Guild

GUILD NEWARK ST
round-uP
92 FEBRUARY 2015
GUild Newark St
StarFIre IV
£1,029
Brighter than a thousand suns
USed
by the likes of
Buddy Guy, the
Starfire was one of Guild’s most
popular models in the 60s. At
first blush, its aesthetic puts it in
competition with Gibson’s ES-335.
But make no mistake: the Starfire
has a voice all of its own. Looking
past the double-cut, semi-hollow
body, it has a quite different
construction, too: the Starfire has
a pressed laminate mahogany
build, with a three-piece
mahogany-maple-mahogany
sandwich neck, and a maple
centre-block for ballast.
Acoustically, the Starfire IV is
bright and bold, and the pair of
Guild Anti-Hum Dual-Coil pickups
that grace the neck and bridge
positions are a natural fit. Consider
them reluctant humbuckers:
a low-output option that’s happier
teasing every bit of brightness
out of the Starfire IV. In the bridge
position, it has a gentle snap and
snarl, coruscating but never shrill,
and while the neck pickup rounds
off some of that sharpness, it never
gets lost in the clay.
The Starfire articulates that
middle ground between rootsy
blues and roughhouse rock ’n’ roll
jangle, rewards note-heavy jazz
and blissed-out fingerpicking and,
thanks to that unpinned rosewood
bridge piece, it is a little punishing
when really choking the bejeezus
out of your bends, knocking the
tuning a little off-base. But, when
you consider the Starfire’s soft
U-profile neck, jumbo frets and
ultra-comfortable ride, that’s
a minor foible.
GUild Newark St
M-75 arIStoCrat
£929
Urbane legend
The
M-75 Aristocrat is so
refined, you’ll want
to put on a suit before playing it.
You might even consider strapping
it on a little higher. But no matter
how you wear this vintage single-
cut, it’s designed to complement
the human condition – spiritually
and physically. It’s more than
sympathetic to your sciatic nerve,
as its chambered mahogany body
with laminated spruce top lends
itself to a guitar that feels compact
and as light as balsa.
The spiritual fillip comes from
plugging it into an amplifier,
wrapping your hands round
its vintage soft U-profile neck
and wondering how such a
comfortable guitar could sound
so beautiful and, moreover, so
substantial. The Aristocrat has
a pair of Guild’s Frequency-Tested
single coils in neck and bridge that
confound expectations.
With a clean tone, the neck
pickup is all warm and woody
cream, but where a solidbody
would be layering it on thick,
there’s a lightness, an aerated
quality that might be weight-
relieved but never sacrifices depth.
In the bridge position, the clean
tones could convince you that your
suit should be brightly coloured
with a wide trouser; the Aristocrat
specialises in the sort of clearly
enunciated bright-pop and bell-
chime tone that would be right at
home on Soul Train: 100 per cent
jazz, funk and soul. Turning up the
gain finds a yowling, chewy rock
voice hidden beneath the finery,
too – a reminder that a guitar’s
looks can be deceiving, and its tone
is whatever you make of it.
92 FEBRUARY 2015
TGR263.gear_round.indd 92 18/12/2014 17:51