It is a treat to see a guitar this old and this good in such excellent condition. Below is a video of an all-original 1973 Guild Starfire bass guitar. For those that don’t want to do the math, that makes this instrument over 40 years old, and it’s still in incredible condition.
What’s even more incredible? As you’ll see near the end of the video, it arrived with the original Guild case!
Some players drool over vintage Fender, but a vintage Guild bass of this type is just as good. For an over-40-year-old bass guitar, you really can’t do any better than this.
I’ve own prior years models and the Bi sonic pick up is way better than the HB shown. The song White rabbit was recorded with a fingered Jazz Bass. The nature of these basses is a longer duration body resonance which doesn’t lend itself to Funk popping or staccato Jaco pluck. The medium scale was easy to play but you had to fight note duration more. Still they were better made than the Gib. EB which is a rubber band sandwich to play.
Love it! I remember seeing those in the music stores and wondering if I’d ever own one. Turns out I never did. But I did buy a Gibson Ripper new in ’74. I still have it (along with the case) both all original and in excellent condition. And it’s still my goto bass after all these years. So I’m not too envious looking at that gorgeous Starfire. (Maybe someday…)
This bass reminds me of my 1970 Ovation Typhoon fretless hollow body which I bought new. Also the case is exactly like the one that came with me Ovation. Although the Typhoon is no longer my primary bass I still enjoy playing it a great deal. Tom W
I had an old Guild Bass (not sure of the year but late 60’s. It had the Hagstrom pickup and I used tape wound string … loved that sound. I was going to buy the remake that’s available now but the pickup is in the wrong place!
I had an old 60’s starfire in the mid 70’s with the BiSonic pick up in the neck position. Someone had added an EB 3 mini hum bucker in the bridge position, and rewound both of em’ to a quite low impedance. Along with a 3 channel parametric eq and a twin op amp preamp/driver to make it all compatible with the high input impedance of my SVT… It had a remarkable tonal range, and I fondly remember how incredibly light weighted the whole thing was. I have recently purchased a pair of Dark Star-BiSonics from Curtis Novak. They will find themselves in a highly modified 1 pc.mahogany with 4A quilted big leaf maple drop top LPDC shaped body with a 34 inch scale maple neck with a Jazz bass profile and 2+2 tilt back peghead. I am in the process of putting together the GCode for cutting & shaping the body out of the mahogany / maple droptop slab, along with cutting a channel for the paua abalone purfling and 3 layer binding. I will be routing the pickup & neck pockets, and control cavity / battery box by hand. This project is shaping up to be a genuine hoot!