new starfire inspired project bass

[mellowgerman]

For some time I had been saving up for a particular excellent-condition '67 SFB. However, over time I got more and more comfortable with the long scale of my jazz bass. Finally, I decided, instead of buying the starfire, I'd put together my own 34" scale fauxfire bass. I picked up a particularly good specimen of an Ibanez ASB-140 semi-hollow. I've had good experience with these in the past and this one was affordable and actually pretty fantastic all stock. BUUUUT, of course I wanted to get rid of the stock humbucker and get something with a little more of a 60's SFB vibe and decided to give the Hanson Chi-Sonic pickup a try (same pickups used on the Lakland hollowbodies). Finally received the pickup yesterday, installed it, and am absolutely thrilled with the result. Electronics are one single coil chi-sonic pickup, vol, tone, passive overdrive switch, and a passive 5-way mid notch selector switch with corresponding contour knob.
The pickup has a comparable tone to the bisonic (which they used as inspiration for their design) but with a voice of its own; seems to me to have a little more mid-frequency emphasis and a bit punchier, if that's even possible. I chose the neck position model so it's not quite as hot and a bit warmer in tone -- closer to a vintage bisonic than a dark star in terms of output.
Anyway, here's a picture! Cell phone camera doesn't really do the finish justice but it's the best I've got

 

[Happy Face]

Mellow One. You always seem to create some great axes. And this one looks to be one of your better efforts.

 

[mellowgerman]

Thanks Happy! Hopefully sometime soon I'll have a sound clip to post for interested parties

 

[hagmeat]

Good on ya Mellow. That's a nice looking bass, I bet it sounds great too. Congrats mate.

 

[fronobulax]

Nice.

 

[dlenaghan]

Was the Chi-Sonic a straight replacement for the originals? I'd think for a more poor-man's SF all you'd need is the little brother to your Artcore if you wanted the 30" scale, though I don't recall if they have hollow or blocked bodies.

 

[mellowgerman]

Was the Chi-Sonic a straight replacement for the originals? I'd think for a more poor-man's SF all you'd need is the little brother to your Artcore if you wanted the 30" scale, though I don't recall if they have hollow or blocked bodies.

I had to make the cavity slightly larger to get the chisonic in. The short scale ones don't come in the starfire imitation style... only a full hollow jazz-box style body and a single cut les-paul looking semi hollow. I actually got nice and comfy on long scales after using a jazz bass for some time.
My favorite thing about the 34" artcore basses is the fat neck though

 

[twocorgis]

Very cool Ingo! There's something that I wouldn't mind playing out with. The thought of playing greenie out scares me too much, and I may experience the same thing when the new J bass arrives on Wednesday, though I'll try and overcome that.

 

[mgod]

Oh come on, these things are meant to be played.

 

[twocorgis]

Oh come on, these things are meant to be played.

Of course you're right, but since Greenie came back from Fixit's magic lair, it really is collector grade and I want it to stay that way. I won't say that I'll never play it out, and my avatar picture proves that, but I will be very careful picking my spots. Surely you have one in your herd that's that nice, don't you?

 

[mgod]

Sure, plenty, but if I didn't feel like playing them wherever I don't think I'd want them. Two weeks after my Alembic custom was delivered - with a nice soft oil finish - I backed into the heat sink of a Crown D150 and had the epiphany: either I freaked or accepted that it was a tool, meant to be used in working environments. But I wasn't concerned about resale value, and 35 years later I'm still crazy about it.

 

[GuildaRadner]

peer pressure, i agree with mgod! we're all going to sit here and wait til you take greenie out

 

[Happy Face]

Humbly torn on this one. Mgod is certainly correct that most guitars are tools, not works of art.

But I also sympathize with TwoCorgis. I've sold a couple of Rickenbackers simply because their value had become so high. (a '68 4005 bought in 1976 and a Blackstar bot brand spankng new). I knew that I'd never be able to replace the 4005. But, along with a early 70s LP, those sales funded all of what I own now. If I was in mgod's shoes, there's no way I would have let the 4005 go, but I was not.

My philosophy = sell the collector's version and buy the same bass that some hero had decided to refinish himself. Then refin it, throw in the pups you want etc and use it. It's no longer a collector's item, so who cares if you ding it on a crash cymbal?


(Or, be forced to come to that conclusion as mgod was thanks to the power amp heat sink or I recently was when I broke my vow and bought a collectors bass and hesitated to put on straplocks. Thanks to gravity, the M-85 is a player now. Not the end of the world.)

Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old man.

 

[idealassets]

so who cares if you ding it on a crash cymbal?

Right, I can recall 2 particular guitar players that enjoyed crashing my cymbols with the headstocks of their Stratocaster's. -Quite the unique stage presence, or something. To be exact it was on the Bob Seeger song "Katmandu", during the Chuck Berry sounding guitar lead part. At the time I was making enough per show to easily replace the 18" Zildjian cymbol, and didn't seem to mind. The cymbol never showed any wear on it, and I refrained from ever commenting about what it might be doing to their guitars.

 

[twocorgis]

Humbly torn on this one. Mgod is certainly correct that most guitars are tools, not works of art.

But I also sympathize with TwoCorgis. I've sold a couple of Rickenbackers simply because their value had become so high. (a '68 4005 bought in 1976 and a Blackstar bot brand spankng new). I knew that I'd never be able to replace the 4005. But, along with a early 70s LP, those sales funded all of what I own now. If I was in mgod's shoes, there's no way I would have let the 4005 go, but I was not.

My philosophy = sell the collector's version and buy the same bass that some hero had decided to refinish himself. Then refin it, throw in the pups you want etc and use it. It's no longer a collector's item, so who cares if you ding it on a crash cymbal?

I like the way you think Happy Face, and towards that end, I maybe should have held on to my old Starfire I. Yesterday, a new one arrived for me to worry about, but I promise I'm not going to worry about this one so much because I didn't have to pay for it. 8)

Fender Select Jazz Bass

This one will definitely share playing out chores with my Casady, though at 9.4 pounds, it's squarely in padded strap territory along with my '73 P-Bass. The good news is that the strap locks came with it!

 

[fronobulax]

I've been musing on this and I think the key word is "tools". At one end of a spectrum is the professional bassist. On the other end is the person who is a legend in their own mind who never plays outside of the privacy of their own home. In the middle are those who play out once in a while, play regularly or get pocket money from playing. I suggest that the more of your Daily Bread that comes from playing an instrument, the more likely you are to feel that it is a tool, made to be played, and replaced or repaired when necessary. In contrast there are people like me - while I have been paid for playing bass, it wasn't much and even adjusting for inflation the market value of each of three of my instruments individually exceeds my lifetime earnings as a bassist. So that not only influences the perceived value (to me) of the instruments but it also places me towards the collector end of things, whether I want to admit that or not.

As a comparison, my Daily Bread comes from computers. A laptop is just a tool to me. As long as the data is secured, I do not hesitate to take my laptop on planes, into bars, leave it in a car trunk or otherwise shield it from unusual risks. The emotional investment in the tool (laptop) is just not as intense.