Guild Starfire ii 1965 Cherry

TL;DR: All original, unmodifed, perfect working order w/ Original Case. 

An all original piece in 100% working order, the Guild Starfire ii in cherry from 1965 Grab this piece while you can, they are super underpriced and seriously hard to find in good condition. Where do I even start? Old guilds are the wave, I cant believe they are so undervalued, theres a reason why this legendary guitar was played by the likes  of Jerry garcia and Tom Fogarty played the guild starfire. Its so versatile, sleek, and so easy to play. 

This piece can cover every tone you can imagine from jazz to rockabilly to hard rock to to coutnry to lofi and even to shreddy stuff. My favorite part of this guitar is that sleek, single cut thinline body. AS WELL AS the antihum humbuckers (hb-1's). They are some of the most ARTICULATE pickups ive ever heard. No joke the attack of each note is so sonically pleasing and enjoyable I can't put it down. The juxtapostion of the old mahogany construction and juicy pickups give this baby the cleanest, clearest, and most glassy open tone. I think its the old wood thats lost all its moisture from all these years that rings like a bell, the parallel bracing for no tone loss, and the guild made pickups that are just crystal clear. My mouth is dry after typing this up but from the bottom of my heart, if your trying to pickup a guild, get a starfire, I personally love the single cut design so I prefer the starfire 1-3 and man this baby can sing.

Some quick history, the guild starfire model had its debut in 1960, it was made in the Hoboken factory in New jersey and in that factory is where guild created some of their most iconic instruments with unparalleled craftsmanship. While CBS fender and Gibson were churning out guitars on an assembly line during "beatlemania," guild was making insanely high quality electric guitars with high attention to detail. The Starfire ii is the 2 pickup model hardtail and came in colors like black emerald green and sunburst, cherry being the most popular. In 1963 Guild dropped their Dearmmond pickups and produced the "anti-hum" humbuckers (hb-1), with more midrange suited for the honky rockabilly tones popular during that time.

Ultimately the guild im selling the today is the pinnacle of guild craftsmanship of their golden era. This piece feature a laminated mahogany body, 1 piece mahogany neck, beautiful bound brazilian rosewood board, and a gorgeous headstock with the "chesterfield" headstock inlay. Luckily, this piece left the factory with the original Guild star Grover statite tuners that were discontinued in 66. The 9.5 inch board is super easy to play and the standard today. The frets have a good amount of life left (~0.032") and plays amazingly, dead straight neck when perfectly level frets, extremely low action and no buzzing/choking. You will not regret getting an insane electric guitar from the 60's for this cheap. Thank you for looking, specs are below.

Condition: All original parts down to every screw. Beautiful and bright cherry finish, some finish wear on the side and back, nitro weather checking that murphy lab (tries) to recreate. Some scratches on the back of the neck but you can't feel it with your palm. No breaks or repairs, no binding issues, binding has aged over time in color. No scratchy pots, linear increase in volume. The top left of the peghead veener has slightly seperated from the peghead (about 0.05" of an inch), this is extremely common and after 59 years does not affect playability and is not noticeable. 

Electronics: All original Electronics, pots dat to 65'


Guild Starfire ii 1965 Cherry

Serial: 43200
Weight: 5 lbs 14 oz
Series: StarFire ii
Body:  Laminated Mahogany with binding and unbound f holes
Body Finish: Nitrocellulose
Neck: 1 piece Mahogany, C shape 1st fret 0.85"
Neck Finish: Nitrocellulose
Fretboard: 9.5 -inch radius, bound brazilian rosewood board
Frets: 20
Position Inlays: Pearl Dot inlays
Nut (Material/Width): Bone, 1 11/16" (1.67")
Tuning Machines:  Original Guild  Star Grover statite tuners
Scale Length: 24.75"
Bridge: Original bridge
Pickguard: Original Black pickguard with guild logo
Pickups: Original Guild anti-hum Humbuckers (hb-1) (Neck reading: 7.03k, bridge reading: 7.02k)
Pickup Switching: 3 way switch
Controls: Volume 1, (Neck) Volume 2, (Bridge) Tone 1(Neck) Tone 2 (Bridge)
Control Knobs: Original Black Guild Knobs
Hardware Finish: Nickel
Case/Gig Bag: Original guild hardshell case