Shoulda coulda the insanity of not having a bass out until '65 needs to be examined.
They could have had ten models by the time the Starfire bass came out.
'64 Harmony, a bit of a cult item but I probably wouldn't want it back.
Silvertone/Dano pumped out basses to compete with Gibson/Fender/Ampeg etc, but not Guild.
'65 Silvertone that came on in '59, Four Octaves they claimed, and yeah, a whole lotta frets, in fact the same neck as the near priceless Longhorn but on the cheap, and tone is very very good, the tic tac sound, nearly inimitable, favored by Entwistle through the My Generation era.
"The Starfire Bass debuted in ’65, its design obviously influenced by Gibson’s EB-2, which had been around since ’58."
In the mid '60s, Guild took its knocks for making guitars that looked "inspired by" Gibson models. Fans of the brand think the sterotype is unfair, of course, and certainly, many Guilds from the era have their own intrigue. One very good example is the Starfire Bass. Guild was founded by...
www.vintageguitar.com