Conference napalm::guitar

Sounds like it could be a Song Bird.

Pretty nice guitars btw...

    See notes 1610 and 1630 about Guild Bluesbirds.
    
    						Brian

    It could also be a Starfire III. They were made in the sixties, perhaps
    into the seventies. Like all Guild electrics, the Starfire III had a
    great neck and action, weak but OK sounding pickups, good workmanship
    and finish. It also wasn't a solid body. It was only solid through the
    center.  
    
    Back then, I used to "sport a woodie" over Guilds, Gibsons,
    and Fenders. I ended up marrying a Guild Starfire V that I still have. 
    Like all marriages, it just ain't the same kinda romance it once was. 
    I needed something strange. I play Fenders now.
    
    "sakman"

    
    I have a very weird looking beat up guitar - no strings or machine
    heads and all it has on is a 'Starfire'.
    
    What does the on in -1 look like ?

    Guild has made a number of Les Paul shaped guitars, including the
    Bluesbird, Songbird, Nightbird, M-75, M-80. Some of these were better
    than others.
    
    Without knowing more about the guitar mentioned in the basenote, it
    would be hard to answer the question accurately.
    
    The Starfire series were *not* Les Paul style guitars.
    
    Danny W.
    

    
    
    I have an old guitar with a starfire badge on it, and its basically an
    SG shape with a very long/stretched strat style headstock (does that 
    make sense?). 
    
    It has two chrome humbuckers, and instead of a pickup selecter, it has
    these little cream colour plastic buttons that say 'Mic on/off'.
    
    The colour is black/yellow sunburst and the neck inlays are the same as
    those on the ESP Horizon. It has 22 frets.
    
    Its pretty beat up, but I'm just curious to find out more about it.

    I have a Guild electric but i don't know what model. It is shaped like
    a strat and it has a nice natural curly maple finish to it. It has one
    pickup (EMG). Great action,feel. Kahler tremelo also.

    
    This seems as good a place as any for this Guild identification
    question...
    
    A friend has an old Guild archtop, no cutaway, two f-holes, single
    pickup, floating pickguard, body binding, and carved back. The paper
    label inside lists model number X-50 and serial number 3101.
    
    The only obvious problem with the guitar is that the body binding is
    falling apart, with gaps of up to an inch where it is gone completely.
    
    So, is this the sort of repair your garden variety luthier would take
    on? Is is likely to be very expensive? Does the guitar have enough
    "vintage" value to make this repair a bad idea?
    
    Aswers to these questions as well as any general information about this
    model would be welcome. Thanks,
    
    JP
    

    
John,
    
>    So, is this the sort of repair your garden variety luthier would take
>    on? Is is likely to be very expensive? Does the guitar have enough
>    "vintage" value to make this repair a bad idea?

It really depends how much binding needs to be repaired or replaced. I usually
do not associate luthier's with your garden variety music store. I had a CA
100 which had loose binding and I ended up glueing it myself with super glue 
very carefully. When I had the fingerboard replaced the luthier went around
the instrument and repaired anything loose along with sealing any bare wood.

Even though "vintage value" in the case of a Guild still seems questionable?
I would repair whats there if you can and if it isn't there(the binding) I'd
try to replace it with something that is similiar to what is there. 

When I got around to selling my Guild CA100 I called New Hope Guitars and
the guy was outstanding about getting back to me with some info on the 
worth of the instrument. 

Rick

    As Rick said, to have a luthier repair the missing binding would
    probably be too expensive to be worthwhile.
    
    You can buy binding in various sizes and colors from places like
    Stewart McDonald or Luthier's Merchantile. I recommend you match
    the original binding as close as possible and replace all of the
    binding rather than piecemeal. If the original binding was white,
    I would replace with cream-colored binding to similate the age.
    You can also yellow the color of binding by spraying it with 
    yellow or amber transparent lacquer. 
    
    I believe many manufacturers use rubber bands to hold binding
    in place while the glue is drying. There is no easy way to clamp
    it and rubber bands work fine for this job. Look for large bands
    that will not put too much stress on the guitar when stretched.
    
	Mark
    

    All this talk reminds me... I eat too much cheese

    
    Thanks for the info, guys. I really appreciate it.
    
    Re: .-1, try putting the cheese on prunes.
    
    JP