GUILD STARFIRE I SC GVT

17
NOVEMBER 2020 GUITARIST
G
uild is on a bit of a roll this year and you
can’t help wondering if it has a crystal
ball. The company’s 2020 launches
could have focused on some high-end USA-
made versions of its almost-classic guitars from
yesteryear, but instead the folk at Guild have
given us some highly affordable – but still very
Guild – electrics. These arrived in the form of
the Aristocrat HH and P-90 models we looked at
back in issue 460, plus the even more affordable
“semi-hollowbody” versions of the Starfire
models we have here, which are considerably less
expensive than the existing models. Guitars for
these times? Quite possibly.
Back in the day, the Starfire range that appeared
in 1960 was an obvious example of Guild trying
to catch up: a ‘jazz guitar’ maker suddenly in the
midst of the rock ’n’ roll revolution. There were
originally three single-cut Starfire models: the
single-pickup I, the dual-pickup II and the dual-
pickup with vibrato III. They were based on the
Words Dave Burrluck Photography Neil Godwin
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
One For
The Money
first play
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
GIT465.rev_guild.indd 17 01/10/2020 03:01