Roaring Forties

One of the oldest ‘classic’ pickup designs makes a return to the Guild range. But is everything quite what it seems?

- Dave Burrluck

Guild’s Newark St range isn’t intended to slavishly reissue instruments from yesteryear, but glancing through the now expansive range of hollow, semi-hollow and solidbody designs you find yourself in a near parallel universe. Not only were the majority of designs originally issued in the late 50s and 60s, but Guild – or rather its owner, the Cordoba Music Group – seems unrushed to launch new models. The Starfire I, II and III models date back to 1960, renamed versions of the prior T-100 ‘Slim Jim’.

The Starfire II with LB-1 minihumbuckers joined the Newark St line-up in 2016 as the most affordable stripped-down model in the contemporary Semi-Hollow range. Announced last year is this latest addition that swaps the humbuckers for DeArmond Dynasonics and comes in a deep Royal Brown gloss finish with gold-plated hardware and a slightly higher price. Even so, with no pickguard, understated it remains.

What it certainly isn’t is a modern downsized thinline. It’s a 416mm (16.4-inch) wide single-cut with that thinline depth at the rim of 48mm. Guild groups it in its Semi-Hollow section, along with centreblocked guitars such as the Starfire V, whereas the III, with its dual top braces, is classed as a Hollowbody. The Starfire II is a bit of a halfway house: to mount the standard tune-o-matic and stud tailpiece (the ‘ST’ of its name) there are actually two stacked wood blocks that support this real estate and connect the top and back. There’s no other bracing that we can see or feel. It means that it’s a lightweight guitar – a partial semi, if you like.