first play 16 GUILD STARFIRE I DC & SC GVT GUITARIST NOVEMBER 2020 GIT465.rev_guild.
f i r st p l ay GUILD STARFIRE I DC £479 WHAT IS IT? Start-up double-cut hardtail semi, made in Indonesia with a very trim price GUILD STARFIRE I SC GVT £569 WHAT IS IT? Single-cut version available hardtail or with ‘Guildsby’, as here One For The Money If you’ve got a past, why not plunder it? What Guild’s new Starfire I range lacks in historical accuracy it makes up for in price Words Dave Burrluck Photography Neil Godwin G uild is on a bit of a roll this year and you can’t help wondering if it has
first play GUILD STARFIRE I DC & SC GVT 1 1. The thinline singlecut body of the SC is laminated maple, cleanly double-bound and also slightly thicker in depth than the DC version 2.
GUILD STARFIRE I DC & SC GVT first play 3. The Guild logo’d licensed Bigsby B70 is known as a ‘Guildsby’ by Guild aficionados 4. These Guild logo’d open-back tuners ape the original Sta-Tite style and similar types are used across the whole Newark St range 3 Starfires. Peering through the unbound f-holes of both, that certainly looks correct, but there’s another more fundamental difference.
first play GUILD STARFIRE I DC & SC GVT 5 5. A feature of the doublecutaway Starfires was the placement of the three-position toggle switch on the treble horn – unlike the Gibson ES-335, of course 6. The upper strap button here moves from the shoulder placement of the SC to the neck heel.
GUILD STARFIRE I DC & SC GVT first play 7 GUILD STARFIRE I DC rolled into one. For heavier, crunchy alt-rock and Americana-meets-modern country, both are more than fun – but again it’s the SC that gets a little more play time. We’re suckers for that on-the edge-of-feedback tone, particularly with this vibrato.
