1999 Guild USA Starfire II - Rare All Mahogany Version - Westerly Build

Video Overview of this exact Guitar available here at end of the photo reel:

A really superb Guitar for the money this in absolutely fabulous condition for it's age. Here we have an example of the revered and sought after Guilds built at the Westerly plant in Rhode Island, USA.

This Starfire II is in a beautiful (and rarely found on these Starfires) Natural Mahogany finish, I can only find a handful of these on Google Images for sale in the past, most are maple tops in some kind of burst. The wood grain is sensational, shown off beautifully by what Guild call their 'HG' or 'High Gloss' finish. This is a very thin Urethane finish pioneered by Guild at this time in the late 1990s. It looks sensational and avoids the usual future finishing flaws you get with Nitro.

For those unaware, the Starfire II comes equipped with the stunning Guild Harp Tailpiece which is dead easy to affix the ball ends of your string to. This is the only ostensible difference from the Starfire III which is Bigsby equipped.

The Guitar has a fabulous feeling Rosewood fingerboard which is adorned with genuine Mother of Pearl dots inlays for that touch of class. The neck is a nice rounded profile without being at all to big or bulky, and is a personal highlight on this Guitar. At the headstock end, tuning is kept super stable by 6 original Grover Deluxe Tuners.

It's powered by two Guild/Fender HB-1 pickups, original to the Guitar. These are superb remakes of the old vintage Guild HB1s, albeit in a standard Gibson size form factor. This means that, should you wish, you can swap the pickups for any other standard Humbuckers of your choice - with the old HB1s from Guild, that was not possible. They sound great as is and the signature look of the pickup covers gives the Guitar the Guild aesthetic.

The electronics and all hardware is original to the Guitar are all original - save for three talking points: 

1) Unusually four clear knobs, they would usually be Black. However, they are a 90s Guild Westerly part as the numerics are printed on the underside of the knob skirts - a hallmark of these 90s Guild knobs. This leads me to believe they may well be original to the Guitar, although I cannot confirm this (I'm again really splitting hairs with the details though).

2) The Pickguard is original but has been modified superbly (unless you knew what you were looking for, you wouldn't even know) to sit flush to the side of the pickup rings (i.e. Gibson Style) - as standard, it would sit on top of the treble side of the Pickup Rings, meaning to remove said pickup rings, you would have to remove the pickguard first - but no longer, looks absolutely factory, such is the standard of work, but it is not. Purely aesthetic anyway and minor modification.

3) The top part (saddle) of the floating bridge has been changed for an Ebony version from the Standard Rosewood (not included). This, given the Guitar is an all Mahogany build gives the Guitar slightly more crisp attack than the Stock Rosewood.

The Guitar comes with it's original Guild case, swing tag and owners Manual as pictured.

In terms of condition, as mentioned, it is simply superb for it's age. It has one very miniscule area of lacquer lift (penultimate photo) confined to a very small portion of the neck binding. By lacquer lift here, I don't mean it's flaking off, simply that the area presents as slightly cloudy to the eye. It's super small anyway as pictured and from a touch perspective is absolutely no different to the rest of the Guitar.

The Guitar has had a recent fret polish and its set up and ready to go, playing wonderfully.