Upgraded Starfire (AKA: sacrilege!)

News From The Sky · Nov 22, 2014

I'm one of the weirdos who liked the 2012 GSR Starfires - I prefer the 335 body shape, but like the Guild neck, bridge, sidejack and pickup placement better than the Gibson approach, so this bass is kind of the best of both worlds for me. Or the best of three worlds now - I replaced the Guild NOS humbucker (which was decent but too dark and round IMO) with a custom Curtis Novak pickup:

Pickup cases in these nonstandard dimensions are virtually nonexistent, so I made the shell with a 3D printer and Curtis put a pickup inside. It's as close as he could get to a reverse-Precision pickup (the bass coil is closer to the bridge), and it turned out great. It's much more articulate than the original, but still has plenty of low-end beef. Works great with the short scale, semi-hollow body, and central pickup location.

fronobulax · Nov 23, 2014

Way cool. I always felt the GSR Starfire was a solution looking for a problem and you seem to have solved that.

mavuser · Nov 23, 2014

nice!

News From The Sky · Nov 23, 2014

Thanks!

fronobulax said:
Way cool. I always felt the GSR Starfire was a solution looking for a problem and you seem to have solved that.

Haha, well put. I'm still flabbergasted that these were ever even made, but as they almost seem to have been made for me, I'm pretty happy in my baffled state.

Happy Face · Nov 23, 2014

A 3D created pickup cover. A first on this forum, I'd wager. Very cool.

Bill Ashton · Nov 23, 2014

Not a bass player but I love the pole-less look...for me a winner!

walrus · Nov 23, 2014

Agreed - looks cool! And the 3D printing of the cover is wild!

Soon to come, if it hasn't been done already, 3D printed guitars...

walrus

fronobulax · Nov 24, 2014

walrus said:
Agreed - looks cool! And the 3D printing of the cover is wild!

Soon to come, if it hasn't been done already, 3D printed guitars...

walrus

It's been done. Just Google 3d printed guitars. They all seem to have the similarity that they seem to be built out of somekind of lattice rather than a solid block, which is to be expected.

fronobulax · Nov 24, 2014

News From The Sky said:
Thanks!

Haha, well put. I'm still flabbergasted that these were ever even made, but as they almost seem to have been made for me, I'm pretty happy in my baffled state.

I don't remember which rumors have been confirmed but there were credible suggestions that the bodies were assembled in the 1990's and had been in storage. I didn't know what they were thinking when they tweaked the body dimensions but since the original works for me , I clearly was not the target audience. While it was neat that they found vintage Guild humbuckers, that is also not a pickup that gets a lot of love. If anyone wanted that PU there were numerous JS basses out there. But it is pretty neat that you prefer the restyled body and then found a PU that does what you want. The black cover with no pole pieces gives the bass a completely different look and it looks like something new and different and not just something assembled from what was available.

Happy Face · Nov 25, 2014

I guess I am conditioned, but I'd rather see the posts. And be able to visually adjust them.

Partly reacting to how high the action has moved on my JS-II now that winter is arriving up here in Maine.

mavuser · Nov 27, 2014

I imagine a Novak BS-DS Bisonic pickup is also a drop-in replacement? I would guess you can easily swap one in later if you want to mix it up. Interesting to have Novak wind you a (reverse) P-bass pickup on here. Would love to hear it sometime. Those GSR SF basses are pretty nice. It doesnt need to be better or worse than a traditional SF bass shape. It is different enough to suite those with a different preference, or an additional one. I really like the singe-pickup model. Also apparently there are only 11 of them on the planet. Thanks for posting, enjoy that thing!

News From The Sky · Nov 29, 2014

That's correct, the BS-DS would also work and I seriously considered it, but I wanted a humcancelling pickup and I prefer the P-bass sound personally. The Guild HB is a fine pickup if you want a really thick low end, but it doesn't have much treble articulation, so I can see why people generally prefer the Bisonic and its offspring (and not just people who are fans of the players who originally popularized Bisonics). It's odd to me that dual-coil humbuckers are de rigeur for semi-hollow basses, as I think the body resonance works a lot better with hot single-coils (like the BS) or split-coils (like the P).

Here's a look at the pickup shells:

I was initially worried that the textured plastic would look weird with the smoother (ABS?) plastic of the mounting rings, but I actually like the contrast.

Just in case anyone ever decides to do a similar remix project and needs 3D printed pickup covers, you can buy (there's no upcharge from me) or download the model here:

https://www.shapeways.com/model/1682268/starfire-bass-humbucker-pickup-cover.html

Happy Face · Nov 29, 2014

Love the intro of 3-D printing into our world!

SFIV1967 · Nov 30, 2014

fronobulax said:
It's been done. Just Google 3d printed guitars.

At NAMM 2013 one of those companies who showed 3D printed guitars was 3D Systems.
They called her the Americana, embedding the rich details of New York City’s most memorable landmarks in the body of a Les Paul inspired, electric guitar, clad by the stars and stripes. Designed by renowned Cubify® artist Olaf Diegel, the Americana masterpiece guitar was on display to the public for the first time along with 3D Systems’ award winning Cube® 3D printer and Cubify apps.
Here are a few pictures I took:

Yes, it's a amazing technology, but a ink jet printer was similar amazing just a few years back. Now it's 3D printing. Who knows what is next.

Ralf

wisconsindead · Dec 2, 2014

Interesting. I've been considering some pup covers for my bisonics. But bisonics are pretty sweet looking on their own.

edwin · Dec 15, 2014

Another option for pickups is the Bartolini GB. I don't know if they still make them, but they were a drop in replacement for the Westerly humbuckers. I got a pair in the triple coil format (middle coil with no magnet, so it's like an Alembic Series setup in one pickup) and they are extremely versatile. I wired mine with 5 position switches for a number of series and parallel options, all humcancelling. I'd have them in my Starfire still, if it were not for the Alembics in there now. Great pickups. I used to get a fantastic slap tone with round wounds.

mavuser · Jan 14, 2015

News From The Sky said:
I...- I replaced the Guild NOS humbucker (which was decent but too dark and round IMO) with a custom Curtis Novak pickup...It's as close as he could get to a reverse-Precision pickup (the bass coil is closer to the bridge), and it turned out great. It's much more articulate than the original, but still has plenty of low-end beef. Works great with the short scale, semi-hollow body, and central pickup location.

What is the advantage to a reverse-precision pickup with the bass coil closer to the bridge, vs a regular precision pickup? Is it reversed because it is hollow and/or short scale? Or is this something people do on P-basses? I believe the short scale mustang pickup is standard configuration based on the standard P-bass pickup.

fronobulax · Jan 15, 2015

mavuser said:
What is the advantage to a reverse-precision pickup with the bass coil closer to the bridge, vs a regular precision pickup? Is it reversed because it is hollow and/or short scale? Or is this something people do on P-basses? I believe the short scale mustang pickup is standard configuration based on the standard P-bass pickup.

Sound/tone.

News From The Sky · Jan 16, 2015

That's right. I wanted as much clarity as I could get on the E and A strings, as it's a short-scale semi-hollow and I was concerned about muddiness. In exchange I get a very slightly sweeter top two strings. I don't hear a huge difference from the conventional arrangement, but I like it a little better this way.

Upgraded Starfire (AKA: sacrilege!)

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