Serial Number Verify

I'm trying to verify a Guild Starfire Bass Serial Number AB100137

Welcome. My knee jerk reaction - memory not research - is that it might not be a Starfire bass. There are a few '64 Starfires with a five digit number. Roughly '65-'70 the serial would have been "BA" followed by a three of four digit number. The rest of the '70's should have a 5 or 6 digit number.

I don't recall what the serial numbers were for the 90's reissues but two letters followed by six digits is consistent with that time period. However from '94-'99 the prefix AB was used on the acoustic/electric models B4 and B30.

We're pretty good at estimating date possibilities as well as authenticity from pictures. You can host them somewhere else and link to them here or just read this and give those instructions a try.

I'm not sure what, exactly, you expect from verification of the serial number, but I will say that I have never seen a counterfeit Starfire bass. I have seen instruments that were mis-dated and instruments that did not leave the factory in there current configuration. So the serial number is most likely to be one of the items used to date the instrument and assess what the factory specs were likely to have been.

My best guess is the instrument with that serial is a Guild bass from the '90's but I can't tell whether it is a Starfire or some other model from my memory of serial numbers.

Thanks for your input. The seller says it's manufactured during the 1990's in the Guild Factory in Westerly, Rhode Island and he's NOT the Original Owner
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ETAAAOSwNRdX-rnp/s-l1600.jpg

WELCOME TO LTG!
The cavalry will be along to add further to frono's comments, so stay tuned. :eagerness:

Cheers,
Joe

Thank You very much.
I agree with Fronobulax statement "My best guess is the instrument with that serial is a Guild bass from the '90's".
Owner states Bass was manufactured during the 1990's in the Guild Factory in Westerly, Rhode Island.
And any additional info would greatly appreciated.

jc2940 said:

I'm trying to verify a Guild Starfire Bass Serial Number AB100137

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Hello jc2940,

Welcome! At this point I may not be able to give you the answer right away since I'm on the road and I will have to do this off of the top of my head.

It may be possible that the serial number of your Starfire Bass reads # AB100137, but that would be somewhat unusual, so I was wondering if you maybe read the serial number wrong at that it may be # AG100137; maybe you should check both the back of the headstock and the label inside the guitar! If it reads # AG100137, you have a Guild Starfire Bass from the year 1998.

If it really is # AB100137, maybe you can show me a close-up photo of the label. I should be able to help you out after that. If you have trouble posting the photo here, just go ahead and email photo(s) to me at: guitarchives@wxs.nl

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Pretty! I like it!

The picture looks like a 90's reissue Starfire II with replacement pickups or a '60's Starfire II with a replacement bridge, or a Newark Street Starfire with replacement bridge. The former is much more likely, in my opinion, especially given the serial number and the lack of a "suck switch". Guessing which pickups those are depends on when they were replaced but many folks would consider those an upgrade.

Several years ago Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Nine Inch Nails, et. al.) sold a '90's SF II with Dark Star pickups, and the same finish, on eBay. For about a year after the sale, scammers used the same pictures and pretended to offer the bass for sale. This is not one of the recycled pictures because the background is different, or at least not what I remember. I seem to recall the original sale appeared to be over $4000 which, in my opinion, is a premium of $2000-$3000 for celebrity ownership.

mavuser is my "go to" for the 90's reissue. My recollection is the dimensions are not quite the same as the vintage basses. He can elaborate.

90's reissues were made in Westerly so the seller's story holds up.

Listing at http://www.ebay.com/itm/Guild-Starfire-Bass-/332014124458

Seller says Darkstars and case.

Since the Newark Street equivalent seems to be about $1300, I'd probably offer $1800 but wouldn't feel ripped off at $2200 if this was The Bass for me.

hi thats a really nice bass on ebay with the dark stars, the figuring on that one is super nice on the matched top and back, especially the back without any of the hardware or cut outs! really, really nice one. I also have a 98, mine is sunburst with the stock humbucker pickups. my understanding is that some of them got Dark Stars swapped in, maybe not at the Westerly Factory, but right around the time they were new. Other people may have swapped pickups later. I personally like the 90s humbucker (which is a little different than the 70s humbucker) and have never played a dark star. anyway the asking price on the ebay bass seems reasonable (and there is a best offer option) but that is just my (somewhat biased) opinion. also a 90s SF bass is 1/4 inch thinner in the body than a 60s/70s or Newark Street SF bass, and has different tuners and bridge/saddles. here's mine:

also there are some mahogany 90s SF basses as well, I believe forum member LA has one, possibly with Dark Stars.

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Thanks you Hans Moust & mavuser & fronobulax for your time and input. I've contacted the seller and asked him to re-check the S/N and check the Label inside
the F hole, it IS possible it was read incorrectly. Thanks again !!

mavuser said:

my understanding is that some of them got Dark Stars swapped in, maybe not at the Westerly Factory, but right around the time they were new.

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Care to elaborate? I'm thinking Dark Stars were not available in great numbers until 2003 (at the earliest) and I can recall no stories about a store or entrepreneur who bought Starfire II basses in bulk and kept them as NOS for five years. It is such an obvious thing to put Dark Stars in a 90's reissue that I can imagine individual owners doing so independently.

fronobulax said:

Care to elaborate? I'm thinking Dark Stars were not available in great numbers until 2003 (at the earliest) and I can recall no stories about a store or entrepreneur who bought Starfire II basses in bulk and kept them as NOS for five years. It is such an obvious thing to put Dark Stars in a 90's reissue that I can imagine individual owners doing so independently.

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i dont recall the details, some dealers may have been doing it. also "in bulk" are your words not mine. thats not what I said or meant.

also i thought Dark Stars went back as far as the 70s or 80s?

mavuser said:

also i thought Dark Stars went back as far as the 70s or 80s?

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I think "in great numbers" is the operative phrase there.
Actually from my readings here I thought they were never really available "in great numbers", but I'm guessing maybe that's when Hammon actually started "producing" 'em instead of making to order?

mavuser said:

i dont recall the details, some dealers may have been doing it. also "in bulk" are your words not mine. thats not what I said or meant.

also i thought Dark Stars went back as far as the 70s or 80s?

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I'm not sure what you meant. If you meant that lots of individuals put Dark Stars in 90's Starfires after market then fine. But, intended or not, the allusion to Westerly suggested you were saying that someone had done so before retail sale. Perhaps you should try and tell me what you meant again? :=)

Dark Star history is hard to reconstruct because Fred Hammon has taken his web site down and because mgod will swoop in and correct me if I get it wrong. Based upon what I can find on the web, Hammon first started building in 2002 and they were not commercially available for a year or two after that. Hence my confusion/difficulty in figuring out what you meant. I don't think they were ever available in "great numbers". Lakeland used them in a production model for a brief period but one of the reasons they were never used in a post-2003 Fender product is that Fred could not make enough to fill the minimum order.

pretty sure i said "maybe not at the Westerly factory," which is exactly what i meant.
and some of the basses may have been as late as 2000-2002 range, the info is incomplete. it appears someone offered an option to swap them out, does that seem so crazy? im speaking of a handfull of examples ive seen. maybe 4 or 5. a couple may have been repeats. actually most of them were mahogany which is even more obscure (especially w Dark stars) and the mahogany run may have indeed been the later run of these basses, post-2000. a 1998 bass could also have been stamped in 98 and completed later or sat unsold in a shop or in the factory blah blah blah... but im pretty sure mgod has the first dark star, and its from the 70s. I could be wrong but in this instance it changes very little. its almost 6:00 so maybe dont worry so much about it and just drink some whiskaye.

Fred and I met in 2003. What actually happened is that I liked his vibe in the old dudepit (remember that?), PM'ed him, we chatted and I invited him over. The photo called guildorgy came from that day. He had the know-how to build what he eventually dubbed Dark Stars, and later that year had the money. The first pair were delivered to me in late '03, and I took that bass on the road with Bernie Leadon.

Lakland stopped using them because Dan Lakland had a case of not-invented-here, and thought he could do better. As we see.

"the old dudepit (remember that?)"

I still keep it bookmarked, though I took my fair share of ridicule there.....