SOLD!

This is a rare hard-to-find Guild Starfire. Guild did not make that many and they do not seem to come up for sale very often. This Guild Starfire III-90 was built in the Westerly, RI factory around 1999. Making this an early example in excellent condition. I love the Guild guitars from the Westerly, RI late 1990s to 2001 era. The Corona builds are also said to be great, but I have not owned any.

Guild Starfire III-90 features Seymour Duncan P-90 Antiquity pickups. Nice flame maple body with a mahogany neck with Grover tuners. These guitars feature a Guildsby vibrato. This one came with a Guild solid harp tailpiece. However, the original Guild bigsby was included and can easily be re-mounted. NO additional drill holes were made for the solid tail piece. Since I love Bigsby tailpieces I will mount back on this guitar. The case is the original Guild and is in excellent condition.

Guildsby tailpiece mounted back on

Pictures with the solid Guild bridge

The early Guild Starfire III-90 has the neck pickup a close to the end of the fretboard. After around 2001 the neck pickup was about 3/8-inch closer to the bridge. The later Starfire III-90s were built in Corona Factory by Fender.

The pickups in my opinion make this full hollow body Starfire guitar special. To say I love P-90s is an understatement as I currently own nine other guitars with P-90s. My second “good” guitar I bought when I as about 17 years old was a 1974 Gibson Les Paul Special with P-90s. Been hooked ever since. The Starfire III has no sound post or center block unlike the Guild Starfire IV. So feedback and hum is part of the charm for these type guitars with the single coil P-90s.

2001 Guild Starfire IV and 1999 Guild Starfire III

The Guild Starfire III-90 is a bit like the George Thorogood’s trusty ax, the Gibson ES-125TDC. Which is a thinner hollow body version of my 1966 Gibson ES-125CD. T=thin, D=dual pickups and C=cutaway. Basically the only guitar George Thorogood ever plays.

George Thorogood with Gibson ES-125TDC

FACTOIDS & TRIVIA from GGJaguar’s Guitarium and Ampeteria
This is one of the earliest examples of the Starfire III-90. It was made in Guild’s Westerly, RI facility and has the neck pickup placed directly against the end of the fingerboard just like a vintage Gibson ES-330. The majority of the Starfire III-90s produced had the neck pickup located about 3/8 inch from the end of the fingerboard. According to Guild spec specialist, Bob Willocks, there was re-tooling done when production moved from Westerly to Corona. During this process, it was determined that neck pickup produced a slightly more harmonically rich tone when distanced from the end of the fingerboard by about 3/8-inch. While the Corona-made SFIII-90’s have a little richer sounding neck pickup, this example’s tone can hardly be called anemic.

I will be remounting the Guildsby vibrato that came stock with this Guild Starfire III-90 and will post some new pictures. The previous owner had the aluminum bridge taped down. This is a popular solution for some players to stabilize a hollow body, especially among gigging musicians that frequently transport or road their gear a lot. Keeps the bridge from moving. I will have to decide to remove the tape or not. Luckily the intonation is dead on with the strings currently on the guitar.

  • Body: Fully Hollow with laminated 1-piece double bound flame maple top, back, and sides
  • Finish: Natural (Blonde)
  • Neck: 1-piece mahogany
  • Fingerboard: Indian rosewood, bound; pearloid dot markers
  • Number of Frets: 20
  • Pickguard: Guild log on black Lucite
  • Bridge: Bigsby aluminum on aluminum base
  • Nut Width: Just over 1 11/16 inch
  • Tuners: Grover Rotomatics
  • Pickups: Two Seymour Duncan P-90 Custom Antiquity pickups – Alinico II magnets
  • Controls: Tone and volume controls for each pickup, 3-way pickup selector
  • Scale Length: 24 3/4 inches
  • Body Width at Lower Bout: 16 1/4 inches
  • Body Depth: 2 inches
  • Weight: 6-lbs 11.5-ozs.

So I like Blondes – 2001 Guild IV, 1999 Guild III and 2001 Guild X-500T all in Natural finishes

Please read this informative article and review on GAD.net on the Guild Starfire III-90 guitars.