Show your headstock backs...let's establish the "norm" for maple strips.

lungimsam

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With the crooked maple strip pieces on the Newark streets, I am wondering what is considered acceptable for Starfires and what the vintage stripes look like, as well as Starfires from any era.
So, if you are bored and get a minute, please post a shot of your any-era Starfire headstock back, and lets see what is the norm for them.
Please also note if your stripe is centered at the neck/body joint/strap button, too. That way we will know if they run crooked the whole way, or bend back, aligned with strap button.

The other Newark Street back-o'-d'-headstock issue:
I think I remember that it has already been stated here, that crooked key alignment doesn't matter, because the tuner shaft is still in the hole. Assuming the hole in the headstock was bored out in the right place.

But let's take a look at the maple strips to see what is considered normal. Thanks.
 

SFIV1967

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Not mine, but one listed at Elderly. Looks pretty good but also slightly out of the middle on top.

Right next to it is my own picture of the very first Newark St. Starfire Bass ever made (shown at NAMM 2013, it's in fact the very first Newark St. serial number 01), which looks perfect.
I would call the right picture "the norm".

GSFB_headstock-back.jpg
iwx0lZTYnsR24.JPG


The "worst example" in terms of the center strip and the misaligned tuners that I remember is this:

IMG_5042.jpg


Here's a vintage 1967 picture, perfectly centered middle strip:

52783d1277607334-67-guild-starfire-bass-img_1419-jpg


Ralf
 
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chazmo

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Interesting. I wonder how you'd get an off-center cut of the neck from the lamination. I wonder if these necks are cut by hand. In any case, the off-center maple strip wouldn't bother me...

I think I' would be upset, though, about poorly aligned tuners. That stuff is visible from the front.
 

lungimsam

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OK. school me on this center strip.
Is the neck made from two pieces of wood, that sandwich the center strip that runs between them?
Or, is the center strip just a thin piece of laminate that lays over the joint of two pieces of neck wood?

So, if the strip is crooked, either way, the joint is off, too?

@ killdeer:
Sorry, I don't have a pic yet. My first Starfire is coming in the next shgipment batch to Sweetwater, and if it works out, I'll post a pic of mine here later.
 

dapmdave

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OK. school me on this center strip.
Is the neck made from two pieces of wood, that sandwich the center strip that runs between them?
Or, is the center strip just a thin piece of laminate that lays over the joint of two pieces of neck wood?

So, if the strip is crooked, either way, the joint is off, too?

@ killdeer:
Sorry, I don't have a pic yet. My first Starfire is coming in the next shgipment batch to Sweetwater, and if it works out, I'll post a pic of mine here later.

Don't know about the MIK types, but on the USA Guilds it's a sandwich. Every now and then someone posts a picture of a headstock without the veneer, and it's visible on the front.
 
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mavuser

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The Newark Street should have a 3-piece neck just like the old one. Not sure how it is made but my guess is the "wood sandwich" is put together to form one raw piece and then the neck/headstock is carved from that. So it is either glued together slightly crooked in the first place, or gets carved slightly crooked, as far as the maple "stripe" appears to the eye...my guess is it's probably just an aestetic imperfection in the end, that does not affect the integrity of the instrument, but I really don't know.

The offset/crooked tuners was a concern for me on the Newark Street, until I found pictures of several vintage ones that looked the same. Most vintage ones seem to have aligned tuners and some have them aligned along the curve of the headstock edge, more like a butterfly pattern. but some of them are just crooked. Someone at Sam Ash told me that doesnt matter as long as the posts on the front of the headstock line up (while looking at a Newark Street). In that case the tuners werent crooked, just seemed offset to one side a little. but they were perfectly centered in the front. Was odd and we are talking about very small measurements. I am not an expert and that bass played fantastic so I didn't have much to debate with the guy. From what I recall on that particular Newark Street bass, the maple stripe was at center or very very close. That particular bass unfortunately had a small finish crak in the neck joint, which was a sign to me there was a different Starfire bass out there for me. it played and sounded fantastic though. I know someone else bought it very shortly after that.

also I own a 68 with the 3-piece mahogany neck, thus there is no maple stripe on that one.

some random pics from some random places. the 2 on the bottom are of my 68 neck without the maple stripe. you can see the exposed seam of the finish right where 2 pieces of the veneer meet. This can happen in the area of the maple stripe on those basses too. the one in the middle is an extreme example that likely had some human assistance.

ui7b.jpg


uai8.jpg

hcpx.jpg


7iom.jpg

c1xd.jpg


edit: found one more
v685.jpg
 
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fronobulax

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While we're looking at headstocks, the one at top, above, pretty clearly shows the change in size we believe occurred circa 1970.

No pics but the stripes on both my Starfires run straight from the center of the peak to center of the strap button.

Either my tuners are not misaligned or it is so slight it cannot be seen from the front. Maybe the ears are so big that you don't notice whether the ear shafts "line up" or not?
 

idealassets

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It doesn't bother me that sometimes the tuning keys are mounted crooked. I'd rather leave them crooked than to drill new holes to make them straight.

Craig
 
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