I think there could be a lot of reasons for this. I am not surprised more than one person has the same experience here, but would be surprised if all Starfire basses were like that. I will pull one of mine out of storage in the next few weeks (along with a couple other toys...just moved...yet again...). And will try to remember to ask Cat. My guess though, is those 5 first frets get played the most, so on the one hand it is unlikely Cat, for one, has any current issues with hers. On the other hand if someone has a bass from the 60s and those first 5 frets are worn, it may affect the tone or signal somehow, even if it appears the (fretted) string is clear of all the higher frets, so possibly a (re) fret issue or a borderline or partial refret issue...and/or truss rod tweakage....or some combination of such, or a rosewood saddle thing, bridge tweakage...Starfire basses are awesome but not necassarily low maintenance, especially if they are played a lot. But I am just speculating. I like chrome flat strings but not nearly as much when they are worn in. They sound and feel best to me fresh (maybe 2-4 x a year fresh for a regular player). But the (very?) old TI flats on the one SF bass seem just fine.