Just paid £265 for a nearnew viking E Bass cause well it looks so cool I'm a beginner and not sure if it was a good idea on reflexion dose anybody know about this bass
The re-issues are made in China. Rumor has it that the pots/switches are not especially robust. I have read about various other QC issues, but have no personal experience to back that up. Hopefully, you got a good one. Being a big fan of Guild Starfires, I do like the body style. BTW, the rules are: PICs or it didn't happen.
Guild has used several different pickups on their basses over the years, some of which were originally from Hagstrom. The pups on the bass you've bought appear to be at least cosmetic replicas of the old Hagstrom "Mickey Mouse" pickups (PIC is of vintage Hagstrom Viking/Concord Bass made in Sweden): They are in the upper left of the PIC below (which shows various bass pups used over the years by Guild):
That is The image as put on amazon I expect that is not actually the guitar i've bought but *** it looks good
I am glad to see the Hagstrom name back in circulation. My 1st descent bass was a Hagstrom back in 1969. I'm sure the new ones have never been anywhere near Sweden.
From recent trawling through internet they are now made under licence in china just hope they are keeping an eye on QC but the chinese have been making stuff for thousands of years often longer then anybody else. will report back when it arrives next week