1963 Guild Starfire III with super cool inlays

[Sarah93003]

Yep, but still no word.

Do you have his email? I have it if you don't.

[wombat]

1/19/63, I jumped on the Let's Talk Guild to see if I could find out a little more about it.

Now I like it even more.
'63 is my birth year!

[jfine]

That thing is really cool! I've always dug those DeArmond pickups--and if the fretboard turns out to be original, you've got a one-of-a-kind guitar there.

[eltuce]

Those DeArmonds sound amazing and even better with that mahogany body. I have the same pickups in a Gretsch and they don't sound quite as good as they do in the Starfire.

Anyway, below is what Hans had to say about it and it seems there are still some theories going around about the guitar but that fretboard is definitely original to the guitar.


Sorry for the slight delay in getting back with you. I've looked hard in my Guild files and I went through a lot of the old ledgers but I have not been able to find your guitar. I did find something though, that might explain some of it.

First I started looking in my serial number files and I did find a whole lot of Starfires from that same batch with serial numbers that were all very close. I found most of the numbers between # 19059 and # 19135. Most of them were finished around April 1962. They were all Starfire IIs and IIIs but I could not find your number.
It is possible that your guitar was finished a long time after the other ones but it is more likely that your guitar never was finished.

The reason I think that your guitar was never finished is because I found another guitar with the same serial number. It was not unusual for Guild to re-use a serial number, if the guitar with that number was not going to be finished because some problems already had been spotted during the production process. So the number would be used again for all kinds of products that would need a serial number as well. I've seen many Guild guitar amps from the '60s that had oval labels glued to the inside with a serial number that looked like a regular guitar serial number. I think that those are re-used serial numbers as well. After all, at Guild serial numbers did not really have a dating purpose within the production process. It's just a number by which a product could be identified and accounted for in the books.

Anyway, during the '60s Guild did a lot of business with Hagstrom from Sweden. They bought pickups and hardware from them and they even distributed guitars that were made in Sweden.
Here's a label I found in my photofile that was glued to the inside of a Bjarton guitar:



As you can see it is the same serial number as your guitar with an appropriate label from that particular period. Note the 'Made in Sweden' ink stamp in red!

That still doesn't explain your guitar but I would think that your guitar was taken by one of the Guild employees, who added the ebony fingerboard. The 'stars' and the 'white/black/white' purfling lines were all parts that were available on other guitars during the sixties. Not in that configuration but that's why I think it was somebody who worked in the factory and who had access to these parts.

And by the way, I checked the 1/19/63 date that was added to the label at a later date.
It was a Saturday. There is no page in the ledgers of 'final assembly' for that day.
There is Friday January 18, 1963 and the next one is Monday January 21, 1963.
This means that there was no production in 'final assembly' on January 19, which makes it more likely that a worker did something there for himself!

I would like to add that I'm not convinced that this is what happened but it is the most likely scenario. At some point I might be able to figure out what exactly did happen to your guitar, but till then you will have to settle for this. As far as I'm concerned it's interesting enough.
These are the kind of things that I've seen happen over the years up till the closing of the Westerly plant in 2001. There are some ex-Westerly workers on this forum that can acknowledge the fact that these practices took place.

Now ...... tell me something more about that 'Sparkle' finished Starfire!

Sincerely,

Hans Moust

[Veenture]

Wow Eltuce, that was some extensive research by mr. Moust and makes for very interesting reading too! Your Starfire is practically unique, I'd say

[eltuce]

I'll say, I seriously was not expecting such an extensive reply. Next up I have him checking out the Starfire bass, first of the '65 serial number system. Ahhh, but first I must break away from the computer and pack for Vegas. The forums will have to wait until next week!

-Tommy

[Dennisthe Menace]

I like the inlays eltuce. It sort of reminded of the Gibson Acoustic "Everly Brothers' and also
Fender's Strat 'Richie Sambora' model......