modifying the vintage Starfire

mellowgerman

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It's not as bad as you think! No worries, I'm not cutting up the squeaky clean 1970 Starfire, but here is a very useful, easy modification that I wish I would have thought to try sooner
As mentioned earlier this year, I had removed the tone-suck circuit from my 1970 SFB with favorable results; a bigger, more open tone from the Bisonic. After pulling the guts out of the old Starfire again recently to clean the pots a bit, I noticed another original resistor in the circuit, unrelated to the tone-suck, that I hypothesized could also be suppressing the signal of the pickup(?). In any case, I decided it was time to think about a replacement for the whole harness. Incidentally a trade-offer for a pickup I was selling on another forum, made a custom Kelling Sound Bass Varitone circuit materialize in my hands. It was a solderless passive harness originally intended for a P bass -- volume with treble bleed, 12-position rotary switch with various capacitors, resisors, and an inductor, and a tone knob that controls the bleed of whatever rotary setting is selected. It dropped right in and the rotary switch now lives where the tone-suck used to live. I'm super thrilled with the results and big variety of tones this has opened up in the old Starfire; including the first position of the switch which is a complete bypass of any tone capacitor. I plan to record a demo track within the next week or so and will be posting it here, but for now, here's some eye candy!

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mellowgerman

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Looks strange but it is reversible so... Look forward to comments and clips.

Yes, it does change the aesthetics a bit... First I had a more sleek, skinny black knob on the rotary switch but the chicken-head pointer knob just makes it easier to distinguish on the fly where in the available 12 mid-notch spectrum it is set.
 

fronobulax

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You are to be commended for NOT putting 12 brads in so you can tell where the rotary switch is set ;-)
 

mavuser

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hey mello i like it a lot actually, just the way it is. modding the suck switch circuitry and using that button/switch (or its hole) for something else is pretty well accepted. i like the dial, just by looking at it, it tells me u did something with that switch, and are likely a Guild freak. Phil and Jack would approve!
 

edwin

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You have a lot more restraint than I.

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chazmo

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Mellow... Very nice. I guess I really don't like the switch knob itself, but I can certainly understand why that'd be a good choice, functionally. In any case, it's really interesting that you transplanted the electronics so seamlessly. Vary nice job!

Edwin.... Hahahaha! I think *everyone* has more restraint than you. :) :)
 

mellowgerman

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Sorry about the delay on posting the soundclip. Working overtime this last week and my girlfriend is moving in, so I've been struggling to find the time to set up for recording. Stay tuned!

Edwin, I love your Starfire! If I won the lottery or came into a large inheritance of some sort, I'd definitely see about having Mr. Novak wind some low impedance bisonics for me and then I'd ship it all out to Alembic for some superfilters and a new bridge.... maybe in another lifetime!
 

mellowgerman

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Okay... HAPPY NEW YEAR! 1.5 months later, here's a demo! I tried to play something that would utilize the full length of the fretboard without taking up too much time (since the switch has 12 positions). I apologize for the low volume... not sure why it ended up so quiet, but it should be fine if you're listening with good headphones. See the track description for some more insight into the recording
https://soundcloud.com/mellowgerman/mixst004-1wav
 
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