By 1967 they were offering nearly a dozen custom finishes, including walnut. If the body were laminated maple, the walnut finish would be rather light and clearly accentuate the grain of the wood. On the other hand, the finish would appear almost dark brown on a guitar with a laminated mahogany body.

The second option, which is a truly rare, has to do with the neck. A very limited number of Guild Starfire Custom 7 Artist Award models were made with a 5-piece, combination maple and walnut neck. And in saying "very limited" we mean the number is so small very few have ever been seen. To date there are only three of these guitars whose owners have come forward to provide facts and pictures. That's not to say more don't exist, but no one knows where they are.

The Starfire line of electric archtops holds its own in the world of vintage guitars primarily because of its lightweight construction, easy playability, and unique tone that jazz guitarists really love. These guitars were built to compete with Gibson's ES line and some mid-range Epiphones of the day. The first three models were fully-hollow while the last three were semi-hollow with a center block. Most of them sported dual Guild humbuckers and a Bigsby tailpiece. However, some earlier models had single P-90 pickups while many of the later production runs switched to DeArmonds or XR-7s.