Back to previous page   |  You are here: Basses » Semi-hollowbody » Guild

Guild / Starfire Bass / 1966 / Natural / Bass

Guild Starfire Bass 1966
All original except Nitro Natural refin. 1 original big BISONIC pickup, legendary great fat sound! Intonates fine. Low stringheight. Old repaired headstock crack, very stable. Very worn original hard case. 

Starfire basses were introduced in 1965 and were pretty popular back then, famous player as Felix Pappalardi (Journey), Steve Boone (Lovin´Spoonful), Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane), Phil Lesh (Greatful Dead), Chris Hillman (the Byrds) played a Guild Starfire bass because of their own sound. The Guild Starfire Hollow bodied bass guitar is one of the more desirable vintage bass guitars of the 1960's, and gained recognition by its high profile users of the decade. It was a very well built thinline semi-acoustic bass, with a short (30") scale, and a rich woody tone - though with far less of the muddiness of the Gibson and Epiphone bass models that was its inspiration. The Starfire bass stood up well against hollow body rivals such as the Epiphone Rivoli, Gibson EB2 and Fender Coronado bass. There were two Guild Starfire bass models, the single pickup Starfire I, launched in 1965, and a dual pickup Starfire II debuting in 1967. The Starfire pickups of the 1960's were made by Hagstrom (Bi-Sonic), and were very highly regarded. In fact it was the clarity of response of these pickups that meant Alembic kept these in place when modifying the circuitry of the Casady / Lesh basses of the late 1960's. The Hagstrom Bi-Sonic was a single coil unit, with a very unique design. The Bi-Sonics continued to be fitted to Guild Starfire (and JS) basses until 1970, when Guild finally replaced them with their own brand new humbuckers. These are really great pickups, but for some reason, instruments fitted with these humbuckers are not as desired by collectors as older examples fitted with Bi-Sonics. The earliest single pickup Starfire basses had a single pickup in the bridge position, with finger rests positioned above and below the strings in the neck position. Later (1966), these were reversed, with the pickup moving to the neck position (see a 1968 Starfire Bass I, also left). 

The Starfire's bridge was also made by Hagstrom, and consisted of a metal baseplate with rosewood saddles. It remained a feature of the Starfire throughout it's production run, with only a slight shape change in 1968.

3300 EUR or 33000 SEK

Instrument sold

TIP TOP Musik -Guitar Players Heaven-since 1987!, Sweden  

Contact name:
Björn Clern
Brands:
Gibson, Fender, Levin, Malmberg, Clern, National
Languages:
English, Swedish
Specialties:
Vintage Guitars, Vintage Amps + NEW nice stuff : Malmberg, CLERN, National Resophonic
Opening hours:
Open: Tuesday-Friday 1pm-6pm, Saturdays noon -3pm. Sun-Mon closed.
 
  Send message to: TIP TOP Musik -Guitar Players Heaven-since 1987!, Sweden
 
 
 
 
Other Products from Dealer 
Page 1 of 9
Search TIP TOP Musik -Guitar Players Heaven-since 1987!  inventory:
View as: