New Starfire bass with 2 pups

[edwin]

Have you ever tried Pyramid flats? They are a classic string for the Starfire (although I recommend getting the medium scale set directly from the factory. The short scale set is just a bit too short for Starfires).

However, after listening to The Closing of Winterland DVD, I'm going to throw on a set of D'Addario Halfrounds and see how they go. The standard short scale gauges aren't quite right (Phil used a .95 E string) but it should give me an idea. Certainly cheaper than the Pyramids.

 

[ric426]

I've thought about Pyramids, but they're pretty pricey for a hack player like me. I'm just playing for fun, so I can make due with the (relatively) cheaper and more readily available choices, plus that leaves more room in the hobby budget for more experiments. Once I've wrung out the possibilities with the bridge, I plan to dive into constructing some pickup buffers and variable LPF's. I satisfy my Alembic lust with DIY projects because I'll never be able to afford a real one. Besides, I get as much pleasure working on basses and associated as I do playing them.

 

[edwin]

I hear that! All the mods done to my Starfire were done as on the cheap as I could. The pickups were used and the electronics were more or less a circuit board and a random bag of parts, which were in various stages of disintegration. It was a lot of fun rebuilding everything, although at first I got the cap values off, sending the filter up into the MHz range. Much more fun than simply sending it off to Alembic and having them do it all.

Some aspects have hung me up a bit. Shielding is tough in these kinds of situations. My shielding isn't really complete (I should have cut a bigger hole in the back for access). And my pickups buzz pretty badly in some venues.

What circuit are you planning to explore for the LPF?

 

[ric426]

For the buffers I'll start with Donald Tillman's FET buffer. It's just a J201 FET, 4 resistors and a 2 caps. I've used it before and it's simple and effective. It can be built small enough to mount right on the pickup. It's got 3db of gain as is.

For the LPFs I've found a couple schematics that I'll try as starting points. One claims to be traced from an Alembic PF-6. It uses a dual 100k pot, but doesn't specify whether it's reverse log or not, and a 3 position switch for Q settings. The other is labeled as an Alembic-like state variable filter, though it appears to be set in LPF mode, with dual 50k pots (again not specified as reverse log, though other circuits I've seen do specify that), variable Q and a variable buffer on the input.

I'm certainly open to other suggestions and if anyone has tried these two LPF circuits and found them to be good or totally useless your feedback is welcome. I'm going to breadboard them and only consider internal installation if I really like it enough to want one on each pickup. That's when I'll have to cross the permanent mods threshold. It's not like I spent thousands on a vintage Starfire with high resale value. Since the resale on a used Newark St. SF II will be sub $1k I wouldn't be risking all that much or modding an instrument with some history to it. But that's a debate for later. Given my "nothing is safe from my tinkering" mentality, who knows where this could lead. :friendly_wink:

 

[Minnesota Flats]

ric426,

You have PMs.

 

[Happy Face]

Have you ever tried Pyramid flats? They are a classic string for the Starfire (although I recommend getting the medium scale set directly from the factory. The short scale set is just a bit too short for Starfires).

However, after listening to The Closing of Winterland DVD, I'm going to throw on a set of D'Addario Halfrounds and see how they go. The standard short scale gauges aren't quite right (Phil used a .95 E string) but it should give me an idea. Certainly cheaper than the Pyramids.

You, no doubt, know more than me about this but hasn't it been "decided" that TI Jazz Flats are more akin to the Pyramids played in the 1960s than the new Pyramids? That said, I like the feel and tension of the new Pyramids and use them on my JS-II and Fender Performer basses. (Still have TIs on my M-85 and SA-17)

Watch for them in the classified section of TalkBass. People seem to try them and quickly take them off.

 

[SFIV1967]

Looks like the new NS Starfire Bass II is also coming in Cherry Red. I just don't understand why all official Guild pictures are so low quality...Is Instagram reducing the quality so much?

Source: Guild Guitars Facebook page

Ralf

 

[ric426]

Hate to say it, but unless the one on the right is a chocolate brown Starfire I, I bet that's just bad color resolution in the photo. Even the official photos of the Starfire II on the Guild website show it as far more amber or orange than it is in person. It'd be cool if I'm wrong and they *are* coming out with more colors though.

 

[fronobulax]

I've never seen any official chatter about a Starfire II bass in any other color than the same cherry red of the Starfire I. I'd suspect the picture quality and lighting of any photograph that could be interpreted to mean something else.

I know the Starfire colors are of interest to CMG. I think the plans are to see which models sell (expanding the discussion to the NSline and not just basses) and then add traditional color choices to the ones that are moving. I also note that there are alleged to be some Newark Street instruments that were first finished in a potential new color, the results were a failure and the instruments were refinished and then sold.

Given a long ago discussion concerning whether the "sweet spot" and the bridge PUs were in the same location, the pic above reinforces the previous conclusion that the sweet spot is some small but notable distance closer to the neck.

 

[mellowgerman]

My guess is that it's just a particularly red looking piece of mahogany, finished natural like all the other Newark St SFB-II's, then topped off with an over-saturated, wonky image. The image quality may be intentional for an attempt at a retro vintagey vibe

 

[SFIV1967]

I've never seen any official chatter about a Starfire II bass in any other color than the same cherry red of the Starfire I.

Not sure I understand what you try to say...The Starfire II bass was NOT available in cherry red yet! Only in natural! See: http://guildguitars.com/g/starfire-bass-ii/
Hence I had posted that picture...
Ralf

 

[mavuser]

Not sure I understand what you try to say...The Starfire II bass was NOT available in cherry red yet! Only in natural! See: http://guildguitars.com/g/starfire-bass-ii/
Hence I had posted that picture...
Ralf

Thats interesting. The ones I've seen online are definitely red. Cherry. But see-through (transparent?) so there is a "natural" aspect to it. That's all I got though. They are red

 

[SFIV1967]

The ones I've seen online are definitely red.

The NS Starfire Bass II was according the Guild webpage so far only available in "Natural", means Mahogany, no cherry.

That is also what you see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1grVTVgsC6g
and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQf6-Mwejtc
and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E6EwF_5pz8

Now I had posted that picture above from the Louder Than Life festival, and you are right, there are obviously already red models shipping! There is actually one in Germany already:

EDIT: There seem to be wide variations in color but both sellers of those "red" looking basses call them "Natural", so no Cherry Red...

Ralf

 

[bklynbass]

Wow. They finally got it right.

 

[ric426]

Have you ever tried Pyramid flats? They are a classic string for the Starfire (although I recommend getting the medium scale set directly from the factory. The short scale set is just a bit too short for Starfires).

However, after listening to The Closing of Winterland DVD, I'm going to throw on a set of D'Addario Halfrounds and see how they go. The standard short scale gauges aren't quite right (Phil used a .95 E string) but it should give me an idea. Certainly cheaper than the Pyramids.

Have you tried the Half Rounds yet? I just put a new set of 45-65-80-100 long scale Half Rounds on my SF II and so far I really like them. They seem to hit the middle ground between rounds and flats, without too much of either type. They seems to have higher tension than Chromes, but not as much as LaBella flats.

Bass Strings Online has Pyramids on sale for $59.95 (they have medium scale too) and I thought about trying a set, but I don't know if I'd like the lower tension. I've tried TI Jazz Flats a few times and never got along well with them. Are the Pyramids as low tension as the TI's? How do they sound compared to flats like D'Addario Chromes or LaBella Deep Talkin' flats?

 

[mikko]

I have tried Pyramids, TI´s and Chromes on my DeArmond Starfire (w/ Dark Star pups). LaBella DTF´s I have only tried on my Rickenbacker and I do like them a lot. But that´s a different bass. Besides it´s long scale so I can´t say anything about tension of LaBella´s on a short scale bass. However, I noticed that LaBella set with .105 E-string was much higher tension than a set with .104 E-string. I mean the difference was much bigger than you might think just reading the numbers.
Back to short scale, or medium scale strings. Chromes were pretty OK tension wise. I would say they´re medium tension. Sound I didn´t like, too bright and clean. I only had them on for a few weeks. Maybe they were just getting better when I took them off?
In my opinion TI´s weren´t so low tension on a short scale bass. I have them on my J-bass also and they feel lower tension on a long scale bass. Usually it´s the opposite and I might remember wrong. Medium scale set E-string is .106, long scale E-string is .100. Otherwise gauges are the same. Possible problem for some people is uneven tension between the strings.
It was already some years ago when I tried the TI´s, but if my memory serves me well, they sounded very nice. Quite a lot of midrange which was actually only a good thing. The only reason I took them off were the Pyramids. I liked them even more.
Pyramids are higher tension than TI´s. I would say they are medium tension but more on the higher side of medium. Like so many others on this forum I wanted to get as close to Jack Casady´s Airplane-era sound as possible. Of course I didn´t get there but Pyramids sounded pretty much the same. Other strings weren´t even close, IMHO.
I ordered my set of Pyramids directly from the factory. I just told them how long strings I need, what gauges I want etc. Their customer service is excellent and easy to deal with.
The set I received had a dead E-string but they were more than happy to send me a new one. They even gave me a new A-string to replace the one I destroyed by myself. I asked them if they could sell me just one string because I broke my A-string (it was completely my own fault). They send me a new A-string and didn´t want any money for it. They even paid the postage. Later they send me email to make sure I was happy with their strings. I have only good things to say about Pyramid.

 

[Happy Face]

I use Pyramids on my JS-II (and Fender Performer) but keep TI Jazz Flats on the M-85. Often as not the Hofner set which has a 95 E string.

The Pyramids feel like they have more tension, which is why I put them on. Not a huge difference in tone, in my humble opinion.

With the Euro weaker, the prices Should be lower in the US.

 

[ric426]

Apparently I was wrong about Bass Strings Online having Pyramids in medium scale. I didn't notice at first, but if you select them in medium scale it just takes you to the short scale listing. With my bridge I can probably use the short scale set though. I asked them to check on the winding length to make sure.

 

[mellowgerman]

I have never been a fan of the TI's. I know a lot of guys like them, but they are just not my cup of tea. I felt like they just didn't sound anywhere near as big and gooey as I like (gotta love abstract tone terminology). I also ran into uneven string-to-string output AND tone, which did not resolve itself after the strings had broken in. Maybe the two sets I have had were both bum sets, but at $60 I'm no longer willing to give them another chance.
I've always preferred higher tension strings and have found heavier gauge D'Addario Chromes to be my go-to. I will say I do not like the way they sound at first, but give them a few weeks of regular playing and they'll break in and sound super good. Fender flats break in nicely as well and have nice hard tension. GHS precision flats are great for the money too, or at least they used to be, haven't had them in a few years. LaBellas rock though I've only ever had them on long scale basses. I used to dig DR Legend flats as well, until I had a few bad sets of those. I do remember liking Pyramids, but it has been years so my memory isn't fresh and maybe it's time to revisit them.

 

[bassman10096]

Apparently I was wrong about Bass Strings Online having Pyramids in medium scale. I didn't notice at first, but if you select them in medium scale it just takes you to the short scale listing. With my bridge I can probably use the short scale set though. I asked them to check on the winding length to make sure.

I made the same mistake and wound up with the short scale set.

Somewhere hereabouts or maybe on TB, I remember somebody saying you could order medium scale Pyramids through the company. Does anyone know anything about this (or am I making it all up myself?)? I've had decent luck winding the long scale Pyramids on short scale Guild tuners (prob because the posts are larger diameter than Gotohs - so the bend is less pronounced). If you try this, take your time bending the tuner end of the string, so the brittle winding doesn't snap.

Pyramids are great strings (except for very occasional clunkers). A good set lasts just about forever and only sounds better to my ears.