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Dearmond Starfire...

Dan Bozek

Dan Bozek

Aug 3, 2011
529
29
Pittsburgh, PA
#1
OK, JMJ. I trust your opinion on this more than most since you own a variety of great instruments that I've heard on many recordings I like.

I found a Dearmond Starfire for sale. I understand they're Korean made from the late 90s, not quite as fancy, etc... Cool. Whatever. It's black with bindings and could be made on Jupiter for all I care. It is pretty, made of wood, and hollow. My question is how do the Dearmond pickups compare to the Guild branded instruments? I'm excited about the Dearmond thing because I just don't have the cash to go for a vintage or reissue Guild, and I'm OK with the idea of lovingly aging wood with my body, :^) but the pickups concern me. Hopefully they're the same-ish. Worst comes to worst, buy it and get some Lakland Dark Stars or something?
 
#3
Look, I could have had a dud. Others have defended them voraciously, so I'm not going to say my word is gospel here. To me, it felt like holding a giant piece of freshly cut wood covered with barely cured paint. Plus it was heavy, and the neck shape wasn't as appealing. My subjective opinion only.

JMJ
 
#4
jmjbassplayer said:
Look, I could have had a dud. Others have defended them voraciously, so I'm not going to say my word is gospel here. To me, it felt like holding a giant piece of freshly cut wood covered with barely cured paint. Plus it was heavy, and the neck shape wasn't as appealing. My subjective opinion only.

JMJ
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Well, that is what I asked for!! :^)
 
#5
Well, I haggled a little on the price and went ahead and bought the instrument. It has to ship, so I won't have an opinion to share until next week at this point, but I will then. I think I got a pretty nice price, so I'll be brutally honest about it when it comes. Hopefully I have good things to say!!
 
#7
I finally got the bass delivered today. I’m into it for what I paid for sure!! It may not be as cool as a cherry Guild, but it is built well and plays and sounds pretty good with some Chromes on it. I did notice that the output seems a little on the low side, but when I gained it up a little in the studio messing around I thought it sounded pretty good. It definitely has the vibe. Maybe I’ll look into different pups in the future… We’ll have to see.

And it arrived today literally within 30 minutes of me also getting a tiny baby kitten, so well, if this afternoon was a game, I won. :^D

Any recommendations on a good shoulder bag case that’ll fit a Starfire?
 
#8
This is the pretty in case anyone was curious.
 

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#11
Ah, how I love the Starfire basses. I'm actually consider getting my hands on a DeArmond myself, however I need to get a good price. This one seems to be in excellent condition; how much did you pay for it?
 
#12
Myriad said:
Ah, how I love the Starfire basses. I'm actually consider getting my hands on a DeArmond myself, however I need to get a good price. This one seems to be in excellent condition; how much did you pay for it?
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Yeah, it has been a while now since I bought this bass, and I'm still loving the heck out of it and using it all the time. There is something the the scale/dimensions of the neck that make it one of my favorite instruments to play. It feels and sounds so good. Definitely no regrets picking it up. Maybe one day I'll find an old cherry (both color and condition) Guild one when I have the cash, but the DeArmond (notably with vintage Guild pickups that I bought separately—the DeA ones are definitely lackluster in comparison) is quite satisfactory.

It wasn't a load of cash. I can't remember exactly, but I feel like the bass, case, and pickups cost me less than $1,000 all together.
 

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