guild starfire bass

[soma89]

Would a 60's guild starfire bass with one bridge pickup give me a hofner-like sound (with hofner-like fullness) ?
(the pickup is not the type found on Hagstrom Coronado's)

 

[billbass1]

Would a 60's guild starfire bass with one bridge pickup give me a hofner-like sound (with hofner-like fullness) ?
(the pickup is not the type found on Hagstrom Coronado's)

if it has the Hagstrom Bisonic it will sound even better then a Hofner. I've had em both . The Guild PUP introduced early
1970's does not sound nowhere near as good.

 

[soma89]

i want to bid on this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320140389264

It doesn't have a bisonic pickup, but what looks like a single coil.
COULD ANYBODY GIVE ME AN ESTIMATE ON HOW MUCH THIS AUCTION COULD GO UP TO?

this would be the first high-end bass I will bid on, so i'm not sure what to expect. Thanks

 

[GlennW]

I asked about a similar pickup on a SF. There's a pickup that looks sort of like the one in the ebay listing and they called it the Mickey Mouse pickup because it's smaller. To me, the one on the SF on ebay looks like the single coils Hagstrom used on their Concord(e?) Deluxe basses.

An estimate, 2K since it has a bunch of stuff with it. With the Bi-Sonic it would hit that easily, IMO.

 

[bassman10096]

That's a beautiful bass - looks nice and minty. If I remember correctly, earlier SF's like this one used the smaller, Haggie single coil pickups found on the Concords. If you want more info, try the Guild forum at the Dudepit - http://www.vintagebass.com/thedudepit/forumdisplay.php?f=50. Fred Hammon, who builds Dark Star pickups, a recreation of the Bisonics, is moderator. Good luck. I suspect the bass will bid pretty high (given collector value), but don't give up (maybe don't mention it to anyone else and delete this thread).

 

[Jim Carr]

I hate to say this, but I had one EXACTLY like this one, from about 1967-1973, and I must admit I was never happy with the limited tone pallet. No, it is not like a hofner, it simply has no bottom. It is basically the opposite of a P-bass in every way. That may be a good thing to you, but I found it musically problematic.

Despite the short scale, this type bass has a very nice neck, assuming you like thin/narrow necks. BTW, the original strings on mine from the factory were green tapewounds, not black.

Mine was ser. #159, IIRC. It looks like it is in great condition. Tempting perhaps, but no, I'll relive the GOOD parts of my youth, thanks!

 

[soma89]

I hate to say this, but I had one EXACTLY like this one, from about 1967-1973, and I must admit I was never happy with the limited tone pallet. No, it is not like a hofner, it simply has no bottom. It is basically the opposite of a P-bass in every way. That may be a good thing to you, but I found it musically problematic.

Despite the short scale, this type bass has a very nice neck, assuming you like thin/narrow necks. BTW, the original strings on mine from the factory were green tapewounds, not black.

Mine was ser. #159, IIRC. It looks like it is in great condition. Tempting perhaps, but no, I'll relive the GOOD parts of my youth, thanks!

Thanks a lot, i'll take your advice. I guess i'll just go with my initial choice, a Harmony H-22.

Cheers

 

[iamthebassman]

If you're thinking "Hofner-like sound" as heard on Beatles records, McCartney always used the neck pickup on the Hofner, so a bass with only a bridge pickup I would think would not sound close.