❌SOLD❌ Guild Starfire III Thinline Cherry Red, 1964

The Guild Starfire III Thinline first appeared in 1960, as a single-cutaway, thin but fully hollow archtop, with a Bigsby tailpiece – the Starfire II was the same guitar but with the Guild harp tailpiece. It was available with either maple or mahogany laminate body.

The Starfire III Thinline was built from 1960 to 1974 in Hoboken, New Jersey and Westerly, Rhode Island. In 1997, under management by Fender, production resumed in Westerly. However, in 2001 the Westerly plant was closed and production moved to the Fender facility in Corona, California. Guild production in Corona ended in 2005, and resumed — without the Starfire — in Tacoma, Washington.

Here we are looking at a Guild Starfire III Thinline in cherry red, built during 1964 in Hoboken, New Jersey. The body is shaped Mahogany Laminate, with a solid Mahogany neck and, typical of the period, a bound Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard.

This particular example has had a bit of work done to it over the years, and likely originally had a Bigsby which has been removed and replaced with the Guild Harp tailpiece. This essentially makes it a Starfire II, but the label does read Starfire III. The neck was nicely refinished some time ago, almost certainly as part of a headstock crack repair. During that, the neck may have been removed. It has been re-fretted and there is lots of fret available for years of use.

The original pickguard is gone, and the tuners are period-correct Grover Sta-Tites. The original bridge would have been an compensated aluminum model supplied with the Bigsby tailpiece, and in its place is a rosewood-based Tune-O-Matic style adjustable bridge. The pickups are the original Guild humbuckers, slightly smaller than full-sized Gibson humbuckers but slightly larger than Gibson mini-humbuckers, as were found on many Epiphone models built by Gibson.

This is a thinline electric hollow body guitar, and the ‘electric’ part of that always poses some challenges for wiring installation, maintenance and repair. Here, a cavity was routed into the back and an access panel installed. This was done very cleanly, and could almost look factory – if Guild had ever done this. A Gibson-style output jack plate has been added to the side.

This Guild Starfire III Thinline is in good working condition and given its light weight is comfortable and fun to play.

A non-original black hard shell case is included.