1964 Guild Starfire III Hollowbody Electric Guitar

This most-excellent Starfire is owned by a friend of mine and it's definitely "been through the wars" of rock-n-rollers. While the tailpiece, bridge, and tuners are unoriginal, the rest of the guitar is. After work, too, it's absolutely wonderful to play -- as you might expect. Its body handles like an ES-125T cutaway but its bright, twangy humbuckers give it more of a crisp jazz or Gretsch feel.

Originally it would've also had a Bigsby on it, too, which would've made it even more hip. My buddy took it off decades ago because at that point it probably was not helping the playability as the neck was at a bad angle.

Sometime last year, it suffered a loose neck issue and awaited surgery here for ages while other projects of the owner's got put before it in line. I eventually got around to solving the neck issue which was a little frustrating and with no good answers: the neck block was broken at the (teeny-tiny) dovetail and its grain was oriented in the wrong direction to boot. After regluing a bad seam around the same area, I just went for the two-countersunk-bolts approach. This is, afterall, a rock-n-roll guitar. I knew that not much else aside from replacing the neck block would do it for the joint on this one. The dovetail on the neck was a little mangled, too, from damage.

It's now playing spot-on, anyhow, and sounding the business. These guitars really feel "Gibsony" with their 24 3/4" scale, fast C-shaped neck, and ~12" radius to the board.