New Starfire bass with 2 pups

ukulelelab

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Anyone else seen this on the Guild facebook page?
https://www.facebook.com/guildguita...98726376104/10152598462551105/?type=1&theater

"Have you been longing for a Guild Starfire bass with dual pickups? We're excited to let you know that the plans are in the works! Sit tight, bassists!"
11038397_10152598462551105_5341079062346439557_n.jpg
 

fronobulax

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Interesting. I note the Master Volume and Toggle but no suck switch or equivalent. That said, every time I listen to the Newark Street I am reminded of why I keep the '67 so I hope this comes in a non-traditional color 'cause I'm not sure I have another reason to buy one. But pretty cool regardless. It is nice to see the commitment to increasing and improving the product line.
 

wisconsindead

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This is excellent to see. I also am interested to see what color(s) it comes out in. Its a good thing theres no suck switch, trust me.

Also, have you guys seen that guild is now selling Bisonic pickups? Only $99, which is great compared to the $275 they cost from Curtis Novak.
 

mavuser

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Cool on the SF2 bass...have to say in addition, the GSR M-85 bass with the nitro finish is super nice! Would be sweet if Oxnard brought those back too.

Good news too on the Newark Street Bisonic pickup...although if they are that easy to get and that inexpensive, we may start seeing them in basses claiming to have Dark Stars, Novacks, Nusonics, Bisonics and such. Then I suppose we may really find out how different (or similar) the NS pickup may sound to the others (when it is left to your ears only to decipher what you are playing...). I like what I've heard so far of the NS bisonics. It is not a dead ringer for vintage but I've never put one in a vintage bass. For a little while I wasn't sure on my GSR M-85, until I realized it was my poor playing technique on that bass that sounded bad, not the pickups. Made some adjustments in my playing and now I'm pretty happy with them. In my opinion it's in the general ballpark of the vintage Bisonic tone, maybe not quite as punchy but they sound pretty nice. I adjust amp settings a lot when I switch basses too (bass, mid, treble...)- which helps a lot, depending on the bass and depending on which amp.
 

ukulelelab

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Also, have you guys seen that guild is now selling Bisonic pickups? Only $99, which is great compared to the $275 they cost from Curtis Novak.

Did not realise that. Interesting to read those $99 pups have a DC resistance of 6.4k Ohms like the Darkstars. I am guessing they are not the right stuff for people who like me were after a vintage bisonic 12k Ohms wound. I recently ordered a BS DS from Curtis to replace the original but faulty bisonic in my Jetstar. I think Curtis Novak remains one of the very few people in the world who can deliver that option.
 

mavuser

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Did not realise that. Interesting to read those $99 pups have a DC resistance of 6.4k Ohms like the Datkstars.

Interesting. Anyone know if all the NS bisonics to this point are the same? (Newark St Starifre and M-85 bass, GSR M-85 bass?) maybe that is the difference I'm hearing. They do sound a little more trebley than vintage Bisonic, If anything. I've never heard a true Hammon Dark Star live. Although Mgod likes those dark stars best, and Newark Streets the least. I suppose if any of us know, it is him. But now I'm wondering if all NS's bisonics are the same. I see they are calling the $99 one a "DS-1". Curtis' BS-DS sounds great in Mellowgerman's vids. Sounds a lot like a Bisonic. He makes Dark stars too or one with a coil tap to get both tones in one pickup. On my M-85 GSR bass the 2 pickups sound quite different. I always attributed that to the location(s). But they really sound different...and this is a New Hartford GSR bass...I wonder how they are wound. Guild definitely called the first one "Bisonic" and the second one "DS-1." Albeit, they were under different ownership at the time. At $99 though id say those pickups are more useful than the vintage guild Humbucker which sell used for approx the same price. The Guild Humbucker has a use and it sounds great for what it is, but the NS reissue is likely more useful
 
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fronobulax

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Then I suppose we may really find out how different (or similar) the NS pickup may sound to the others (when it is left to your ears only to decipher what you are playing...).

For what it is worth...

For a number of reasons I lent my bass teacher my NS Starfire for a project. We missed a few lessons because of weather. The first lesson I had after he had had the NS for a few weeks (and was playing it daily) I brought the '67. We use a 90's Fender Princeton 65 guitar amp at lessons because it is more portable than the options if we want to share an amp. So I plug in, play a few notes and his jaw drops. It turns out that I had not suddenly become such an awesome player that he could now longer teach me anything, but the difference between the vintage Bisonic and the NS Bisonic was immediately obvious to him.
 

mavuser

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I agree the difference is obvious (especially if you have them right next to each other in the same amp), but I still think the NS sounds pretty good, and with tweaking of settings can resemble the vintage in tone, generally. Moreso than the Humbucker for sure.
 

Happy Face

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For what it is worth...

For a number of reasons I lent my bass teacher my NS Starfire for a project. We missed a few lessons because of weather. The first lesson I had after he had had the NS for a few weeks (and was playing it daily) I brought the '67. We use a 90's Fender Princeton 65 guitar amp at lessons because it is more portable than the options if we want to share an amp. So I plug in, play a few notes and his jaw drops. It turns out that I had not suddenly become such an awesome player that he could now longer teach me anything, but the difference between the vintage Bisonic and the NS Bisonic was immediately obvious to him.

Have you forgotten Mgod's lectures to all of us? The sound is in your hands! You certainly did progress to the point that your teacher was shocked to find that his student was now his teacher!
 

mavuser

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I heard Frono play the Newark Street Starfire bass at Grots house thru a practice amp (with about 12 guitar players). Both Fronos playing and the Newark St. Bass sounded great.
 

SFIV1967

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I thought the GSR bass models used old pickups that Guild still had. I think to remember we had discussed this somewhere here when the GSR bass models came out.
Ralf
 

mellowgerman

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Sound is in your hands, yes, to a certain extent. But when I played an NS M-85 at the Chicago Music Exchange I did not hear a bisonic. It sounded okay and would have probably sounded very good with flatwounds and a proper set-up, but it definitely did not sound very similar to my '66 Starfire with the bisonic in the same position. In fact, the solid body Guyatone shortscale with the Novak BS/DS in the same position sounded MUCH closer. I side with Curtis Novak on this one when he says "a pickup is a sensor and its job is to sense the strings vibration and send that signal to an output device, your amp. The objective of any sensor is to have the greatest dynamic range, and fidelity to capture what ever it is designed to sense. You can then decide, as the end user, to accentuate or eliminate elements at your discretion. But you can not post process and accentuate what your sensor did not pickup!" In other words your hands can't make frequencies come out of your speaker if your instrument or the pickup isn't producing or picking them up to begin with. After all, it has been said time and time again that the original Hagstrom Bisonic pickups were so special because of their fantastic wide frequency response. Of course, this whole line of thinking doesn't argue the fact that a player's technique or skill can still be communicated through a sub-par instrument or pickup... if Jack plays a cheap, poorly built/designed bass, I'm sure he'll still sound like Jack. On the same token, pickups like bisonics with wide frequency response definitely won't make a "bad" bassist sound "good". If anything they'll expose the errors or sloppiness in his technique. And just like that I'm rambling again.
But regardless of all that yakety-yak, still can't wait to check out the new SFB-II when it comes out!
 
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Happy Face

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One of my bass playin' buddies once remarked to me that "Darkstars are the most unforgiving pickups out there."
 

fronobulax

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practice amp

That was actually the Line 6 Studio 110 that mellogerman sold me. It is small but it is what I play out with. Its finest moment may have been when it was the house bass amp at LMG III (primarily because it was the only bass amp there but....)
 
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fronobulax

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I thought the GSR bass models used old pickups that Guild still had. I think to remember we had discussed this somewhere here when the GSR bass models came out.
Ralf

The GRS Starfires that do not have the typical Starfire bass dimensions, used Guild humbuckers that were reported to be NOS or refurbished. So those pickups date back to the 1970's. But mav's bass was the GSR M-85 which did not get a lot of discussion here. By appearance they have the NS "Bisonic" PU but I don't think that has been confirmed.
 

fronobulax

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If I ever think my playing is starting to sound OK, I just change to a different bass and use headphones. I then get to hear so much that caused by less than perfect technique.

Since we have veered to a discussion of tone, I have noted that when I play the '67 unplugged, I am getting different "tone" compared to the NS unplugged and I age also rediscovered just how dramatic the change in tone can be when my right hand creeps back towards the neck. Strings may be a factor in my case, to the extent that D'Addario flats and TI flats will be different :)
 
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