Dirty old Starfire, Dirty old Starfire.

Rob · July 19, 2018, 04:42:32 PM

Really nice job on that!

Dave W · July 19, 2018, 08:51:52 PM

Looks great, I wouldn't worry about the visible wire but I know you will.

No doubt some people would love the sound of the Bisonic if it were totally separated from the hype. Nothing wrong with that! I'm just jaded after seeing all the hype and the bandwagon effect over the years, and it was never so intense as with Fred Hammon's Darkstars. At the dear departed Dudepit, it seemed like every piece-of-junk hull of a bass on eBay would get posted as "Darkstar project?" as if the pickup could magically turn the hull into a thing of joy and beauty. Ugh!

slinkp · July 19, 2018, 11:14:51 PM

I sold one of those junk hunks to somebody! A very trashed hot-rod-flame-paintjob EB-0. I bought it on Ebay as a fixer-upper and discovered it was far beyond my ability to fix - the headstock "repair" on it was an abomination. I forget who bought it from me (at a loss to me of at least $200 I think), but he was a 'pitter, and he built and grafted on a new headstock, painted it white, and (I'm pretty sure) put a Dark Star into it. The photo I saw looked pretty great, I have to say, considering how it started out.

Pilgrim · July 20, 2018, 09:01:17 AM

Quote from: slinkp on July 19, 2018, 11:14:51 PM
I sold one of those junk hunks to somebody! A very trashed hot-rod-flame-paintjob EB-0. I bought it on Ebay as a fixer-upper and discovered it was far beyond my ability to fix - the headstock "repair" on it was an abomination. I forget who bought it from me (at a loss to me of at least $200 I think), but he was a 'pitter, and he built and grafted on a new headstock, painted it white, and (I'm pretty sure) put a Dark Star into it. The photo I saw looked pretty great, I have to say, considering how it started out.

At some point, these re-works turn into George Washington's axe. "Yup, that's George Washington's axe. We've replaced the handle four times and the blade twice, but it's his axe."

slinkp · July 20, 2018, 09:28:33 AM

Oh yeah, a frankenstein rebuild for sure. There might be some actual Gibson wood in there somewhere, but that's it.
I found a copy of the sale message - it was a guy named johnnythumbfive, or John DeLowry, who I don't think is here. Wish I had a picture of what he did; as I recall it turned out pretty cool.

Sorry for the tangent. Looking forward to seeing/hearing more of this pretty Starfire!

Dave W · July 20, 2018, 03:03:17 PM

Quote from: slinkp on July 20, 2018, 09:28:33 AM
Oh yeah, a frankenstein rebuild for sure. There might be some actual Gibson wood in there somewhere, but that's it.
I found a copy of the sale message - it was a guy named johnnythumbfive, or John DeLowry, who I don't think is here. Wish I had a picture of what he did; as I recall it turned out pretty cool.

Sorry for the tangent. Looking forward to seeing/hearing more of this pretty Starfire!

I remember him. Here he is https://www.facebook.com/john.delowery playing a Warwick 5er.

Alanko · July 21, 2018, 12:22:03 PM

Quote from: slinkp on July 20, 2018, 09:28:33 AMSorry for the tangent. Looking forward to seeing/hearing more of this pretty Starfire!

No worries. It seems a shame that the Dude Pit is away as it sounds like it was a valuable resource.

I took the Starfire to rehearsals last night, but I don't think I got the most out of it. We were in the 'Green Room', which has an Ampeg PF350 into a matching cab on casters. I got on better once I found the control for the tweeter in the cab, but the whole amp setup sounded a bit hollow and a bit short on low frequencies. It was also overdriving fairly unmusically if I had the gain up past 1:00. The Starfire sounded a bit 'meh' in this context. The pickups don't have any sort of defining characteristic. I will gig the bass at least once this week coming, so I will find out then.

This is a Dearmond with Darkstar pickups. The surrounds look like custom jobs. I will have to copy these, I think.

Pilgrim · July 23, 2018, 08:48:53 AM

If you still have those parts bin roundwounds on there, don't forget that strings make a big difference in sound, too. Might be some nice potential there.

Alanko · July 23, 2018, 02:24:45 PM

Quote from: Pilgrim on July 23, 2018, 08:48:53 AM
If you still have those parts bin roundwounds on there, don't forget that strings make a big difference in sound, too. Might be some nice potential there.

The roundies are safely away in the bin now. I currently have it strung with Status 'Hotwire' flatwounds. Apparently these are re-branded Picato flats, though this is just a rumour from Basschat.

I have the same strings on my PJ Mustangs. They're cheap,, well balanced and have a good tension.

Alanko · July 28, 2018, 11:15:31 AM

The Starfire had its first outing on Thursday!

It worked out fantastically! This bass wants to feedback! I spent a bit of the soundcheck working out the hot spots on my side of the stage, and then using these during the gig.

Yesterday I was back on Mustang patrol.

Alanko · August 11, 2018, 02:33:00 PM

A wee update.

Rob · August 11, 2018, 06:26:52 PM

Very nice

Happy Face · August 11, 2018, 07:35:28 PM

Quote from: Rob on August 11, 2018, 06:26:52 PM
Very nice

Indeed!

Dave W · August 13, 2018, 01:23:27 AM

Almost looks new!

Alanko · August 13, 2018, 02:25:39 AM

Thank you all, thank you Dave. The Bisonics are a pretty nice tonal upgrade. They have a wider, flatter bandwidth than the stock Dearmond pickups. In fact I gather this is the appeal of the originals? In some aspects they are like a modern soapbar pickup in that they have an even, uncoloured tone.

I had to break both pickups! The black section with the pole pieces and magnets is simply glued into the chrome flashy bit with black caulk. This isn't very strong! One pickup arrived with some of this already failing. I stripped the caulk out of both pickups and re-glued them with epoxy. I also re-wired them with coax cable. Guild give you less than a foot of cable with some annoying quick-connect terminal on the end. Not in my bass!

I've reversed the bridge pickup as a nod to Jack Casady, as both his hacked up sunburst, and original 'Yggdrasil' bass have this setup in their current state. However I've been watching archive footage, and neither bass had this setup while he was using them. Very odd! The sunburst is seen in the Altamont footage, complete with snapped E string pretty much on the first note, whereas the other bass is in the Woodstock, Family Dog and early Hot Tuna footage.

The biggest job by far was carving the pickup bezels. I started with 5mm ABS for the bridge pickup and 3mm ABS for the neck. Unlike a Les Paul pickup ring, which can lazily follow the archtop once you screw it down, these bezels have to stay flat on the top to match the underside of the pickup. They also have to perfectly match the contour of the top of the bass and ramp at the correct angle to align the pickup parallel with the strings. Luckily Dearmond put the same geometry on the back of the bass as the front, so I stuck some 60 grit paper to the back of the bass in the pickup locations and used this to grind the underside of my DIY bezels. I had to make the bezels wide enough to cover the Dearmond pickup routes. I also had to match the sloped edge of the Guild originals. I gather Guild made these from wood in the '60s?!

One other annoying thing is that the Dearmond has a lot less space between the strings and the top of the body. This must be dictated by both the neck-to-body angle and the depth of the neck in the neck pocket. I had to shave a lot of material off my bezels to get the pickups far enough away from the strings.