Guild Starfire 1 Newark Street Collection

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Hi all ,
Just got a Starfire Bass ( used 2012 ) and have had to do a lot of "tweaking" to get it as I want it to play .
Put La Bella flats on , cut nut down , lowered wooden saddles etc etc . :beguiled:
One question .........the volume does not turn down the sound untill the last 1/8th of movement , and the tone control has no effect whatsoever .:crazy:
Shall I replace with CTS 250K log pots and a .047 cap ( being that the resistance of pickup is about 6.4 K ) , or has anyone got a better solution .
I love the looks of the Bass and the feel of the neck , and the sound ( when both controls are full on ) but would like to get some variation at some time .
Newbie
Pete
 
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fronobulax

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Welcome. I am the original owner of my NS and the volume control definitely functions as I would expect, as does the tone control. What you describe sounds like some kind of failure compared to my expectations and experience. Any chance there are loose wires or since it is used, some kind of hack job by the previous owner?

Tangentially, my practice room is nominally the dining room. The lights are on a dimmer as are the lights in the nearby kitchen. As you might expect I pick up a lot of hum and it varies depending upon what lights are on, or off, and whether anyone is cooking. Every session I start out with both controls full on and then I pick one to roll back until the amount of hum matches my tolerance for the sound. So the controls definitely have an effect over the full range :)
 
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Hi,
Tomorrow morning ( UK time ! ) I will strip out the electrics and have a look . Is there normally a connector between the pup and the first ( vol ) pot , as I can see one looking into the "f " hole ?
Also I have asked Guild for a schematic with values ( pots + cap etc ) which may help !
Pete
 
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Hi all ,
Problem solved ........... tried to remove the pots and jack harness - would not come out of " f " holes , pots were too large , so removed pickup and found a square cut out through the side of the center block , that went into the body cavity . Very tight fit for the harness ( I am assuming that the wiring harness is assembled outside the guitar , then inserted )
Still could not get the harness out , without bending the pot tags flush with the side of the pots , and all components moved flush , so did not try this ..
Then I noticed that the Volume pot has a capacitor and resistor across two tags ( treble " bleed " circuit I believe it is called ).......................they were touching the back of the volume pot case and shorting out .
Moved them away from pot , and now I have a fully functional volume pot ( that decreases the volume and thins the sound out ) and the tone control operates much better .
Hope this is of help to anyone with the same problem .
Pete
 

fronobulax

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Thank you. I tend to be a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" type who often breaks things that were working, so I have not pulled the PU on my SF. The access hole in the center block is interesting. I wonder if that is a Newark Street innovation or whether there are some '66 Starfires with the same thing?
 
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Hi All,
Now have a schematic of the Starfire Bass from Guild .
Strange , normally single coil pups have 250K pots ( as per Jazz , Strat Tele etc ) , the Guild uses 500k , and the caps are normally .047 , Guild use .02 , with the "bleed " cap and resistor ( .002 , 100K ) across the Vol pot .
Anyone wants a copy , let me know .
Pete
 

fronobulax

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Hi All,
Now have a schematic of the Starfire Bass from Guild .
Strange , normally single coil pups have 250K pots ( as per Jazz , Strat Tele etc ) , the Guild uses 500k , and the caps are normally .047 , Guild use .02 , with the "bleed " cap and resistor ( .002 , 100K ) across the Vol pot .
Anyone wants a copy , let me know .
Pete

Yes please. You can PM me or just post a scan and either way I will share.
 

mavuser

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i have a NOS sealed in the wrapper complete Newark St. SF Bass I wiring harness w pots, jack, caps/resistors(? whatever it comes with...) if anyone needs it just let me know. would also fit a vintage SF I bass perfectly or JS-I/Jetstar etc
 

fronobulax

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Schematic referenced above. Should apply to Newark Street Starfire I from 2013 until something changes.

Guild%2BSchematic.jpg
 
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All parts arrived ( mini CTS 500K log pots , .002 cap , .022 cap and 100K resistor as required for above schematic ) so started to remove old pots . first problem was that the Vol and Tone pots would NOT come out of the body . The hole into the body from the Pickup routing was a VERY VERY tight fit , so removed some wood - about 1/8th inch , which allowed me to pull them out without too much strain .
Looking at the parts I found that the Vol pot was 500k linear ( not Log as schematic ) and the resistor was 10K ( not 100K as per schematic ) Tone pot was 500K log ( as per schematic ) and Caps were correct .
Anyhow . assembled the new components on a piece of flat card as a template for hole positions ( allowing me to get correct lengths of screened wire between pots / jack etc ) before putting into Bass . Tried it out outside the Bass , did not give , in my opinion , enough treble roll off with the Tone control .
Experimented a bit , and found that putting two .047 Caps in parallell ( = .094 ) gave me plenty of treble roll off with the Tone pot Now its all back together , I recon I have improved the sound ( still got that " 60`s click with a pick " when the Vol is rolled back a bit ) and now I have as much treble roll of as I need .
I`m a happy chappy ............:happy:
Pete
 
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