NAMM 2013: Newark St. Collection Starfire Bass

dlenaghan

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I don't know if I'm too worried about uneven tuners - I've seen on it lots of vintage models, so I guess those were done either by a tired hand or a miscalibrated machining tool? I mean, I suppose it's a bit sloppy, but it's not structural, and it doesn't impede the function of the instrument, though it does lead one to wonder what other minor details, perhaps structural or functional details, might have been overlooked.. unless the factory so closely reverse engineered one of those unevenly placed tuners on the original! Maybe the fading on the side of the fretboard is an "instant vintage" thing..
 

dlenaghan

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All I know is, there's a Starfire, with what's basically a Bisonic AND a harp bridge with wooden saddles (the 90s RIs with metal saddles totally wreck the tone for me - it kills the doublebass lurking inside of how Guild combined their set neck and bridge.. even on my JS it's got a very woody tone.. no wonder, it's literally wood speaking..) and it's a grand. New. Presumably with a case. I'm sold. Buuuut.. Guild officially has no dealers here in Korea, and I contacted the factory, to no avail. So I'm SOL.
 

fronobulax

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Maybe the fading on the side of the fretboard is an "instant vintage" thing..

It's funny you should mention that. I had a sense of deja vu looking at that picture and kept wondering whether it was because my '67 had something similar or some other bass I recalled had it. Just been too busy to pull the '67 out and check. (Playing time has been limited and I must confess that my Pilot is getting almost all of the limited time I have to play. Go figure).
 

fronobulax

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All I know is, there's a Starfire, with what's basically a Bisonic AND a harp bridge with wooden saddles (the 90s RIs with metal saddles totally wreck the tone for me - it kills the doublebass lurking inside of how Guild combined their set neck and bridge.. even on my JS it's got a very woody tone.. no wonder, it's literally wood speaking..) and it's a grand. New. Presumably with a case. I'm sold. Buuuut.. Guild officially has no dealers here in Korea, and I contacted the factory, to no avail. So I'm SOL.

Well first you need to wait until the production has ramped up enough that people aren't snapping them up as soon as they hit the store. Then you either order from a dealer who will ship (back) to Korea, or ship to a friend who is coming to visit, or start making the kind of LTG friendships that wold lead to someone willing to enable you by buying on your behalf and shipping.
 

dlenaghan

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Honestly if I had a grand to spare I'd have already bought the one advertised out of Brooklyn. Street Sounds is the shop. Seems like the instrument is there and ready to go. I wish they'd put up more shots, though - the one up seems like the same stock photo that's been around since the initial announcement was made.
 

fronobulax

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Honestly if I had a grand to spare I'd have already bought the one advertised out of Brooklyn. Street Sounds is the shop. Seems like the instrument is there and ready to go. I wish they'd put up more shots, though - the one up seems like the same stock photo that's been around since the initial announcement was made.

Earlier on this thread are links to a blog post which has the only pictures of a production bass that I am aware of. There are photos of prototypes scattered around. Both Ralf and mgod (I'd use screen names for both but I never remember Ralf's) took pictures of the prototypes at NAMM.

Of course, I think there is a very definit aspect of "if you have seen one, you have seen them all" going on. Pics of obscure details would be nice but the thing I am waiting for are more sound clips until someone with a vintage Starfire can do an A/B comparison. There are several LTGers who will be in a position to do that but the basses aren't shipping fast enough to make that happen as soon as we would like.
 

Mungi

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I wouldn't worry too much about that blog post. They might have initial quality control problems. I seem to remember Hagström had the same problems when launching their new Chinese made models. But they seem to have straightened that up. Why wouldn't Guild? Some truly fine instruments are made in Korea. The pickup sure looks like the real deal also. That's reassuring.
 
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