Members yyyames Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 I recently purchased a StarFire ST... Not crazy about the pickups... Anybody know what pickups will be a direct replacement in the minihumbucker slot? SD antiquities? Gib 57s? Never played humbuckers... Im looking for a smoother tone close to a P90 the current mini humbuckers are a little hot and give a lot of weird harmonic tones. These are the two I am looking at. http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/phat-cat-set http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/antiquity-humbucker-set Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 Why not use P90's ? They should fit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 I have an SF-IV from the late seventies and the pups are great. They range from cream to jangle depending on the guitar volume and tone settings and the amp settings. They are actually some of my favorite pups ever. Are these new pups really that far off from the old ones? I'd try adjusting the overall height and pole piece height before giving up on the stock pups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 Agree but if you must adjust pole pieces go easy .very easy and document everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 I'm not completely sure but I believe Guild used to use an oddball sized pickup. The bridge pickup may be wider and is F Spaced. A regular HP may not fit in that pickup ring and the rings and the route for the pickup may be wider so you may need to make your own if you're going to PAF's. Heres some info on them http://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/11/25/guild-full-sized-hb1-and-sd1-pickup-variations/ http://guildguitars.com/a-deeper-look-at-the-starfire-pickup/ The newer versions of the guitar may be different but its something you definitely want to check out before you make any purchases. The guilds also used a double screw on the bass side to adjust tilt. Most PAF's have singles on both sides so you'll need to buy the proper rings in any case. I'm not sure the antiquity PAF's are going to be a step up for that guitar either. I read a some posts on another that said the Antiquity's lack high end on a Star fire. He said he believes its because the bridge pup isn't F spaced and the poles don't align with the strings. I suggest you carefully check the pole spacing for any bridge pickup you purchase. Measure the distance between your two E strings above the bridge pup and use that as a guide for your pole distances. Many pickups can be off a little and still sound good, but poles being off can have a more severe drop on a lower, vintage wound pickup. If you do swap them, I suggest you unsolder the pickups from the pots or switch. Those pickups have a high resale vale and if you just go and clip them off close to the pickup you screw up your chance of reusing them and kill any resale value. You have to pull the controls to solder in the new pups anyway so its better to do the job right. I can say you may wind up doing allot of swaps till you find what you're looking for. I changes the pickups in my DOT at least a half dozen times before I could zero in on what sounded best. Any Hot would pickups I used were really bad. They make it sound like a solid body slab and killed all the wood tone because of their limited frequency responses. I eventually wound up buying mini humbucker adaptor rings and using mini humbuckers. It comes close to sounding like my old 60's Rivera. I'd stick with a vintage would pickup. A P90 will likely make it sound more like a Gibson if that's what you're looking for. If you want to retain the clean wood tones yet have a hot output for driving up the gain, I'd seriously look at getting a pair of TV jones Filteron Pickups. http://tvjones.com/pickups-2/filtertron-style/ They were commonly used on Gretch and Guild guitars and sound fantastic on semis. Listen to some of the lead work Steven Stills does on those old albums. The driven leads come through with a clear voiced rock sustain without all that whit noise the covers up the wood harmonics when played through a cranked Fender or Marshall. Just be sure to measure the sizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 After FMIC took over Guild, they stopped making electric guitars in the USA. Newer Guild electric guitars are imports and probably use standard pickup sizes like Epiphone and the Electromatic line from Gretsch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 You might be right. That's why I suggested he measure them. I believe they are still F spaced however so the point about the pole spacing being wider at the bridge may still be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yyyames Posted May 11, 2016 Author Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 Yeah mine is not a Vintage spec over sized pickup. but I don't have much xp with "minihumbuckers" but apparently they are the same size as a standard humbucker design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 Did you notice that he mentioned they are mini humbuckers ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yyyames Posted May 11, 2016 Author Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 I have an SF-IV from the late seventies and the pups are great. They range from cream to jangle depending on the guitar volume and tone settings and the amp settings. They are actually some of my favorite pups ever. Are these new pups really that far off from the old ones? I'd try adjusting the overall height and pole piece height before giving up on the stock pups. I've adjusted the pickups enfough to where they sound good but not my cup of tea. I love the guitar though... Im on the fence with Keeping my john lennon casino and returning the guild or selling my casino and adding the SD Phat cats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted May 11, 2016 Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 I've adjusted the pickups enfough to where they sound good but not my cup of tea. I love the guitar though... Im on the fence with Keeping my john lennon casino and returning the guild or selling my casino and adding the SD Phat cats! Fair enough. Just bears mentioning. It's amazing how often adjusting the height is overlooked, but it sounds like you got it covered. As far as size, this is from guilds web page, but I didn't see any detailed measurements . "The Guild LB-1 “Little Bucker” was first offered in 1962 as an upgrade from single coil pickups. Tonally, it has a little more jangle then a traditional PAF humbucker. The resistance and inductance of these pickups sit comfortably between a typical single coil and typical humbucker – contributing to the airy nature of the LB-1 without compromising its warmth. The LB-1 has a unique footprint, placing it in-between a mini-bucker and a full size humbucker." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yyyames Posted May 11, 2016 Author Members Share Posted May 11, 2016 Fair enough. Just bears mentioning. It's amazing how often adjusting the height is overlooked, but it sounds like you got it covered. As far as size, this is from guilds web page, but I didn't see any detailed measurements . "The Guild LB-1 “Little Bucker” was first offered in 1962 as an upgrade from single coil pickups. Tonally, it has a little more jangle then a traditional PAF humbucker. The resistance and inductance of these pickups sit comfortably between a typical single coil and typical humbucker – contributing to the airy nature of the LB-1 without compromising its warmth. The LB-1 has a unique footprint, placing it in-between a mini-bucker and a full size humbucker." Yeah thats why I am skeptical on a direct fit of anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members speakerjones Posted May 12, 2016 Members Share Posted May 12, 2016 What is the exact year of manufacture of your Starfire? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yyyames Posted May 12, 2016 Author Members Share Posted May 12, 2016 What is the exact year of manufacture of your Starfire? I believe 2014 or 2015 its pretty new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members speakerjones Posted May 14, 2016 Members Share Posted May 14, 2016 If it's that new, I would just contact Guild directly. I could be totally wrong here, as I'm not an expert, but the Fender-made import Starfires were not much like the vintage ones and had standard sized humbucker routes and the overall dimensions/look was closer to a 335. I think when the new company bought the Guild name, they went with a design closer to the vintage Starfires with the odd-sized mini humbuckers. If you can't find an aftermarket pickup that will properly fit your guitar, I'm sure you could find someone to rewind the stock pickups to your spec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted May 17, 2016 Members Share Posted May 17, 2016 OT, GASSING big time for a Starfire V (same pups). I'm buying one this summer. I like mini-humbuckers. Dunno about Guild's, but the MA mini on my jazzbox is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 6down1togo Posted May 23, 2016 Members Share Posted May 23, 2016 After FMIC took over Guild' date=' they stopped making electric guitars in the USA. Newer Guild electric guitars are imports and probably use standard pickup sizes like Epiphone and the Electromatic line from Gretsch.[/quote'] Nope. The Newark Street series Starfires have a proprietary pickup size that is neither humbucker nor mini-humbucker. The same is true for early Guild Starfires, which as noted above came either with LB1 (early models & Newark Street reissues) and HB1 (later models). I have a late '90's Westerly built Starfire ST which has standard humbucker sized pickups but with the Guild "bump" and my Corona built Bluesbird also has standard size humbuckers (oem SD 59's). As noted above, the humbuckers have 3 screws to allow angling the pickup parallel to the strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrbrown49 Posted May 23, 2016 Members Share Posted May 23, 2016 Nope. The Newark Street series Starfires have a proprietary pickup size that is neither humbucker nor mini-humbucker. The same is true for early Guild Starfires, which as noted above came either with LB1 (early models & Newark Street reissues) and HB1 (later models). I have a late '90's Westerly built Starfire ST which has standard humbucker sized pickups but with the Guild "bump" and my Corona built Bluesbird also has standard size humbuckers (oem SD 59's). As noted above, the humbuckers have 3 screws to allow angling the pickup parallel to the strings. I love that feature. I'm not sure it actually matters to the tone, but it makes me happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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