OK, to try to address some of the electrical gremlins that have been plaguing the Starfire II bass since I got it, I have sent it down to our most capable house luthier (and electrical engineer) Fixit. Since it arrived, the bridge pickup has been about twice as loud as the neck pickup. Also, all the pots on the bass (volume, tone, and master volume) have all their action between 8 and 10 on the control, which I know can't be right. Additionally, the bridge pickup is too high (which may account for some of the volume disparity of the two pups). If you raise the bridge high enough to clear the bridge pickup, then the action becomes way too high. On a BiSonic pickup, there isn't any up and down adjustment for the pickup itself, though you can raise and lower the poles. It seems that the only way to lower the pickup as a whole is to sand down the mount that it's on, which is made out of wood. Tom was game to sand it down to lower it, so we were all good there. Then there was the matter of the "suck" (bass boost) switch, which only works on the neck pickup, and all the conventional wisdom seems to agree that the best thing you can do for the sound of the neck pup is to disable it.
I was a bit anxious about shipping the Starfire II because of it rarity, but was relieved when it arrived there in good order last week. Tom's been really busy as of late (not surprising), but got to look at the bass today. He removed the neck pickup, and this is what he found
Who knew that there was a transformer in there, and if so, is it supposed to be there? Tom said that it appears that the wiring from the transformer appears to go towards the suck switch, but I have no idea whether that's the way it was from the factory, or if the transformer was added some time later. I did some googling, for "transformer neck pickup starfire bass" and came up with a few hits like this one, where they discuss using transformers in other basses (not Starfires) to compensate for the low impedance of the pickups. I have no idea whether Bisonics are considered low impedance pickups, but that's one possible expanation of why the transformer would have put in there from the factory.
I guess my question to the folks that own and have modded Starfires and DeArmond Starfires is: is the transformer on the neck pickup necessary? Do you bypass it as well if you're bypassing the suck switch? Does the trnsformer have anything to do with the significant volume disparity between the two pickups? I'm more or less flying by the seat of my pants here, so any and all info would be appreciated here. I'm sure Tom would appreciate it as well.
I was a bit anxious about shipping the Starfire II because of it rarity, but was relieved when it arrived there in good order last week. Tom's been really busy as of late (not surprising), but got to look at the bass today. He removed the neck pickup, and this is what he found
Who knew that there was a transformer in there, and if so, is it supposed to be there? Tom said that it appears that the wiring from the transformer appears to go towards the suck switch, but I have no idea whether that's the way it was from the factory, or if the transformer was added some time later. I did some googling, for "transformer neck pickup starfire bass" and came up with a few hits like this one, where they discuss using transformers in other basses (not Starfires) to compensate for the low impedance of the pickups. I have no idea whether Bisonics are considered low impedance pickups, but that's one possible expanation of why the transformer would have put in there from the factory.
I guess my question to the folks that own and have modded Starfires and DeArmond Starfires is: is the transformer on the neck pickup necessary? Do you bypass it as well if you're bypassing the suck switch? Does the trnsformer have anything to do with the significant volume disparity between the two pickups? I'm more or less flying by the seat of my pants here, so any and all info would be appreciated here. I'm sure Tom would appreciate it as well.
