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For sale 1970 Guild Starfire II BiSonic - Ultra clean

Sold
$2,500.00
Strings
4
Status
This item has been sold and is no longer available!

Details

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Life changes find me selling off some of my best loved basses, and this is the crown jewel. This 1970 Guild Starfire II is in remarkable condition. Aside from some very light and hard to photograph worming on the back and a couple of finish marks, the bass is in pristine condition. It features the coveted Hagstrom BiSonic pickup in the neck position and a smaller Hagstrom pickup at the bridge. This is a very rare combo. I brought the bass in to luthier John Brown (Brown's Guitar Factory) a year or so ago and he gave it a clean bill of health. When taking the photos, my son and I plugged it in side by side with my Hagstrom Swede with Hammon Dark Stars (also up for sale) and the Guild's BiSonic sounded every bit as good. It's no wonder that Jack Casady and Phil Lesh were using them back in the 60's. The bridge pickup sounds good, but thinner than the BiSonic. The bridge pickup is missing the small piece of metal that covers the "pole piece" area under the E string (hard to see in the photos.) Also want to point out that the original plastic strap peg on the bottom of the bass is loose - an easy fix for the new owner. Everything on the bass is original, and it will ship in the original case which is a bit musty but is otherwise in very good condition. $2,500 shipped to the continental 48. It's kind of a unicorn and a beautiful one at that.
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Comments

mellowgerman

mellowgerman

Supporting Member
Jan 23, 2008
4,324
4,181
East Tennessee
Cool bass!
My #1 is also a cherry 1970 Starfire in similar clean shape, even with the same orange case interior.
In addition to the unique pickup combination that yours has, these 1970 specimens were among the first to come out of the Westerly factory and featured the new larger headstock profile. At the same time they were using up leftover Bisonic pickups and a few others they used in the 60's (before switching to the big chrome Guild/Rowe humbuckers), which is why a few of these unique pickup combinations popped up. Recently this smaller single coil has been referred to as a "presonic" as they were seen in some single-pickup Starfires from '65/'66. So far I've only seen one other Starfire with this particular combination -- a sunburst one, currently being restored by a friend. There were also some JS-II solid body Guild basses from the same transitional era with a Bisonic in the neck position and one of the chrome Hagstrom humbuckers in the bridge position.
Comparing my 1970 Starfire to the others I've owned (three from the mid to late 60's), as well as a slew of others that I've had the opportunity to play, they were all top-notch instruments and there was no drop in quality from the 60's into the 70's like some other manufacturers exhibited around this time.
In any case, I figured some relevant Guild history was worth sharing here. Good luck with the sale!
 
Last edited:
daveman

daveman

Supporting Member
Jan 10, 2008
195
186
mellowgerman said:
Cool bass!
My #1 is also a cherry 1970 Starfire in similar clean shape, even with the same orange case interior.
In addition to the unique pickup combination that yours has, these 1970 specimens were among the first to come out of the Westerly factory and featured the new larger headstock profile. At the same time they were using up leftover Bisonic pickups and a few others they used in the 60's (before switching to the big chrome Guild/Rowe humbuckers), which is why a few of these unique pickup combinations popped up. Recently this smaller single coil has been referred to as a "presonic" as they were seen in some single-pickup Starfires from '65/'66. So far I've only seen one other Starfire with this particular combination -- a sunburst one, currently being restored by a friend. There were also some JS-II solid body Guild basses from the same transitional era with a Bisonic in the neck position and one of the chrome Hagstrom humbuckers in the bridge position.
Comparing my 1970 Starfire to the others I've owned (three from the mid to late 60's), as well as a slew of others that I've had the opportunity to play, they were all top-notch instruments and there was no drop in quality from the 60's into the 70's like some other manufacturers exhibited around this time.
In any case, I figured some relevant Guild history was worth sharing here. Good luck with the sale!
Click to expand...
Wow, this is all such interesting history - thanks for sharing! And I agree, having owned and played some 60’s Starfires this one certainly holds its own!
 

Classified ad information

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daveman
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Category
For Sale: Bass Guitars
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