fronobulax
Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 24,785
- Reaction score
- 8,914
- Location
- Central Virginia, USA
- Guild Total
- 5
I should add I have heard reports of a limited number of Guild SF basses and possibly Dearmond SF basses from right around 1998 getting Darkstar pickups either at the factory or else immediately after factory, and sold as new w the Darkstars. I may be off on the details but I've heard of and seen what may have been one or 2 of those. They were both mahogany Transparent Red, however.
With all due respect I've heard reports that Fred did not even start making Dark Stars until the early 2000's which means one of us is Wrong. I've also heard that Fred did not make Dark Stars in the quantities bass makers needed for production runs which is why, to the best of my knowledge, the only new basses offered with Dark Stars as a factory option were Lakelands.
Since I don't like either of us being Wrong is there any chance that what you heard about was NOS instruments that had not sold after several years and so an enterprising shop owner put Dark Stars (once they became available) on and sold them as new? Key point here being that they were sold as new but had been modified outside of the factory.
Tangentially there was an eBay scam that kept popping up over the course of a few months a few years ago. Justin Meldal-Johnsen or someone associated with him listed a natural maple 90's vintage Starfire II that had Dark Stars installed. Perhaps because of the Nine Inch Nails connection that bass appeared to have been sold for upwards of $3000. After the listing ended the bass was relisted several times, using the same photos, but a different seller and a BIN circa $1500. If you looked hard enough it was obvious that the relists were a scam by someone who had snagged the pictures but did not actually have the bass.