile guitar and has been a perennial favorite among players of many styles-they are particularly well thought of as an electric blues instrument. This excellent example remains a fine player and a notable bargain compared to similar period Gibson instruments.
Overall length is 41 3/4 in. (106 cm.), 16 3/8 in. (41.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 7/8 in. (4.8 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.). This is a completely original and relatively clean example of a 1960's custom-color Starfire, something we don't come across as often as we'd like! There is some light-moderate finish wear and subtle checking overall, with small chips and dings-a fairly large spot of belt buckle wear on the back is the only serious finish loss. The original frets have very little wear and likely a light polish-out at some point. The binding is totally intact, with only some slight typical shrinkage in the cutaways. As is common the headstock facing has shrunken up a bot and shows a glue sopt above the G-string tuner. Overall a very good playing and sounding guitar, one of the nicer '60's Starfires we have had recently. Excellent - Condition.
