The Guild Starfire IV was a dual pickup, double-cutaway electric acoustic guitar, produced by Guild in Hoboken, New Jersey from 1963, and Westerly, Rhode Island from 1967. It differed from the Starfire I-III in several ways - most obviously it had the double cutaway body style of the Gibson ES-335 - but it was also built with a feedback-reducing maple block along the length of the body - again like the Gibson 335. The Starfire IV was by far the most successful model in the Starfire line, and remained in production into the 1980s, when all other Starfire variants had been discontinued.
Model | Starfire IV, Starfire Standard |
Available | 1963-date |
Pickups | Guild Humbuckers (ocassionally DeArmond single coils), XR-7s after 1980 |
Scale | 24 3/4" |
Body | Laminated maple or mahogany. 1 7/8 " thick, 16 3/8 " wide, 20 1/4 " long |
Neck | 1 piece set mahogany, or 3 piece mahogany/maple - rosewood fingerboard. 22 frets, dot (pre-'73, post '80) or block inlays . Neck joins the body at the 16th (pre-'67) or 18th fret. |
Hardware | Chrome plated. 2 volume and 2 tone controls, pickup selector switch. Harp tailpiece (SP-6 post '1980). Master volume from 1973. Grover StaTites, RotoMatics (post-'73). Optional stereo circuitry. |
Finishes | Standard finishes: initially Cherry and Sunburst. Custom finishes: Ebony Grain, Emerald Green, Amber, Black, White, Blonde, Brown and Natural Mahogany. |
The Starfire IV, SF-IV, or Starfire Standard did change a little over its production run - the first major change was in 1967 when the neck/body join changed from the 16th to 18th fret. The next came in 1973 when the Starfire V was discontinued, and the Starfire IV (now renamed Starfire 4) gained some of its high-end features: block inlays, master volume control and RotoMatic tuners. Towards the beginning of the 1980s the Starfire IV was the only Starfire model left in the range, and it was updated significantly. The older Guild humbuckers were replaced by Guild XR-7s. The old harp tailpiece was replaced with a Guild Quick Change SP-6, and the rosewood fingerboard with block inlays was replaced with an ebony fingerboard with dots.
Like all dual pickup Guild guitars stereo wiring was an optional extra for the Starfire IV.
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