New bass day: Starfire content

tore00 · May 17, 2016, 01:05:12 PM

I just added this lady to my collection. Unbelievable!

Granny Gremlin · May 17, 2016, 01:11:28 PM

Total jealousy over on my ende.

Pilgrim · May 17, 2016, 02:19:43 PM

Oh my, oh my.....

That looks EXACTLY like a great bass out to look.

Please feel free to comment about its sound, balance, anything at all......

tore00 · May 17, 2016, 02:58:50 PM

Just bought while in a job travel. She needs by sure new strings but she is fresh like a rose. As soon I back home will report. She is 1967! I suppose one of the very few in Italy

Highlander · May 17, 2016, 03:32:00 PM

Pilgrim · May 17, 2016, 04:03:02 PM

Damn. Maybe I need to go to Italy, if I could come back with a bass that nice!

dadagoboi · May 17, 2016, 05:15:25 PM

Congrats!

BTL · May 17, 2016, 07:18:10 PM

That's beautiful...I love that body shape.

Dave W · May 17, 2016, 07:56:55 PM

Nice score!

tore00 · May 18, 2016, 03:03:13 AM

Quote from: Pilgrim on May 17, 2016, 04:03:02 PM
Damn. Maybe I need to go to Italy, if I could come back with a bass that nice!

I frankly do not think that Starfire are common in Italy. I was extremely lucky to spot a local announcement of a guy selling four basses and this was announced simply as a Guild bass. Only looking at a very small picture I realized that it was a Starfire.
The funny thing is that all come out from a sale announcement of a Bisonic Guild pickup on the main Italian bass forum. I was making arrangements or purchasing but it was gone in one day.
This started a latent gas for real Starfire and Bisonic, that I tried to cure in the past with a DeArmond Starfire and home building some Bisonics-like pickups that are currently in a Peavey T-40 and in a Tractor bass.
So quite frustrated I googled for Guild bass and after few pages of very priced Starfires in USA I spotted her.
Luckily she was in a town very close where I routinely go for my work

Alanko · May 18, 2016, 06:01:16 AM

Happy new bass day!

I don't know Guild history so well, but I've seen Starfire basses with either a single bridge or neck pickup. Were these offered at the same time? The Chris Hillman model, for example, has a bridge pickup only.

The most interesting Guild bass I've personally played was a M-85 with a Bi Sonic in the neck position and an HB in the bridge. The body was deep, like an ES 175. I was all fired up for getting to play a bass with an original Bi Sonic, but I gravitated more towards the bridge pickup. There was a switch on the bass that either cut all the top end or all the low end from the Bi Sonic, so I don't think I really got to hear what it was capable of. The output seemed weak in either setting, so maybe the pickup had degaussed or something? The bridge humbucker was pretty meaty by contrast.

gearHed289 · May 18, 2016, 08:52:03 AM

Beautiful. I would love to have one, congrats!

Droombolus · May 19, 2016, 03:20:13 AM

Beauty !

tore00 · May 19, 2016, 09:24:22 AM

Quote from: Alanko on May 18, 2016, 06:01:16 AM
Happy new bass day!

I don't know Guild history so well, but I've seen Starfire basses with either a single bridge or neck pickup. Were these offered at the same time? The Chris Hillman model, for example, has a bridge pickup only.

The most interesting Guild bass I've personally played was a M-85 with a Bi Sonic in the neck position and an HB in the bridge. The body was deep, like an ES 175. I was all fired up for getting to play a bass with an original Bi Sonic, but I gravitated more towards the bridge pickup. There was a switch on the bass that either cut all the top end or all the low end from the Bi Sonic, so I don't think I really got to hear what it was capable of. The output seemed weak in either setting, so maybe the pickup had degaussed or something? The bridge humbucker was pretty meaty by contrast.

There were three models of Starfire basses in the sixties, two with a sigle pickup, one at the neck like mine, one with pickup toward bridge and one with two pickups. Both models my have or not the choke button. Mine has it. The sound that you get when you use is crap. I suppose that was an attempt to reduce feedback that the hollow body may introduce. Actually hollow bass are not indicated in small room with high instrument power for this reason.
I understand that the M-85 had a Bisonic and an added humbucker in parallel. In this case if the two pickups have a different resistance, as was probably your case, the one with higher resistance sounds weak. I just restringed my Starfire and played through my Ashdown Evo II and Ampeg 1x15 + 2x12. Wow!
Fat deep sound with no mud. Sound is much dependable on how and where I pick the string, it's the type of pickup that does not forgive mistakes

Droombolus · May 20, 2016, 05:07:55 AM

Quote from: tore00 on May 19, 2016, 09:24:22 AMit's the type of pickup that does not forgive mistakes

Don't you just hate that ! I think I might know someone who'll take that bass off your hands muy pronto. Just say the word .......